Quickies
Quickies: Indiana, force fields, and poor womens’ access to family planning
- Indiana governor signs “religious freedom” bill in private – “His action followed two days of intense pressure from opponents — including technology company executives and convention organizers — who fear the measure could allow discrimination, particularly against gays and lesbians.”
- Boeing has patented the real-life version of a force field – “The Boeing system senses a great disturbance in the Force air, and it then sends out laser pulses in the direction that the explosion’s waves are coming from. The lasers change the ions in the air, which absorbs and deflects the blow and prevents most of the damage.”
- The poorest women are being priced out of family planning – “The Brookings researchers conclude that we need to make some changes to address the deeply entrenched economic inequality that prevents low-income women from controlling their fertility.”
- Scientists have discovered a way to cook rice that dramatically cuts calories – From Mary.
- Cute Animal Friday! Fritz learning to catch is pretty much guaranteed to make you chuckle, from Nowoo. And from Michael, have you seen the photos of the extremely rare, endangered magic rabbit?
I should mention that they’re calling it the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The RFRA had its genesis, pardon the pun, in First Amendment cases involving Indians, Jews, and Muslims. Horrible appropriation.
Quite; the federal RFRA was passed in response to a Supreme Court decision that upheld the firing of two native americans who were fired after they tested positive for drugs, because they had smoked peyote as part of their religious ceremonies. This was an integral part of their religious worship rituals, but the Supreme Court (in an opinion written by Justice Scalia) argued that generally applicable laws held sway. (One might compare it to the use of communion wine during Prohibition, though in that case the exemption was written into the Volstead Act).
Hobby Lobby and its progeny, as well as these state RFRAs, seek to allow people to refuse service/discriminate by arguing that it is their sincerely held belief that the person they are denying service to, or the service they are denying, goes against their religion. It allows pharmacists to refuse to fill out contraceptive prescriptions *and* not refer the client to someone who can fill it; it allows Hobby Lobby and others to refuse to provide contraceptive care in their employee’s health insurance; it is being used by Notre Dame to claim that even letting the government know they don’t want to provide contraceptive care to their employees is a violation of their religious freedom because it will allow their employees to get that care elsewhere (which they consider a sin). This is about actions that affect others, not personal acts of worship, which is what the RFRA was meant to protect. It allows for the “exportation” of moral judgements.
Religious freedom, huh, somehow I think they mean the other thing!