In one day, it passed out of committee and is up for a House vote. Despite what the bill’s proponents claim, the RFRA would enshrine discrimination on religious grounds into state law. UPDATED following House vote. There’s still time to take action. See below. It’s happening even faster than we’d feared. Following a hearing, the Michigan House of Representatives House […]

Michigan’s Republican House Speaker Jase Bolger has been paying lip service to the LGBT community by saying that he supports expanding civil rights protects to them as long as it (a) doesn’t include transgender Michiganders and (b) is accompanied by a “license to discriminate” bill that allows anyone who wants to deny basic services to gays, lesbians, or bisexuals the […]

No one’s religious liberty is at risk, but the Michigan Legislature wants to use religion to infringe on the rights of others anyway. That didn’t take long. Less than two weeks after the midterm elections, Michigan Republicans began pushing a bill that would make it legal to discriminate on religious grounds Given the Republican majority in the Michigan Legislature — […]

Last week, Governor Snyder pretended that he’s suddenly concerned with adding protections for LGBT folks to our state’s civil rights law, the Elliott-Larsen Act. As I have already said, this is a sham. Governor Snyder’s own words show how squishy his “support” is: “I’m encouraging them to say there’s been a lot of dialog and discussion on this. It’s been […]

Don’t be deceived Hobby Lobby wants the conversation about their lawsuit challenging Obamacare to be about religious freedom, but if we communicate right, Americans will see it for what it is – discrimination and harm for the company’s female employees. “It’s our rights that are being infringed upon to require us to do something against our conscience,” says David Green, […]

It’s about opposing Obamacare from every possible angle.

Considering all the shenanigans in the Michigan legislature lately, you might have forgotten about Michigan Senate Bill 136, the “Religious Liberty & Moral Conscience Protection Act.” Well, I haven’t — and I hope you won’t, either. It could come up for a vote in the Senate at any time and we need to let our Senators know this bill does not represent the will of most Michiganders, including many in the healthcare field.

As I wrote here previously, the bill would give healthcare providers, facilities and insurers the right to refuse to provide or cover “objectionable” healthcare services on religious or moral grounds. But the bill is alarmingly vague, opening the door to discrimination and refusal to provide care to almost anyone, for almost any reason.

Worst of all, there are no genuine protections for patients in this bill. Those are even more vague because the bill isn’t about patient care at all. It’s about legislators and a vocal minority who want to put up roadblocks to anything even remotely related to Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act.

Click through for more.

We’re on a roll with guest posts here at Eclectablog this week. Today we have a terrific essay by Amy Lynn Smith, a Michigan-based writer and communications strategist who frequently covers healthcare, government and issue advocacy. She’s writing about Senate Bill 136, legislation that is touted as giving healthcare providers a right to decline to provide or pay for certain healthcare services that they find “objectionable”. As you’ll soon see, this bill is dangerous and there is far more to it than first meets the eye. Fortunately it has not yet passed in the Senate or the House so there is still time to contact your legislator and urge them to vote against this odious, discriminatory bill.

Amy comes to me highly recommended as a writer. In addition to her writing, she served as Deputy Digital Director for Obama for America-Michigan in 2012. You can read more from her at www.alswrite.com and you can find her on Twitter at @alswrite. Please welcome her to Eclectablog. Her piece is after the jump.