Welcome to the conversation!


Welcome to the conversation!

Harriet Beecher Stowe's (1811-1896) best-selling anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), made her the most famous American woman of the 19th century and galvanized the abolition movement before the Civil War.

The Stowe Center is a 21st-century museum and program center using Stowe's story to inspire social justice and positive change.

The Salons at Stowe programs are a forum to connect the challenging issues (race, gender and class) that impelled Stowe to write and act with the contemporary face of those same issues. The Salon format is based on a robust level of audience participation, with the explicit goal of promoting civic engagement. Recent topics included: Teaching Acceptance; Is Prison the New Slavery; Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North; Creativity and Change; Race, Gender and Politics Today; How to be an Advocate

This blog will expand the reach of these community conversations to the online audience. Add your posts and comments to keep the conversation going! Commit to action by clicking HERE to stay up to date on Salon and social justice news.

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Monday, July 7, 2014

Disparity in #HobbyLobby coverage of men's and women's contraceptives

Last week, the Huffington Post reported that the craft store chain Hobby Lobby - granted the right to drop health care coverage for women's contraceptives because of its owners' religion, in a Supreme Court ruling - still covers vasectomies and Viagra. Many are speaking out on the injustice behind the disparity and willingness to cover men's contraceptives and treatments for erectile dysfunction, but not women's contraceptives.
Evangelical Christians have long argued that life begins at conception, and therefore that medical procedures that disrupt the first stages of pregnancy amount to murder. In the case of Hobby Lobby, this extends to a woman taking pills such as Plan B, Next Choice or Ella, any of which would prevent her ovaries from releasing an egg that could be fertilized after unprotected sex. Perhaps taking a note from Catholic Church's opposition to sterilization, Hobby Lobby also objected to long-term birth control methods such as IUDs, which can cost women up to $1,000. But that does not explain why Hobby Lobby doesn't object to covering the cost of its male employees' vasectomies.

Should Hobby Lobby have been granted the right by the Supreme Court to drop coverage of women's contraceptives? What is your reaction to the disparity in their coverage of men's and women's contraceptives? This is an important issue facing our country, we hope you will weigh in below!

1 comment:

Robert said...

This is an outrage! Women should have the right to equal health care coverage. In the words of Senator Elizabeth Warren: "The current Supreme Court has headed in a very scary direction."