Freedom freedom freedom


Update This is from March 2012, and the bill passed. Oy.

I have got to learn to check the date. [slaps self]

Are you kidding me?!

Erin Gloria Ryan at Jezebel:

A proposed new law in Arizona would give employers the power to request that women being prescribed birth control pills provide proof that they’re using it for non-sexual reasons. And because Arizona’s an at-will employment state, that means that bosses critical of their female employees’ sex lives could fire them as a result.

What.the.fuck.

How about a proposed law mandating that women inform the whole world of everything about them. Let’s just treat women as public property with no rights at all, instead of trying to achieve the same goal piecemeal.

Yesterday, a Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed Republican Debbie Lesko’s HB2625 by a vote of 6-2, which would allow an employer to request proof that a woman using insurance to buy birth control was being prescribed the birth control for reasons other than not wanting to get pregnant. It’s all about freedom, she said, echoing everyone who thinks there’s nothing ironic about claiming that a country that’s “free” allows people’s bosses to dictate what medical care is available to them through insurance. First amendment. The constitution. Rights of religious people to practice the treasured tenets of their faiths, the tenets that dictate that religious people get to tell everyone who is not of faith how they’re supposed to live, and the freedom to have that faith enforced by law. Freedom®.

What if it’s a tenet of your faith that women who seem insufficiently subservient and grateful should have acid thrown on them? Is that all about freedom too? Come on, Debbie Lesko, tell us why it’s not.

Further, Lesko states, with a straight face, that this bill is necessary because “we live in America; we don’t live in the Soviet Union.”

So…we live in Nazi Germany then? Arbeit macht frei?

Comments

  1. says

    Well, keep in mind, it’s one state, and it’s only proposed legislation – it hasn’t passed.

    But it’s noteworthy that anyone would even think this was a good idea – and a woman at that.

  2. Kevin Kehres says

    Well, seeing as how the law would violate HIPAA…I’m kinda thinking it’s not going to pass muster.

    But yeah, how in the world does a woman’s sex life have anything at all to do with their job performance? Unless they’re a hooker, of course.

  3. peterh says

    Arizona’s women and women everywhere who take birth control pills for myriad reasons have no one to answer to other than spouses and doctors.

  4. Bernard Bumner says

    Arizona’s women and women everywhere who take birth control pills for myriad reasons have no one to answer to other than spouses and doctors.

    Fixed it. It may be a choice taken with their partner, but there are plenty of good reasons why they don’t necessarily have to “answer to” their spouse.

    Actually, even a doctor doesn’t necessarily need to know the why per se, although it may help them to provide the best quality advice.

  5. smhll says

    What.the.fuck.

    I’m with you. Holy fucking fuck.

    First they came for the birth control users. Then they came for the masturbators and the blasphemers…

  6. dmcclean says

    This is beyond insanity.

    But if it “allow[s] an employer to request proof that a woman using insurance to buy birth control was being prescribed the birth control for reasons other than not wanting to get pregnant”, how does the employer know when to ask? Surely it is a HIPAA violation for the insurer to tell the employer what medical services the employee is using?

  7. peterh says

    I said spouses & doctors because those are the only individuals I feel any of the women might wish or feel the need to confide in.

  8. Brony says

    I am outraged at my home state!

    Absolutely disgusting. No, you do not get to force another to live by your religion. I posted this to Facebook. Hopefully my parents will take the bait.

  9. karmacat says

    If I lived in Arizona and I was asked why I was using birth control, I would just say “No, I am not using it for birth control but just to piss off Rep. Lesko and the Catholic church.” Of course, I would probably get fired

  10. wannabe says

    How about a provision allowing employers to require proof that any prescribed antibiotics aren’t being using to treat an STD?

    Also, why not give employers the power to request all past tax returns? See, some employee might have contributed to Planned Parenthood or some other immoral group. Allowing employees to do that without consequence turns virtuous employers into slaves.

    But that would really only cover tax-exempt contributions. I guess to preserve our freedom, employers need the power to examine all their employees’ financial records, checks, credit card transactions, etc. Godly employers need this power so they can remain pure.

    Also phone records and all web sites visited on all platforms. A golden opportunity for some tech entrepreneur.

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