Before Madonna, before Lady Gaga, there was Cindy Lauper. Remember Girls Just Wanna Have Fun? Cindy is older and wiser now and she says Girls Just Want To Have Birth Control:. The Hobby Lobby decision makes clear that this isn’t an argument about religious liberties—it’s a rejection of women’s rights across the board. Read her excellent editorial published in The Daily Beast.
On Monday, the Supreme Court issued a decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby that I can’t keep quiet on. I’ve always believed that women should have the autonomy to make our own choices and blaze our own trails.
In the 1970s, I took part in a demonstration in Central Park during the height of the women’s liberation movement. I’d like to think we’ve come a long way since then, but this week’s decision from the Supreme Court sends the clear message that too many employers and Supreme Court Justices still regard women as second-class citizens.
With one ruling handed down this week, five men in black robes decided that we should return to policies of the 1950s and ask our bosses’ permission to receive basic preventive health care. These are five men who have never had to worry about how they’d pay for birth control, deal with an unplanned pregnancy, or face going to work with crippling migraines and premenstrual pain.
Women throughout America know that birth control is an important factor in allowing us to contribute to the workforce, determine our own destiny, and guarantee our economic independence.
Because of birth control, a woman can stay in school and earn her degree. Because of birth control, a hard-working woman can go out on a limb and live her dreams of being a musician, or she can plan her family in a way that allows her to have the career she wants while also providing a loving and safe home for her children.
The same companies fighting to take it away, including Hobby Lobby, continue to cover Viagra and vasectomies for their male employees.
It doesn’t matter what women choose to do with the opportunities provided by birth control—what matters is that women are allowed to make these choices for ourselves. That’s why 99 percent of sexually active women in this country have used birth control at some point in their lives.
Yet here we are in 2014, still arguing over our right to have access to this important preventive care. Meanwhile, the same companies fighting to take it away, including Hobby Lobby, continue to cover Viagra and vasectomies for their male employees.
The decision handed down this week makes clear that this isn’t an argument about religious liberties. Rather, it is a rejection of women’s rights across the board, hidden within an argument that our most basic health care is “controversial.” The subject of birth control should be far from controversial. To many women, the only thing controversial about it is that we are still fighting this battle.
Incredibly brave and smart women paved the way for me to have a career. They fought for my basic rights and helped advance women throughout America. Without their hard work and dedication to women, I would not be where I am today and would not have access to preventive care that many of us take for granted.
I’m standing with women across the country to fight back against discrimination, and I urge you to join me. Planned Parenthood, of whom I am a staunch supporter and a firm believer, has created an opportunity for men and women across the country to join Justice Ginsburg’s dissent. I’ve signed my name, and I strongly encourage you to join me by visiting PlannedParenthoodActionFund.org.
Now is the time to let our collective voices be heard. Women are watching, and we will take action to ensure this backwards decision doesn’t become the status quo.
A Celebration of Reading 
Bravo, Cindy! If the science community would just develop/invent birth control pills for men (with possible side-effects lol), this whole discussion would change! They could start by experimenting on the Supreme Court judges who carried the majority opinion in Burwell v. Hobby!
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To lighten things up a bit, Yes, I do remember Girls Just Want To Have Fun. Do you remember the movie they made, also called Girls Just Want To Have Fun? Remember who the two teenage girls that were out to have fun? Oh, you’re too good! Yes, it was a very early role for Sarah Jessica Parker and her trouble making girl friend was Helen Hunt. That movie and Rock and Roll High School bring back such welcome memories. Thanks.
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I agree. Religion is just a convenient excuse. This is about controlling women’s sexualities. Abortion wouldn’t be an issue if it were men getting pregnant.
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Mike, your argument, while calling me hypocritical, failed to address the many other birth control options that Hobby Lobby has been paying for. Could I not support those other forms of contraception while not supporting abortion and not be hypocritical in your belief system?
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In this case the support for any and all forms of birth control BEFORE the ACA when Hobby Lobby was approached to launch the challenge to the provisions of the ACA and the fact that Hobby Lobby openly does business with and makes profits from companies and nations that make birth control mandatory and use abortion as a medical practice to limit births, clearly demonstrates that Hobby Lobby is hypocritical. It was only the corrupt Supreme Court, the Court’s lack of understanding of the scientific facts, and the Court’s de facto establishment of the Christian religion as being the spiritual basis of this country, that reached the decision they made. Even a surface analysis of the factors of the case would have reached a different conclusion: yet the Court was dedicated to following an ideological agenda and ignoring the good of the country.
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Mike, you are completely correct, logically, historically, and with scientific knowledge to back up your premise. It is only those with little to zero knowledge have a very backward view of birth control methods. Many women cannot take birth control pills for many different types of diseases: Kidney, Breast cancer, Addison’s, Huntington’s, and this list is long on conditions that prevent anything but the use of an IUD. But, this argument is not really about birth control for these faux religious corporations, it is about control of women’s lives and oh yes, money. Always follow the money all the way to SCOTUS.
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No Mike, having a vasectomy prevents conception which is a much different issue than an abortion. If I supported women having abortions when they had several children and found it economically detrimental to the family to have more then I would not have gotten a vasectomy for the reasons I mentioned. My wife at the time restricted and limited my life choices , through her choices, placing me and my children secondary to her wishes. Her choices in birth control were not effective leaving me to be the responsible person. I still stick with the articles political motivation considering none of your argument has any factual basis.
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This fails to mention that Hobby Lobby already paid for about 16 forms of birth control and only 2 of them were for males. The VIagra and vasectomies thing is just ridiculous. She fails to consider that often times men have a vasectomy because they already have several children and find it economically detrimental to the family to have more (myself included). Plenty of single parents go on to finish educational goals(myself included) or chase other dreams. I find this articles perspective very narrowly focused for political purposes.
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“… often times men have a vasectomy because they already have several children and find it economically detrimental to the family to have more …” : and since you have an unbiased position on this, it follows that your argument supports women having abortions when they have several children and find it economically detrimental to the family to have more.
You have to be pro-abortion and pro-birth control, otherwise you are hypocritically expressing the opinions of someone who wishes to restrict and limit the lives of women: who considers women secondary to men.
And actually, the article is very narrowly focused for MORAL reasons. There is only one political organization in this country which considers women’s health and women’s bodies to be a political issue.
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Patrick, you fall to realize this is not about birth control. It is at is core about sex control. It is a slippery slope by religious male dominated organizations. Like former Governor Huckabee remarked, ” Women need to control their libido”. What he actually meant is religious groups (mostly male) need to control women’s libido in America because their power (white male power) has diminished. The best way to do that is to work their dominance through corporations and it’s working. Now there are more than 100 male dominated religious groups who are asking for the same thing, except now they want all forms of birth control to be exempt from there healthcare insurance programs.
This religious Fascism will, hopefully lead to a single payer outcome, something they should consider in their zeal to control women’s personal lives and I am glad for it.
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