Contraception question booed at Republican debate
A question about contraception caused a flareup in the culture wars during the last Republican presidential debate before next week’s Arizona and Michigan primaries and “Super Tuesday.”
The question drew boos from the audience and impassioned statements from the four candidates on the stage in Mesa, Arizona, last night.
“Since birth control is the latest hot topic, which candidate believes in birth control, and if not, why?” was the question posed via cnnpolitics.com.
It sparked a lengthy discourse by the candidates on religious freedom, contraception, and family structure. None of the White House hopefuls directly responded to the question.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has taken on the media in previous debates, said it was legitimate to question “the power of the government to impose on religion activities which any religion opposes,” before questioning CNN moderator John King and zeroing in on Democrat Barack Obama.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney provided backup, saying Obama had launched “the worst attack on religious conscience in the history of the United States.”
Rick Santorum: birth control ruling has nothing to do with women’s rights
Forcing religious organizations to provide contraceptives has nothing to do with women’s rights, Republican presidential contender and vocal Catholic Rick Santorum said on Thursday.
The comment aligned Santorum with a lineup of conservative critics bashing Democratic President Barack Obama’s rule requiring religious institutions — but not churches — to provide health insurance plans that cover birth control.
The rule, announced in January, covers religious-affiliated groups like charities, hospitals and universities. The Catholic Church opposes most methods of birth control and conservatives have painted the rule as an attack on religious freedom from a secular president.
Speaking to CNN’s John King, the former Pennsylvania senator said: “That’s the Church’s money, and forcing them to do something that they think is a grievous moral wrong. How can that be a right of a woman? That has nothing to do with the right of a woman.”
Santorum bills himself as the only true conservative in the field of Republicans vying to win their party’s nomination to challenge Obama in November. He’s backed by evangelical leaders and social conservatives who admire his consistent and at times polemical stances on abortion and gay marriage. He swept nominating contests Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado on Tuesday buoyed by votes from social conservatives.
Better than expected economic news and the administration’s move, which was initially viewed as a score for women’s health advocates, have shifted the conversation of an election that most believed would be centered on the economy.
Conservative heavyweights including House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, Texas Governor Rick Perry and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich have all warned of an attack on religious freedom coming from the White House. Obama also risks losing the votes of Catholics of whom he won 54 percent in 2008. On Thursday, the administration back-pedalled from its position, promising room for compromise but the groundwork for the attacks seems to have been laid.
How’s this for an attack on the church? I want to remove their tax-exempt status. If they want to involve themselves in politics rather than focusing on their stated mission to save souls, thar’s just fine with me. Let’s tax them. On any given Sunday, and this holds true for the mega-fundamentalist churches more than any, most of the “sermon” is instruction on the joys of the Republican Party and the tragedy of allowing the Democrates to grant more freedoms to more people who don’t happen to hold with the Conservative Rights oppressive social agenda. Fine but that’s not the reasons given to justify tax-exemption. I am so sick of the churches duplicity and wonder what Christ thinks about their message of exclusion and ill-disguised Hate.
Acetracy – your example simply proves the point – even to the detriment of young Catholic girls. the family needs to be protected – the family is the basic unit of our culture which instills values to our children – hmmmm, what happened approx 30 years ago? right! Roe vs. Wade, who’s primary defendant has since regretted having been manipulated like a pawn into allowing abortion in this country. Traditional family values are important. What kind of value will a husband and husband transfer to their non-blood related child who has to grow up like a social chemistry experiment in this country? May God have mercy on this country.