After
an
unsuccessful
attempt at repealing the entire
Affordable Care Act, President
Donald Trump’s administration
repealed a mandate that required
employers to provide free birth
control coverage, which currently
gives more than 55 million women
access to birth control.
These stipulations will allow a
wide range of employers to deny
birth control coverage, including
those with “moral convictions”
against the drug. Because of
this, it is estimated hundreds
of thousands of women will no
longer be able to afford their birth
control, which was free of cost
under the Affordable Care Act.
“Congress has a consistent
history of supporting conscience
protections for moral convictions
alongside protections for religious
beliefs,” the administration said in
a statement.
The
mandate
expands
exemptions from only religious
institutions to all organizations,
including
hospitals
and
universities. According to The
New York Times, Trump said
these mandates will prevent
employers from being “bullied by
the federal government because
of their religious beliefs” and
prevent “risky sexual behavior”
among adolescents.
However,
LSA
sophomore
Helena
Harmon,
executive
board member of the FemDems
committee of the University of
Michigan’s chapter of College
Democrats, said the argument
that the mandates will protect
freedom of religion is thinly
veiled considering the vagueness
of “moral convictions” allows for
anyone to decline birth control
coverage.
“It’s totally a guise and a
political move to appeal to further
right groups,” she said. “I think
it just shows that controlling
womens’ bodies has become a
political issue.”
However,
some
pro-life
students
think
since
some
birth
control
methods
like
abortifacients prevent an embryo
from attaching to the uterine wall,
no tax dollars should be going
towards them. Nicole Hocott,
LSA sophomore and president of
Students for Life, said because the
mandate affects abortifacients,
she is glad her tax dollars don’t
have to go toward them.
“If Planned Parenthood is
technically not allowed to use
tax dollars to fund abortion, then
neither should our tax dollars be
used for that which is essentially
an abortion,” Hocott said. “In
terms of other birth control that
are not abortifacients and just
block fertilization or ovulation,
I am not completely sure on
my stance, but I do know that I
understand why someone would
not want their money going
toward something they see as so
wrong, as this has to do with life
and death, families and culture.”
The breadth of the mandate,
which
allows
universities
to
decline coverage, also concerned
some
students.
However,
Women’s
Studies
professor
Joanne Bailey said University
employees likely do not need to
worry about losing their coverage
based on these provisions.
“Generally
religious
universities like Notre Dame
and other traditionally Catholic
universities
that
would
be
opposed to birth control would
be in the category of those who
would be affected by this,” Bailey
said.
Harmon
agreed
University
students
and
employees
likely won’t be affected, and
furthermore
said
women
in
our generation are privileged to
According to Send Silence
Packing — a campaign designed
to raise awareness of student
suicide and to connect students
to mental health resources on
university campuses — one
of every two college students
thinks about attempting suicide
at some point.
Tuesday,
the
Diag
was
covered by backpacks — each
of them representing one of the
1,100 college students who take
their own life every year.
LSA junior Summer LaPointe
said this number surprised her.
“The number is lower than I
thought, but I’m not exactly sure
why,” she said. “As someone who
struggles with suicidal ideation
even still, I think it really
impresses me that so many of us
are able to continue living and
not die, and it also makes me sad
that as many as 1,100 have killed
themselves and it doesn’t seem
like ‘that much.’ ”
These
backpacks
were
part of a travelling exhibition
called Send Silence Packing.
This campaign has been a
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 8
©2017 The Michigan Daily
N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
CROS SWO R D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
ACA leads to drop in MI uninsured
Health Insurance In Michigan
1,692,500
2013
2016
&
Michigan residents were on Medicaid in
currently enrolled
through individual
marketplace
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation
to lose coverage when Health
Alliance Plan leaves the
market at the end of the year
The uninsured rate in 2013: 11%
The uninsured rate in 2016: 6%
in
2,168,900
456,000
9,100
DESIGN BY MICHELLE PHILLIPS
CAMPUS LIFE
Since gaining full control of the White House, Senate and House, GOP has attempted repeal
Since the Affordable Care Act
was signed into law by President
Barack Obama in March 2010,
Republicans have made its repeal a
central piece of their party platform.
Since gaining full control of the
White House, the Senate and the
House of Representatives, various
Republicans have made multiple
attempts at repeal, falling just a few
Senate votes short each time.
But that hasn’t stopped President
Donald Trump from utilizing the
full capabilities of the executive
branch to dismantle the program
and undermine its effectiveness.
His administration has cut the open
enrollment period for the individual
marketplace in half (and during said
period shuts down the healthcare.
gov website for 12 hours every
Sunday), indicated the IRS will not
enforce the individual mandate
penalty for people eligible to enroll
in the marketplace, drastically
cut funding for navigator groups
helping people enroll and declined
to guarantee cost-sharing reduction
payments to insurance companies,
among other things.
The effect of all this is particularly
notable in Michigan, a state that has
enjoyed relative success in health
insurance coverage under the ACA.
From 2009 to 2011, the uninsured
ANDREW HIYAMA
Daily News Reporter
Exhibition
eulogizes
suicide with
backpacks
CAMPUS LIFE
Display set up on the Diag
represents 1,100 student
suicide victims each year
NICOLE TSUNO
Daily Staff Reporter
Birth Control is Rad
9 out of 10 women
of reproductive age
will use birth control
in their lifetime
New Birth Control Regulations
Health and Human
Service Offcials said that
the new rule would have no
impact on 99.9% of
Women in the United
States
The Agency calculated
at most
120,000
women would be
affected.
Roughly 200
entities have been
involved in 50 or
more lawsuits over
birth control
DESIGN BY OLIVIA STILLMAN
Trump administration rolls back
birth control coverage requirement
White House officials cite the protection of religious and moral freedoms as motives
CARLY RYAN
Daily Staff Reporter
On Edge
Michigan in Color and
The Statement look at how
students of color combat
campus apathy.
» Page 1B
michigandaily.com
For more stories and coverage, visit
See BIRTH CONTROL, Page 3A
See OBAMACARE, Page 3A
See BACKPACKS, Page 3A
The University of Michigan
launched an onlinebias response log
this week amid student requests for
more administrative transparency
regarding bias incidents. The log
details all bias incidents reported
to, and actions taken by, the Bias
Response team since July 1.
The
Bias
Response
Team,
part of the larger Division of
Student Life, works to maintain
an inclusive campus environment
for all students and support those
who may have been impacted by
such bias incidents. As noted in the
log, the team of professional staff
members also refers victims to
appropriate University resources as
needed.
In a statement provided by
the
Office
of
Public
Affairs,
Nicole Banks, assistant dean of
students, emphasized the level of
professionalism possessed by those
on the Bias Response Team.
“This
team
of
skilled
professionals
represent
many
aspects
of
the
University
community and work to coordinate
a comprehensive response to each
individual incident,” Banks said.
See LOG, Page 3A
University
launches
bias report
log online
ADMINISTRATION
Incidents listed on the
site go back as far as July;
includes written, verbal
KAELA THEUT
Daily Staff Reporter
The
growing
necessity
to
distinguish free speech from hate
speech, especially in context of
life at the University of Michigan,
was the central topic of disccusion
at a panel held Tuesday at the
University Law School. The panel
related this topic in relation to
recent events on and outside
campus as well as the upcoming
visit
of
controversial
figure
Charles Murray this Wednesday.
The event was co-sponsored by
the Law School and the Ford
School of Public Policy.
Dan Korobkin, deputy legal
director of ACLU Michigan,
drew much of his talk from his
own work at the ACLU, where he
litigates civil liberties issues like
free speech. Korobkin cited the
First Amendment as a protection
to protest an administration, but
also highlighted its recent use
in protecting the expression of
hateful ideologies.
Korobkin claimed the legal
protection of what we know as
hate speech and protesting is one
of the most difficult parts of his
job, especially when students later
related this to the Charlottesville,
Va.,
protests
in
which
an
estimated 80 percent were armed
with weaponry.
“They key to me is that the First
Amendment
actually
includes
the word ‘peaceably’ in it, which
implies to me that if you are
planning to have a march for
political reasons, but also bring
your guns and do it in a way that
is designed to intimidate counter-
protesters … that’s not what the
First Amendment protects,” he
Panel talks ‘U’
protests, free
speech and
hate speech
See PANEL, Page 3A
Deputy ACLU legal director and professor
contextualize, distinguish kinds of speech
KATHERINA SOURINE
Daily Staff Reporter
michigan in color x the statement