Speakeasy forum: May as well get this link out there before

She mentions being on a public interest scholarship. I had to look that up and

http://annaivey.com/iveyfiles/2009/02/what_is_public_interest_law

that's what I found. I presume it's a free or subsidized education that has her working in the field when not in classes. If so, she might command a small stipend. This stipend is possibly what she, in her case, says is eaten up by having to purchase birth control pills. She did say she was taking them. I do know that at many colleges and universities some limited health coverage can be purchased. There are student health centers at many universities that provide basic care and treatment for conditions and illnesses...mononucleosis is common...that affect a student's ability to attend classes. AFAIK, they offer pregnancy testing but probably not birth control.

The school offers a medical benefits plan to students. I would presume that just like an employer-provided plan, the students pay something towards it. Most medical plans cover contraception, which, this student points out, is often prescribed for reasons other than birth control. She is merely asking that this school provide the same benefits that other schools do.

How her education is being paid for is beside the point.

public interest law, if she's not using this opportunity to build her resume. There's also a bit of irony here in that public interest law seems to be focused on helping the little guy against the bully. Georgetown is a Catholic University and, in a sense, is a little guy against the president on the issue of forced purchase of birth control insurance. The university isn't the bully here.

1. http://biggovernment.com/tag/sandra-fluke/ (hat tip to the late Andrew Breitbart - you'll be sorely missed, brother.)

As a student at Cornell and treasurer of a a pro-choice organization at the school, Sandra Fluke, helped shut down a pro-life speech on Cornell's campus by counter protesting. She argued that a pro-life organization at Cornell was about "manipulating [students'] emotions" with misleading statistics about abortion. But when it is her turn to speak on Capitol Hill, the third-year Georgetown Law Student demands she gets her say in a hearing that has nothing to do with birth control.

Fluke, who was awarded a B.S. in Policy Analysis & Management, and a Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies degree from Cornell in 2003, has since become a cause celebre among the political left-wing because she wasn't allowed to testify in a congressional hearing. The Washington Post has even called her an "expert witness."

She got her bachelor's in 2003; this is 2012. We can therefore assume that she is too old to be covered by her parents' medical insurance - even under Obamacare.

2. Georgetown University is a Catholic university. I needn't say more, but I will. From Steven's original post:

At Thursday's staged hearing, Fluke said she chose to go to law school at Georgetown because it offers a quality education, but she also expected the school to accommodate students who do not share the Catholic belief that contraceptives, abortifacients, and sterilization are immoral.

Fluke said Georgetown, a Jesuit school, does not provide contraceptive coverage in its student health plan, a situation that places "financial, emotional and medical burdens" on students. (emphasis mine)

She expressed gratitude for the Obama administration's contraception mandate, which will force religiously affiliated schools and hospitals to provide services that some religions, including Catholicism, find morally wrong and impermissible.

Really, Sandra, did you for a New York minute really expect a university run by a religious denomination that opposes contraception on purely doctrinal grounds to roll over for you? Or, as is more likely, did you go to Georgetown with every intent of stirring up this faux issue in an election year? IMHO, the Left's war on religion continues - and Ms. Fluke is little more than political cannon fodder in it. And, just a little more, from the February 16th hearing at which Ms. Fluke was not allowed to testify:

During the Feb. 16 hearing, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) asked Rabbi Meir Soloveichik of Yeshiva University about the nature of the hearing - was it about contraception and abortifacients or religious freedom?

"This is absolutely an issue of the religious freedom and only of religious freedom," Soloveichik responded. "For our members of this Committee or of Congress or of the Executive Branch who are concerned about access to contraception, they can seek through legislation or otherwise to ensure greater access to that as that can be debated in Congress, the members of Congress can vote on that, et cetera.

"And they are absolutely entitled and able to do that as members of Congress under the powers granted to them by the Constitution," Soloveichik said.

"What they cannot do -- and that's why we're here today -- is to achieve this end by trampling on the religious freedom and the liberty of conscience of Americans and they can't do that because that would be a violation of the Constitution that both members of Congress and of the Executive Branch have sworn to uphold and protect," Soloveichik said. (Emphasis mine)

There is a name for governments which attempt to force their will even in what Roman Catholics call "matters of faith and morals". That name is 'totalitarian state". If the President, Congresswoman Pelosi, all the other members of the radical left and their allies in the Great American Leftmedia wish to challenge this basic principle of freedom, then let it be so. They will fail.

Or promiscuity?

Since condoms are also considered to be a birth control method, why has no politician or media outlet even mentioned MEN'S health as an issue? It not only prevents pregnancy in most cases, but also prevents STD's from being spread around. Total silence on whether millions of dollars in insurance coverage for condoms would be 'free' for both men and women since women purchase them as well in order to make sure they aren't hooking up with some jerk who doesn't have the brains to bring them along in their wallet.

I think it's the same stuff they use now to preserve hotdogs. Don't eat too many of them.

It's fairly cheap to use and highly effective.

The more liberal the college, the more they learn about 'social injustice' and how to get more for less....less money and less effort. But according to others here in SE (the BO/Santorum education thread), there is no 'conspiracy' to indoctrinate kids via college professors (or even in elementary schools....do you recall the chants and songs of Obama during his 2008 campaign?)

But he's not the one who started it. He just wants to push it more.

Nobody's trying to take your lollipops away, just saying pay for them yourself.

Look at the required general areas that must be completed, then check some of those areas, such as behavioral science, or health, or social studies & relations. Look at the syllabus for the courses. Toni is pretty close to the bullseye on it.

Josh, the basic situation in this case is about Obamacare mandating coverage of something some religions dislike. With this particular story it is Catholics and birth control. Let's think about something else where there may be objection by more than one religion.
Currently, three states allow physician assisted suicide. Should Obamacare also mandate payment for physician assisted suicide in those states?

The government is being reminded of what laws it can make and not which ones will be obeyed. Government is not to establish a favorite religion nor interfere with its free exercise. This doesn't mean just allowing people to go to a church of choice and sit in a pew but to allow them to adhere to its principles. We already have one group exempt from carrying weapons on the battlefield due to its principles. There's been no shortage of soldiers due to allowing this AFAIK. There will be no shortage of birth control pills or vendors of them if religious institutions are allowed to abstain from their purchase. And, no....purchasing insurance coverage that pays for these is not a work around.