{"id":6167,"date":"2011-07-23T21:22:57","date_gmt":"2011-07-23T21:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=6167"},"modified":"2011-07-23T21:25:02","modified_gmt":"2011-07-23T21:25:02","slug":"balkanizing-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/balkanizing-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Balkanizing America"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/The-Pill.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/The-Pill-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"The Pill\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-6168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/The-Pill-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/The-Pill.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>Given that the market for health insurance has long since ceased to be a truly free market, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national\/health-science\/birth-control-coverage-proposed-for-all-health-insurance-plans\/2011\/07\/19\/gIQAcqS7NI_story.html?hpid=z3\">this<\/a> seems broadly sensible and I\u2019d guess it will save money:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Virtually all health insurance plans could soon be required to offer female patients free coverage of prescription birth control, breast-pump rentals, counseling for domestic violence, and annual wellness exams and HIV tests as a result of recommendations released Tuesday by an independent advisory panel of health experts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I would assume (perhaps naively) that something similar, at least so far as annual preventive checks and HIV checks are concerned, is being required to be offered for men. <\/p>\n<p>Some folks, needless to say, have objected on religious grounds: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Jeanne Monahan, director of the Center for Human Dignity at the socially conservative Family Research Council, said that many Americans may object to birth control on religious grounds. \u201cThey should not be forced to have to pay into insurance plans that violate their consciences. Their conscience rights should be protected,\u201d she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Oh, good lord.<\/p>\n<p>A blogger over at the <em>Economist<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/blogs\/democracyinamerica\/2011\/07\/reproductive-freedom?page=2 \">goes all<\/a> Modest Proposal on the Family Research Council, but then makes the most important point:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Being part of America means having some level of tolerance for people&#8217;s different preferences without constantly demanding to secede. Once you start down the road of demanding monetary exceptions for your private moral convictions, there&#8217;s nowhere to stop.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And <a href=\"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/2011\/02\/20\/a-reasonable-compromise\/\">not just monetary exception<\/a>s\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Given that the market for health insurance has long since ceased to be a truly free market, this seems broadly sensible and I\u2019d guess it will save money: Virtually all health insurance plans could soon be required to offer female &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/balkanizing-america\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[79,818,317,392],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6167"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6167"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6174,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6167\/revisions\/6174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}