Women’s Rights

GOP gears up for another assault on ‘ObamaCare’

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We-Love-ObamacareThe Affordable Care Act aka “ObamaCare” finished 2015 on a high note. So naturally, the first order of business for Tea-Publicans in 2016 is another assault on ObamaCare. They are like The Soup Nazi in Seinfeld, “No health care for you!”

Steve Benen reports on the success of ObamaCare. ‘Obamacare’ wrapping up 2015 on a high note:

The Affordable Care Act’s enrollment totals this year are not only excellent, they’re also exceeding projections and last year’s tallies. Sarah Kliff explained yesterday that the individual mandate – the policy Republicans embraced until President Obama agreed with them – is doing exactly what it was intended to do, which helps explain the encouraging data.

[R]ecent enrollment data shows that the mandate is working. The exact type of people the requirement was meant to target – young, healthy adults who might forgo coverage were it not for a government fine – signed up in record numbers this year.

Having a decent number of young and health people in the insurance pool is integral to making costs affordable for everyone, which is exactly why the mandate exists in the first place. And architects of Obamacare’s enrollment strategy say that talking about the mandate – something Obamacare supporters didn’t really start doing until 2015 – has been core to making it work.

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GOP fear mongers about Syrian refugees while ignoring domestic terrorism

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While the GOP presidential candidates, led by Donald Trump, and a cowardly Congress spent the better part of the past week fear mongering about Muslims in America and Syrian refugees fleeing civil war and terrorism, it turns out that the one terrorist attack in America this past week came from a domestic terrorist in Colorado Springs.

The definition of “terrorism” is ter·ror·ism /ˈterəˌrizəm/ (noun) the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims. The American media is loath to use the term “terrorism” when reporting the acts of anti-abortionists who kill doctors and patients and vandalize or blow up abortion clinics, but make no mistake, they are terrorists.

The Colorado Springs Gazette reports, Possible motive for accused Planned Parenthood gunman: ‘No more baby parts’:

As Colorado Springs tried coming to grips with its second mass shooting in a month, the revelation of four words uttered by the gunman upon his surrender hinted at anti-abortion zealotry leading up to the attacks.

RobertDearMugshotRobert Lewis Dear, 57, told investigators “no more baby parts” after surrendering to heavily armed officers at the city’s lone Planned Parenthood clinic Friday, multiple news outlets reported.

The comment offered the first clue as to a motive for the shooting spree, which left two civilians and a university police officer dead and nine others – most of them law enforcement officers – wounded from gunfire.

Dear’s remark alluded to videos released over the summer by anti-abortion activists, which sparked a storm of controversy about Planned Parenthood’s practice of using fetal tissue for research. The videos led to calls on Capitol Hill by Republicans to de-fund the organization.

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SCOTUS agrees to review Texas abortion case: does Roe v. Wade hang in the balance?

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Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog reports, Court to rule on abortion clinic restrictions:

ProChoice2Eight years after its last major ruling on abortion rights, the Supreme Court on Friday afternoon agreed to decide the constitutionality of a 2013 Texas law imposing new rules for clinics and doctors.  The earliest that the case would be heard is February.  The Court granted review of one of two appeals on such laws; the other was from Mississippi.

In a second order, the Court said it would hold a hearing on a constitutional test of a new congressional districting map for Virginia, but left open the possibility that the case would be dismissed for a procedural reason.  The case (Wittman v. Personhuballah) involves District 3, the one congressional district in the state that has a majority-black population.  The question is whether race was used unconstitutionally in shaping that district’s lines.

The new abortion case, Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole, is focused on two new restrictions in the Texas law: doctors who perform abortions must have the right to send patients to a full-scale hospital no further than thirty miles from the clinic, and each clinic must have the same facilities as a surgical center.

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SCOTUS grants review of religious objections to contraceptive coverage in ‘ObamaCare’

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ProtestorsThe broadly expanded “religious liberty” argument which is being wielded like a sword by the religious right to exempt themselves from having to comply with any law with which they disagree as a matter of a “personal sincerely held moral conviction or religious belief” is once again being  wielded against contraceptive coverage in the Affordable Care Act aka “ObamaCare.”

This is the natural progression of appeals resulting from the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (.pdf). The coming decision on the birth-control mandate will have the title of the first such case filed at the Court: Zubik v. Burwell.

Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog writes, Court to hear birth-control challenges (UPDATED):

On Friday, for the fourth time in three years, the Supreme Court agreed to rule on challenges to the new federal health care law — this time, religious non-profit institutions’ objection to the Affordable Care Act’s birth-control mandate, which requires employers to provide their female employees with health insurance that includes no-cost access to certain forms of birth control.  The Court accepted parts of all seven cases on that issue filed with it under the ACA.  It has not yet spelled out how those will be consolidated for a hearing — planned for late March.

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The Planned Parenthood Inquisition

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In case you missed this last week, the caption from Charles Pierce at Esquire sums it up perfectly: Because Benghazi Went So Well, We Have a New Planned Parenthood Committee (and it’s chock full o’ wingnuts):

handmaids-tale_0Things went so well for the Republicans in Thursday’s Benghazi, Benghazi!, BENGHAZI! snipe hunt that departing Speaker John Boehner, who may just be pranking the bastards at this point, on Friday announced the members of the next Special Committee For Expanded Ratfcking. This one will look into the fictitious sale of baby parts by Planned Parenthood. Here are your dogged GOP inquisitors tasked with “investigating” “evidence” produced by phony videotapes:

Marsha Blackburn, Chairman (R-TN); Joe Pitts (R-PA); Diane Black (R-TN); Larry Bucshon (R-IN); Sean Duffy (R-WI); Andy Harris (R-MD); Vicki Hartzler (-MO); Mia Love (R-UT).

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