Religious Liberty?

[bennyboy]

If the person is not preventing pregnancy, then whatever the pill or device involved, it's not birth control by definition.    

-Excellent then an employer doesn't have the ability to restrict those prescriptions in the face of doctor/patient confidentiality, both sides win, case closed.

Yeah, probably. Just stop calling it birth control, and call it "other services" or something. It's like a pot prescription-- you skin your knee, you want a remedy for your pain, you get the prescription because the doctor has that degree of discretionary power.

Given the proper definition of "birth control" I gave above, then being pregnant is not part of health care, either.  Pregnancy is not an illness.  As I stated previously, health care is not limited strictly to illness or sick so given a modern and conventional definition of health care your 

Considering that all major insurance companies and hospitals consider BC to be part of health care I would say that that your interpretation is incorrect.  As i stated initially, health care is not only about illness.

Health care is about maintaining good health. Pregnancy is not bad health-- it is an expression of both personal and genetic fitness.

It's hard for me to argue with you, because I'm perfectly fine with including birth control in a health care plan. In my own case, and as an employer of half a dozen people, I'd not only include birth control, I also offer other health-benefits, like gym membership, which aren't government-mandated.

However, I know a little about America's constitution: separation of church and state, freedom of speech, etc. and it seems to me that if the state forces an employer to pay for aspects of a health plan that go against that employer's religious beliefs, there's a conflict. It seems to me that the government could fairly easily avoid this conflict, by supporting Planned Parenthood much more and pressing companies less. Reducing costs of pharmaceuticals like the pill, and increasing minimum wage, would help a lot too.

I just don't think forcing religious employers to adopt non-religious morals is the right tack.