"My classmate Sandra Fluke does not speak for me."
Those were strong words from attorney Maya Noronha, a former Georgetown Law student. Noronha took part in a rally yesterday to protest Obamacare’s Health and Human Services birth control mandate on its first-year anniversary - a law that forces religious groups to offer their employees contraception coverage. Immediately following the bill’s introduction, faith-based employers lobbied Congress to grant them exemptions, fearing the legislation would force them to violate their religious consciences.
Although many pro-choice activists have defended the HHS mandate, claiming it would give women equal access to health care, a large group of females from more than 20 different states attended the “Women Speak For Themselves” event in Washington, DC to protest the legislation right at President Obama’s doorstep.
Dr. Grazie Christie of the Catholic Association, one of the attendees, perhaps spoke on behalf of all women who oppose the mandate when she said, “this is not a war on women. Because it’s not a war on healthcare for women, because contraception isn’t healthcare.”
Christie and the other women who attended yesterday’s rally are not alone in their disapproval of the HHS legislation. In a Rasmussen Reports poll from December 2012, a majority agreed that religious organizations should be able to opt out of the mandate if they felt as though it would infringe upon their faith.
With Hobby Lobby’s recent victory over the HHS rule and yesterday’s empowering protest, it looks like the real “war” is on Obamacare.
Watch footage from the empowering rally here (via Newsbusters):