I’m old enough to remember when tort reform was a thing. The issue was mostly driven by Republicans in the name of politicizing so-called “frivolous lawsuits.” Certainly there’s some merit in the idea of legislating against lawsuits by nimrods who bite into a hot apple pie and burn their mouths. We’re all familiar with the tales of consumer stupid.
Since then, a new series of frivolous lawsuits is underway. And they’re almost as dumb.
As you’re surely aware, conservative religious groups and various conservative-owned corporations have been engaged in a mostly winless legal battle against the Affordable Care Act. The latest in the series to be shot down by the Supreme Court was a suit brought against the government by Liberty University, the Christian academic institution founded by televangelist Jerry Falwell.
The Falwell suit claims that the commerce clause doesn’t allow Congress to mandate that employers cover full-time employees with health insurance. Additionally, the univeristy (snarf) also objected to the contraception coverage in the law, suggesting that it would be forced by law to pay for contraception coverage that includes abortions.
The Supreme Court thankfully rejected the appeal.
Last week, meanwhile, I was fairly pessimistic about the future of the ACA’s contraception coverage requirement. However, there’s a slim chance it could survive the ideological knee-jerkery of the conservatives on the Court — that is as long as a strong scientific case is made for the fact that, no, the morning after pill, also known as Plan-B or “emergency contraception,” is not an abortifacient.
In other words, emergency contraception isn’t intended to block the implantation of a fertilized egg. It blocks ovulation. Taking one of these pills after having sex is not — repeat, not, not, not — the same as abortion… [CONTINUE READING]