Saturday, January 16, 2010

Martha Coakley is right

I think I figured out the lone remaining difference between the 2 major parties: The Republicans think they should be able to force their religion on everyone else; the Democrats don't.

Confronted by right-wing host Ken Pittman of WBSM radio in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Democratic Senate candidate Martha Coakley quite properly said ER workers should be required to follow the law allowing rape victims to receive emergency contraception. Coakley asked Pittman, "If someone has been the victim of a rape, an assault, and she goes to an emergency room to get contraception, someone else should say, 'Oh, no, I don't believe in this, so I'm going to affect your constitutional rights'?"

Coakley's Republican opponent Scott "Records" Brown thinks so. Brown introduced a bill in the Massachusetts legislature that would have let hospital workers deny such emergency contraception - thereby forcing their religion on rape victims. (This bill did not pass.)

Naturally, right-wing blogs are accusing Coakley of being anti-Catholic. This accusation is particularly idiotic, as Coakley is herself Catholic! Further, the wingnutosphere made up a different Coakley quote out of thin air (and the Washington Times of course repeated it as if it was real).

2 comments:

  1. Actually, you have it backward (just like Coakley did). There is a difference between having a right to not be denied something by law and forcing someone to do it for you (against their conscience).

    Personally, I don't think Coakley is anti-Catholic. However, for the Attorney General, she sure doesn't seem to know much about basic constitutional law.

    Prof. Althouse posted about the issue today here:

    http://althouse.blogspot.com/2010/01/lets-take-careful-look-at-what-martha.html

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  2. Nope, Coakley had it right. Scott Brown's bill would have enabled ER workers to force their religion on rape victims.

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