Afternoon Roundup: No More “Female at Birth” Policy for Golf Association, Judge Disses Christian University’s Anti-Choice Claims

LPGA ditches their "female at birth" policy, Speaker John Boehner has some frighteningly invasive anti-choice legislative plans in store for Americans, BPA may be responsible for infertility problems in women and is the Pope inspiring more religious mind expansion as it relates to condoms and birth control?

LPGA ditches their “female at birth” policy, Speaker John Boehner has some frighteningly invasive anti-choice legislative plans in store for Americans, BPA may be responsible for infertility problems in women and is the Pope inspiring more religious mind expansion as it relates to condoms and birth control?

  • NPR reports today that a federal judge has thoroughly dismissed a lawsuit from Liberty University, a Christian school, claiming their religious rights would be violated by the health reform law. Liberty lawyers claimed the school would be forced to offer abortion coverage to its employees – when the school is firmly anti-choice. Judge Moon, however, said Liberty failed to show how any money would be used to fund abortion. In fact, he said, the law “contains strict safeguards at multiple levels to prevent federal funds from being used for abortion services” (except in cases of rape or incest or women the woman’s health or life is endangered by the pregnancy). Hasn’t stopped Congress from continuing on a similar absurd anti-choice journey with taxpayer money however…
  • The LPGA (Ladies Professional Golf Association) has announced it will amend its policy which bans transgender players from its women’s tour. LPGA players voted to remove the requirement that players must have been born female, to play. The vote is in response to a lawsuit brought by a 57 year old transgender woman who said the original policy violated California’s civil rights law. 
  • A Houston Baptist University editorial says that although “God commanded his people to populate the world” and be fruitful and multiply, using a condom for birth control and prevention of STIs works too, given the Pope’s most recent written “revelation” in his book. 
  • The risk of dying from pregnancy-related complications in the United States is relatively low however CDC numbers show an increase when comparing statistics from 1998-2005 to previous decades. Researchers say the increase may partially be due to changing technical reporting requirements. Still, the racial divide is conspicuous. The death rate for Black women was 37.5 per 100,000 women while for White women that number was 10.2 per 100,000 women. 
  • Womens eNews paints a portrait of a Speaker intent on invading women’s health and lives with a legislative sword. Speaker John Boehner is on a mission to not only do away with health reform altogether but to push an outright ban on abortion coverage in the health reform law created health exhanges, as well as “impose a tax on Americans with private insurance plans that include abortion.” NARAL Pro-Choice America, Emily’s List and others, the article notes, are rallying voters to proactively challenge Boehner’s plans.