This week’s Bad Bill of the Week involves state legislators trying yet again to interject themselves into the voluntary association between employee and employer. Senate Bill 855, titled “No Employer Discrimination for Reproductive Health Decisions” does pretty much what the title says. Sponsored by Sen. Floyd McKissick (D-Durham), the bill strives to prohibit employer discrimination “on the basis of the applicant’s or the employee’s reproductive health decision making, including the decision to use or access a particular drug, device, or medical service, or because of or on the basis of an employer’s beliefs about a particular drug, device, or medical service.”
There’s no getting around the obvious implication that the “medical service” described here is abortion, and “a particular drug” likely refers primarily to birth control. Of course, this law could also apply to “medical services” such as a vasectomy, or “drugs” like fertility pills or even Viagra.
Setting aside the enforcement issues of this bill, and the highly sensitive nature of the issues brought into consideration, this bill forces individuals to associate with one another in a way they may not want to. And freedom of association is one of our most important rights.
A labor agreement in a free society should be mutually agreed upon by both parties. Legislation such as SB 855 says that if one of the parties does not consent to the association for a reason the ruling class disapproves, that person needs to be punished. Forcing individuals to associate with one another against their will is unacceptable to those that value freedom – regardless of how you feel about the motives of any of the people involved.
Because it introduces government force into labor agreements that should be voluntary, SB 855 is this week’s Bad Bill of the Week.
This makes absolutely no sense! “Forcing individuals to associate with one another against their will is unacceptable to those that value freedom”, where exactly, is “the forcing”? I assume this organization has no problems with an employer forcing his/her will on the employee, through availability of healthcare? Now, that’s a scary proposition.
You need to read more closely. This bill would prevent an employer from ending his voluntary association with an employee under threat of punishment, if bureaucrats determine the employer’s motivation for ending that relationship to fit the reasons outlined in the bill.
For instance, if my boss no longer wanted to employ me because I had a vasectomy, this law forces my boss to continue to employ me, i.e. continue to associate with me against her will.
Brain, I must admit I’m a bit confused on your argument. Are you saying the government cannot regulate businesses against discrimination? If I understand your argument, you’re wanting a return to the Jim Crow south where business owners could legally discriminate at will based on their own bigotry and ignorance. This particular case is about the job applicant or employee’s human right to make extremely personal reproductive choices and you and the folks at Civitas Institute are claiming a business has the right to deny employment to American Citizens if the business owner disagrees with these choices? I’m sure you will correct me if I have understood your article wrong.
Lonnie,
I really think you need to brush up on your understanding of Jim Crow laws. Such laws involved the government interjecting its force to racially segregate uses of mostly government facilities like schools, public transportation, public restrooms, etc.
The concern, as stated in the article, is the government once again intruding in our rights to voluntarily choose who we associate with.
I (or anyone else for that matter) does not have a “right” to force somebody to employ me if they don’t also voluntarily agree to the exchange.
It is none of the government’s business to approve or disapprove of the reasons that humans choose to associate with one another.
Brain, I believe its you who do not understand the old Jim Crow south where people could be refused employment and service at private for profit businesses like restaurants, motels and retail store lunch counters. Transportation businesses could make people of color sit in the back of their buses. please tell me how a business has a right to dictate to an applicant or employee very personal human rights birth control decisions?
The argument about “Freedom of Association” has no merit here whatsoever. It’s a rather poor attempt to discredit a bill intended to limit an employers ability to discriminate on whatever grounds he/she chooses. Nothing would be “violated” here. If you actually value “freedom”, then it should include freedom from discrimination, unless of course, you want a completely lawless society?
Lonnie,
Jim Crow laws used government force to punish voluntary association that the government disapproved.
http://www.nps.gov/malu/forteachers/jim_crow_laws.htm
I.E. if you were a restaurant owner and wanted to associate/transact with both white and black customers, the laws were there to punish your decision.
This law being discussed also punishes people for their decisions about whom they voluntarily associate with.
Brian,save your fingers,these two will never get it.They have been brainwashed too long.
Larry,It appears the employees at Civitas Institute are better at writing articles supporting extreme right wing public policy then they are at defending the merits, fairness, facts or effectiveness of such extreme conservative public policy. Conservative family values seem to exclude issues of justice, compassion, humanity, human rights, personal freedom and equality.
Brain, thank you for pointing out the difference between the Jim Crow Laws and what the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did. It appears you want voluntary discrimination by businesses outlawed under the 1964 Civil Rights Act reinstated for issue of contraceptives and abortions if the business owner is offended, his or her opinion supersedes the job applicant or employee’s own civil rights, human rights to have the personal freedom to make personal reproductive choices without economic retaliation by the boss.
Brain, Here’s the link I fogot to include. http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/civil-rights-act/
Brain, Here’s the link I forgot to include above.
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/civil-rights-act/
Lonnie,kill your kids if you want,just don’t ask your employer to pay for it.
Larry,
You really sound like a buffoon when you make comments like this. You are one angry, ignorant, old man.
YoYo,coming from you that’s a compliment.You are learning a lot of new words.
Larry, lets see if I have this correct? You Conservatives want big government to dictate to a young woman her choices in very personal decisions of birth control and when to bear a child?
You call yourself “Pro Life” but support the death penalty, endless wars, torture, slave wages for the working poor, corporate pollution of air, water and politics and letting the poor uninsured die rather than health care as a basic human right.
Your family values include bigotry, hate and greed but lack humanity, compassion and justice?
Lonnie,I do not support the death penalty.Woman have a choice not to get pregnant in the first place.You democrats tell them if it feels good,do it.Then we will kill it for you.You think people have a right to free food,housing,health care,phones and anything else their vote will buy but the unborn have no rights.What about compassion,and justice for them.
Hey Larry,
Don’t forget there’s meant to be a space after every period and a comma.
YoYo,Sort of like that empty space between your ears?
Larry,
You are so funny, how do you keep it up?
Do you hang out here 24/7?
YoYo,I’am an old man remember.After 54 years of work you have some free time before you check out.I wonder how you and Lonnie do it though.Lonnie is on here more than me and you don’t really debate anything.You just try to give me a little dagger every chance you get.I think Lonnie is a Limousine Liberal.He is probably living high on the hog with all that IBM money,giving me lectures about how greedy I am.
Larry, wrong again, Lonnie is a blue collar Liberal, one their should be a lot more of. My time with IBM was my education, first in a factory making typewriters, then traveling the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Northwest NC, my customers were Lowe’s Hardware, Northwestern Bank, Holly Farms, Tyson Foods, Appalachian State University, County Sheriff, writers, Social Services, county courthouses, judges chambers, attorneys,doctors, hospitals, sock factories, Mental Health, health departments, funeral homes, furniture factories, textile mills, Churches, high schools and tree farms. I have the best education in how society works and thinks you can get. On top of that I have traveled much of the world and have seen how things can be and understand the rest of the world also has answers to basic problems of society. Hearing the words you through out says a lot about what you don’t know about the meaning of those words or how society works or don’t work. The Rush Limbaughs and Civitas Institute are here to protect the status quo, not your interest but that of people much richer than you.
Lonnie,I traveled these mountains 60 to 70 thousand miles a year for 40 years.I called on every manufactoring company from Murphy to Forest City,Spruce pine to South Carolina .I’ll stack up my experience with yours any day.You have got your man in office for over 5 years.Why are things not perfect yet?What happened to shovel ready jobs,and dozens of other lies.If you want to pursue it I will post all his lies.I will do it on the next post since they will take up most of a page.
It requires 60 votes to pass a jobs bill and the Republicans said from the start their mission was to keep President Obama from succeeding by obstructing any progress or jobs.
After I moved over to Kodak, I to covered all the way to Murphy when my co worker in Asheville was off work.
Lonnie,Harry Reid will not let anything from the house come to a vote.That hasn’t stopped Obama unlawfully changing his Obamacare bill numerous times.The Supreme Court is starting to put a stop to some of his over steping his authority.I wonder if Lowe’s and some of your other customers would have bought anything from you,if they knew your views about them.Why would you even sell to these evil corporations.
And yet again, Larry, the Civitas guard dog, strikes and bites himself, numerous time. If only he had any sense of how much of an idiot he sound with his crazy talk.
If Lonnie is a Limousine Liberal, then you must be a white trash pickup?
YoYo,it never fails when someone is losing a debate they come up with some stupid name calling.At least old Lonnie is a grown man and doesn’t act like a twelve year old.