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The Logic of Contraceptive Rights

From First Thoughts

Dissenting opinions in the Hobby Lobby case and the editorials penned in reaction to the Wheaton injunction fixate on reproductive rights. Specifically, many argue that women have an incontrovertible right to the full breadth of contraceptive care, including IUDs and the morning after pill (everything approved by the FDA). To assert a right, though, is not to establish it—and these assertions cannot withstand scrutiny. Continue Reading »

Freedoms At Odds

From First Thoughts

In the wake of the Hobby Lobby decision, argument on the issue has raged with heightened vehemence. Buzzwords abound in the debate—equality, imposition, right, discrimination—and the equivocation at work makes the fallout increasingly polemical. One term that has shared in the general collapse of meaning is “freedom” or “liberty.” Continue Reading »

Buffering Abortion Speech

From First Thoughts

On Thursday, the Supreme Court decided to strike down as unconstitutional the 2007 Massachusetts law which mandated a thirty-five foot buffer around medical facilities that offer abortions. Since the decision was handed down, the fallout has been contentious. One article, emblematic of a genre of literature which focuses on radicalism, sees little in the way of fruitful discourse happening outside of clinics: Continue Reading »

Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

From First Thoughts

On a recent visit to my sister’s house, I asked my two-year-old niece if she wanted to watch the movie Frozen. I figured it was time to bite the bullet and watch what some have hailed as the greatest movie of the 21st century. I am now unashamedly a fan. Whereas I initially introduced the topic into conversation with a preamble about how my niece had foisted the film upon me, I’ve since begun admitting that the opposite is closer to the truth. I think she may have even wandered off after a few minutes. Continue Reading »