Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:06 pm
Coming soon to an office near you: Imagine yourself in your boss’ office explaining why you are on the pill or being asked your beliefs about abortion as you apply for a job. If you like this idea, thank a Republican.
In the late hours of Thursday evening in an attempt to quietly pander to the crowd of Republicans who feel that by not being allowed to impose their religious beliefs on others they are being harmed (aka, the “religious freedom” crowd last seen trying to deny gay couples the right to a wedding cake), “small government” Republicans voted to overturn a District of Columbia law that protects women from discrimination at work due to their use of contraceptives, having an abortion or getting family planning.
In other words, they voted to make sure your boss has the right to not only know but discriminate against you if you are on the pill, get family planning, or choose to have an abortion for whatever reason. The measure to overturn DC’s Reproductive Health Nondiscrimination Act (RHNDA) passed 228-192, with thirteen Republicans siding with sanity and three Democrats cozying up to crazy.
Cristina Marcos reported for the Hill:
The D.C. law, known as the Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act, prohibits employers from discriminating against workers, their spouses or dependents for obtaining contraception or family planning services. The law further bans employees from retaliation for having abortions.
…Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) sponsored the disapproval resolution in the House, while 2016 GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) introduced a companion measure in the Senate.
Representative Black hailed the vote as a vote for “religious freedom”, saying “At its core, the Reproductive Health Nondiscrimination Act is perhaps the most discriminatory ‘nondiscrimination’ law we have seen to date. I am proud that the House took a stand for religious freedom and acted to protect the First Amendment rights of pro-life Washingtonians by passing my resolution to overturn RHNDA.”
Congresswoman Black also claimed that the measure does not leave women open to discrimination, which is exactly what it does, saying, “My resolution does not remove protections for employee privacy or create new rights for religious organizations, it simply maintains the status quo in Washington, D.C. before this ill-conceived law came to pass. Further, the resolution does not in any way condone discrimination against women for healthcare reasons or otherwise.”
No? Well then how would the boss know what the woman was doing? Why would this even be an issue if the boss isn’t going to know? The law Republicans voted to overturn bans employers from taking punitive action against any employees for using abortion services or birth control. This is all about the boss getting into the woman’s business, and maybe the boss wouldn’t announce that a retaliatory firing was in the works if the employee dared to terminate her pregnancy on the advice of her doctor, but that doesn’t mean the boss wouldn’t do that. And that doesn’t mean that any of this is the boss’ business.
Perhaps it will comfort women to think of it as “religious freedom” when they have to sit in their boss’ office tearfully explaining things that are none of her/his business, because some “small government” Republicans think their religious beliefs trump women’s medical rights to privacy as well as women’s right to not be discriminated against because of medical choices.
In fact, CNN reported that the conservative Heritage Foundation pushed Republicans to block this law precisely because “in an analysis published by two Heritage policy analysts, the group asserts that anti-abortion rights groups based in Washington would be faced with decisions about hiring candidates that could conflict with their beliefs.”
So, they want the boss to know your beliefs in order to discriminate against those who disagree. How is this not discrimination?
Luckily President Obama has vowed to veto this piece of pandering crazy. But it should not go unnoticed that this is part of the Republican agenda, and without a Democrat in the White House, this could very well be law across the land.
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