Contraceptives

Rush Limbaugh has lost another advertiser on his radio talk show as the fallout continued from his use of the terms “slut” and “prostitute” to ridicule a woman who has advocated for expanded access to birth control. Quicken Loans Inc. has suspended its advertising on the Limbaugh show, the company said in a statement posted to its website. It was a reversal for the Detroit-based online mortgage lender, which had initially issued a statement in support of Limbaugh's right to express himself.

A GOP-led attempt to roll back new rules requiring insurance companies to provide free contraceptive care was dismissed by the Senate -- a rejection of a Republican pivot toward conservative social issues and a victory for President Obama's healthcare law. The 51-48 vote to table the Republican measure showed dissent among the GOP, as several Republican senators said the legislation was too broad for their support. Republicans say the new Obama administration policy is an affront to religious freedom and an example of the administration's regulatory overreach.

Georgia may soon become the latest state to limit the time frame in which women may have an abortion with a so-called "fetal pain" bill that passed the state's House on Wednesday. The bill, HB 954 , now heads to the Republican-controlled Senate, according to the Associated Press. The legislation would ban abortions after 20 weeks, with exceptions for pregnancies that seriously threaten the life or health of the woman. Currently, the state bans abortions after 24 weeks.

While controversy over one aspect of the Obama administration's contraception rule — whether and when religiously affiliated employers must comply — has dominated recent headlines, that debate has obscured other questions about how the rules will actually be implemented. Under the healthcare law, insured women will qualify for contraceptives without a co-payment as part of a range of preventive medical services. But insurers and advocates are frustrated by the lack of details.

In the heated debate over to what extent religiously affiliated employers should be required to provide free contraception for workers, no one has talked much about what methods are available to women who want to prevent pregnancy and how their choices might change if cost were removed from the equation. But it's an important subject. With prices ranging from about $1 for a condom to more than $800 for an intrauterine device (IUD), some of these women - maybe a lot of them - might switch methods if they could afford to. That's exactly what manywomen's healthadvocates hope.

Congressional Republicans held a hearing about birth control and religion last Thursday, and the take-away image from the gathering is a shot of the key witnesses: five middle-aged men representing various religious organizations. Fairly or not, the spin coming out of the hearing was not about how religious institutions might be threatened by a federal requirement that employees be provided insurance coverage for contraceptives, which is what the committee chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa of California, intended.

Presidents, politicians and physicians are fighting over who should pay for contraception, and women are getting hurt in the process. Roman Catholic bishops reject even President Obama's recent compromise not requiring religiously affiliated hospitals and universities to pay for contraception, saying it does not meet their standard of "religious liberty and moral convictions. " Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards calls the row over insurance payments part of "a misleading and outrageous assault onwomen's health.

Who parks where Re "Going after meter cheaters," Column, Feb. 16 The one thing that should be mentioned for those out there who are morally handicapped is that handicapped parking spaces and disabled placards are provided not only for convenience but more importantly for the safety of those who are wheelchair-bound. Moving wheelchairs are barely visible in the rear-view mirrors of most cars and in many cases could be missed by someone looking back as they prepare to back up. You can imagine the danger this poses for those in wheelchairs.

When Rep. Darrell Issa, the California Republican who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, convened a hearing Thursday on religious freedom and the mandate that health insurers cover contraception, he ignited a firestorm of protest before he even started. The first of two panels he assembled was all male - something that a Democratic congresswoman on the committee noted immediately and not favorably, given thatwomen's healthwas at the heart of what was being discussed.

Since President Obama moved to require Catholic hospitals and universities to offer their employees contraceptive health benefits, Republicans have rushed to accuse the administration of an unprecedented attack on religious freedoms. None has been more forceful than former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who accused Obama of "a direct violation of the 1st Amendment. " But years before the current partisan firestorm, GOP lawmakers and governors around the country, including Huckabee, backed similar mandates.