Due to a gall bladder infection, beloved Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been in the hospital recovering from surgery, but that did not stop her from taking a Trump administration lawyer to the woodshed from her hospital bed in defense of women having access to contraception services.
Americans across the country feared the worst when news broke about Ginsburg’s health scare. After all, it would end up being Trump who appoints her successor and you can bet that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) wouldn’t have any problem confirming his nominee in an election year, especially since it would mean conservative dominance of the high court for decades.
But the woman also known as the “Notorious RBG” proved that she still has a lot of fight left in her when she put Solicitor General Noel Francisco in his place for arguing that employers should be able to deny contraception coverage to female employees for religious reasons.
“What the government has done in expanding this exemption is to toss to the wind entirely Congress’ instruction that women need and shall have seamless, no-cost comprehensive coverage,” Ginsburg declared over the phone during the live-streamed hearing. “They can get contraception coverage by paying out of their own pocket which is exactly what Congress did not want to happen.”
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“Nothing in the interim rules affects the ability of employees and students to obtain without costs the full range of FDA-approved contraceptives,” RBG continued. “You have just tossed entirely to the wind what Congress thought was essential. That is that women be provided these services with no hassle, no cost to them.”
“Instead, you are shifting the cost of the employer’s religious beliefs to the employees who do not share those religious beliefs,” she concluded. “The women end up getting nothing. They are required to do just what Congress didn’t want. The church has enjoyed traditionally an exception from the very first case… the church itself is different from these organizations that employ a lot of people who do not share the employer’s faith.”
Here’s the video:
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is one tough lady, and she just happens to be right. While churches themselves are exempt from providing their own employees contraceptive coverage, that exemption does not apply to businesses and other organizations whose employees likely do not share the religious beliefs of their bosses. Just because an employer has religious beliefs, that does not mean they get to force their beliefs on others.
For too long, religion has been used as a shield to excuse non-compliance with laws conservatives don’t like. It has to stop. And Ginsburg is a hero who will clearly never stop fighting for what’s right, even from her hospital bed.
Featured image via screen capture
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