Thoughts on Marriage in NC, Post Amendment One

By Aubrey Daquiz

What could put a damper on a beautiful summer weekend wedding? Perhaps the fact that it’s located in North Carolina in the wake of Amendment One's passage, which defined marriage between one man and one woman as "the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State". As I planned to visit my former state of residence, this timely event gave me an opportunity to reflect on what the amendment means to me, those I love, and the work I do.

As an Asian-American woman with strong roots on the west coast, I never expected to find myself "back east", let alone in the southeast. During my early days in Durham, NC, a middle-aged white woman earnestly praised me for being “out here in public... together” with my white male partner. Upon learning we were from the Pacific Northwest, she seemed relieved in replying, “Ohh... you must see a lot more of that out there.” This was in the fall of 2007. Although it was a striking and sad reminder of the misguided views many still hold about interracial relationships, I often share this anecdote to contrast the multitude of progressive people and work I witnessed during my short tenure in the state, including turning the state blue in the 2008 election for the first time in decades.

Specifically, I see the passage of Amendment One as an example of how conservatives manipulate an issue like same-sex marriage during an election year to divide communities of folks who should otherwise be working in solidarity (i.e., the gay community and black community, as if they were mutually exclusive) for the rights of all. As a public health student and former domestic violence agency volunteer, I am especially anxious about how the vague language of the amendment may disproportionately affect all unmarried people through increased barriers to healthcare access, domestic violence protection, and child custody issues.

During my short visit to NC for a summer wedding, I expected to be bombarded with an outpouring of negative emotions from my friends and former colleagues--gay, lesbian, and straight. I was surprised to hear a range of sadness as well as messages of hope. A black gay man shared that he was disappointed in the vote, but thrilled that the NAACP and Obama declared support of same-sex marriage. A white lesbian couple, who now cares for their nephew as their own child, talked about the fear of a legal battle if the child’s father decides he wants full-custody someday. The bride-to-be felt helpless when she realized the unfortunate timing and had to swear to local officials that she was not entering into a same-sex marriage to obtain her marriage license. She affirmed her personal power by firmly adding, “but I believe that all people should be able to get married.”

Maybe things would have been different on May 9. It’s likely that devastation was the immediate aftermath of the months of work that went into campaigning against the amendment. However, most of the folks I know have been born and raised in NC, and now choose it as their home, so it’s possible that they know its limitations all too well. These friends and colleagues also work with historically marginalized communities (e.g., people living with HIV, people recovering from drug addiction), so they have a heightened awareness of systemic oppression and how long-term efforts are needed to dismantle it.

Although my heart aches for my lesbian and gay friends in the state, Jacob Topia reframes the issue in saying that the passage of Amendment One also means that conservatives are forced to be on the defensive because LGBTQ issues have gained, and continue to gain, increasing support as evidenced by the recent ruling that DOMA is unconstitutional by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.

It’s clear that the amendment serves to maintain a very traditional definition of family as originating only from married heterosexual couples. This creates even more barriers to supporting the healthy individuals and families we need to build strong communities, and fails to acknowledge the incredible diversity of families in North Carolina and throughout this country. Being at Forward Together, I am fortunate to be in the midst of cross-issue, cross-cultural work that is crossing state lines to support a diverse range of families. Moreover, a setback like Amendment One can serve as a golden opportunity to galvanize folks to engage in the redefinition of families through increased awareness and collaboration on local levels and beyond.

Aubrey Daquiz is a Filipina-American who is serving as a Youth Organizing Intern with Forward Together through the graduate program at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.

Fathers: it's not a day, it's a lifetime

By Jack DeJesus


Originally published at the Strong Families blog in 2011. 

Bill Sorro (left) and Al Robles.

Father's Day. My least favorite time of the year. It is during these times when I'm reminded about cards I can't send, phone calls I can't make, hugs that I will miss out on.

I never knew my father. He left my mom and I when I was just a few months old. My only memories of him are photos from dusty photo albums, sightings at a couple family gatherings, and a few insignificant child support checks. He and I bear a striking resemblance, my signature bears his name. From what people have told me, he was charming, handsome, and smoked like a chimney. He was also a "ladies man" who manipulated his way in and out of women's lives for as long as he lived. I swore I would never grow up to be like him.

My mother felt it was important for me to have a father figure in my life: Enter my stepfather. A working class, carpenter, machismo, tough guy. Seemed harmless enough. Yet for several of my childhood years, he terrorized our household. I went from one extreme of not having a male figure at all, to this other extreme: yelling, threats, intimidation, and abuse. This is a period of my life that I hardly remember because it was that bad. Thankfully, my mother decided enough was enough and left him. But the damage had already been done.

I swore I would never grow up to be like him, either.

Yet these were my examples of manhood. And these contradictions would play out in my interactions with people, my friends, my relationships. It was a type of patriarchal, privileged behavior that was accepted and even encouraged by my own family and community. Looking back, I probably used this behavior to compensate for my lack of self-love and self-confidence. And it came at the expense of the people I loved the most, especially the women in my life.

For me, this generational cycle of behavior broke once I started working on a young men's resource guide for my former job at a youth health agency.

Jack with baby Ligaya.

It was during this process that I came across organizations that were addressing issues of abuse and violence perpetuated by men by examining and breaking down masculinity and manhood. One activity in particular, the "Man in the Box" exercise (which looks at how men are conditioned to be tough, not cry, show no emotions, and to intimidate), really opened my eyes to the pressures I felt to conform to these unrealistic and inhumane male standards. It got me to challenge the patriarchal behavior that, as much as I considered myself an ally, still existed and surfaced in subtle yet harmful ways.

Then I met Bill Sorro, a lifelong community activist who was most known for his involvement in the struggle to save International Hotel back in the 60s and 70s. He was also a husband and father to 7. For whatever reason I was drawn to this peculiar man, and I realized that Bill was the first true father figure I ever had. He was open, compassionate, honest and affectionate. He cried in front of people.

And most importantly, he was the first man to ever tell me that he loved me. Bill brought out the humanity and vulnerability of manhood to me. He broke down patriarchy with his embrace. He taught me what love looked like in practice, how organic and powerful it could be.

Bill passed away a few years ago, but I still feel him right next to me. I still hear his voice giving me guidance on occasion. He is the model of manhood and fatherhood that I hope to eventually find for myself one day, with my relationships, with how I approach life, and maybe one day, how I will approach fatherhood: with love, compassion, and justice.

Jack is the Young Men's Program Organizer at Forward Together. In addition, Jack is the lead vocalist/rapper for his hip hop/funk band, Bandung55. He enjoys riding his bicycle, cooking for friends, and disrupting capitalism.

Graduating from Forward Together (kind of)

By Priscilla Hoang

One of our amazing interns reflects on her time at Forward Together. We are so grateful for her presence in our office and know she is on to phenomenal things!

Ice cream party

I can almost hear the graduation songs playing.  I can hear the families cheering and unknowingly participating in the “Who Can Cheer for Their Graduating Kid the Loudest” competition. I am antsy, and the dim lighting makes me tired. But the grin on my face wouldn't go down if I begged a plastic surgeon to operate on me, not that I ever would. As I sit in my metal folding chair, I smile at the seniors making their way down the aisle to receive their diplomas.

That will be me soon. But as my junior year has wrapped up, that also means that my last day here as an intern at Forward Together has arrived.

So you could take this blog post as a graduation speech of some sort. I don’t have a cap to throw in the air, but I did get an ice cream party, which is good enough for me. I first started this internship unsure of what I wanted from it. Well, I definitely didn't want to fail my school’s internship course, and it was already the middle of the school year. I approached Forward Together's Youth Organizing Manager, Amanda Wake. She agreed to be my mentor and took me on as an intern.

My time at Forward Together has not only taught me about running an organization and the steps behind a campaign, but it has also been a vital factor this year in developing myself as a leader. I found that the work we did with sex education and Asian American youth were things that really resonated with me. I finally began to understand my family dynamics, and where I fit into this whole hierarchy as a young, Asian American woman living in Oakland. As our Sex Education Justice campaign commenced, I worked with other youth around Oakland and networked with a lot of awesome people. I connected with people that I thought I never would. I began to have a bigger awareness of my surroundings and held myself with power, thanks to my new found knowledge of Forward Stance.

Amanda has exemplified the definition of a mentor to me. She is organized, efficient, down to earth, and shows so much passion for what she does. I remember when we first had a one on one conversation about what was going on with my life. I found that the guarded persona in me just didn't want to keep everything inside anymore. I confided to her things that I seldom told anyone, and to my surprise, she didn't raise an eyebrow or try to further analyze my words. It was one of the few times that someone just listened, nodded, connected with what I was saying, and offered input that would be beneficial to me.

So not only did Amanda become a great mentor who would later push me to join this blog team and work on the sexuality education justice campaign, she also became a friend. She was an adult ally whose presence didn't make me feel like I had sit idly by and absorb their bullshit. And while sometimes the workload seemed a little much, I would think about what this place has done for me and why I was doing it.

What started off as a slightly begrudging start to an internship became a really important journey in my growth as person. You could say that’s a stretch. I swear, it’s not, unless you count all the times I ran up the stairs trying to be here right at 11:30. I can honestly say I would not be the person I am today if it weren't for this organization and this internship. So, thank you, Forward Together, for doing all the amazing work that revitalizes the organizing spirit in hundreds and thousands of people just like me.

P.S. If you are part of an organization or business in the Bay Area and would like to change an intern's life like mines, please check out MetWest High School's internship program. Learn more about our Learning Through Internships program here or apply to be a mentor here

P.P.S. If you didn’t know already, I was also part of the CORE youth organizing group. This video I made has a more in depth explanation of what our Sex Education Justice campaign is about. Check it out!

I never thought I would be a father

by Billy Gong

I never thought I would be a father. What sort of sick, narcissistic drive, I wondered, motivates people to create smaller versions of themselves? What is the logic in creating another mouth in a world full of hungry people? And what sort of pathetic arrogance makes you want to shape a completely sentient human being under their own terms?

So when my wife and I discovered we were pregnant, my first feeling was one of conflict: it was the first time I actually considered being a father. Though it wasn't exactly a surprise and she wasn't pregnant on accident, I had imagined fatherhood, like pregnancy, to be a state you immediately entered into once a cell started splitting and began the process of becoming a living being. This wasn't the case. In fact, it was a leap off of a tall, dark cliff.

Fatherhood was a murky concept to me. My father was largely unavailable throughout my life and wasn't one to fulfill any sort of paternal responsibilities unless they were required by the courts. As a result, I figured it that a typical father's duty to simply keep his kids financially taken care of or maybe call or visit once in a while. In contrast, my most vivid images of fatherhood came from movies and literature: I pictured Robert Duvall in The Great Santini bouncing a basketball off of his son's head. I imagined Dmitri in The Brothers Karamazov asking, "Who doesn't want to kill the father?"

When the ultrasound came back showing a girl, Debbie and I were amazed to hear her heartbeat. We were going to be holding a baby girl in a matter of months. That night, I experienced my first real anxiety over being a father. I woke from a dream: I was holding a doll’s head and I was standing in front of an Excel spreadsheet. Some of the cells showed amounts we needed to save for food, formula, clothes, and so on. I looked down at the doll's head and realized it was my daughter. My subconscious had no way of conceiving our baby in any way other than a disembodied object, one that required care and careful financial planning, with no human, physical, or emotional qualities whatsoever. This did not help me to further understand the concept of fathering.

When the concept did become clear was months later, sitting in a brightly lit operating room as Harper Lily Gong was born and held over a draped sheet and Debbie and I were able to see her for the first time. Debbie held her and wept and we finally saw her buttery skin, round face, and wide eyes. It was pretty clear then what our jobs as parents were; It was clear what my job as a father was: to love my daughter.

Excerpt: Reflections from the Strong Families Summit

Paris Hatcher of Spark RJ Now & Miriam Z. Perez
at the Summit

by Nina Jacinto

Miriam Zoila Pérez lives in Brooklyn where she is a writer, doula, and more. On her website, she reflects on the first annual Strong Families Summit:

What I like about their work is the attempt to build a big tent that can hold all of the issues that impact the health and well-being of families. While centered on a reproductive justice frame, the work goes even broader than that, encompassing many issues that I feel are central to my political vision. Everything from birth activism to LGBT families to environmental concerns to racial justice. Reproductive justice can hold all of this as well, but something about using language that seems even bigger is powerful to me. We need a big tent–we need a broad vision for how we’re going to achieve our goals.

Read Miriam's entire piece here. 

We speak, until he listens.

Priscilla and Megan with other youth from BAY-Peace.
We like to eat sandwiches.

By Priscilla Hoang and Megan Manansalas Torio



Priscilla and Megan are two high school aged spoken word artists. Priscilla is an intern for Forward Together's Youth Organizing Program. Megan is an intern at BAY-Peace, an organization dedicated to empowering Bay Area youth to transform militarism and other forms of violence through youth organizing and artistic resistance.
Below are two pieces capturing their experiences with Fathers Day.

"No Title" by Megan Manansalas Torio


I got problems facing left and right
and everytime I turn it seems like another problem is running my way
I’m confused at which way to go
Because another step further means
that I’m stuck in between family issues and broken dreams
and a step back
is just another look into reality’s blueprint of
recreating the past
so I look down and now I’m standing on thin glass
that’s beginning to crack
so I jump
I fall through different mind sets
So my mind sets into another reality
I look up and theres no more problems with family
No looks into a troubled community
the news channel is actually filled with good news
so I sit back in this reality happily
but I fall as my legs begin to bend
I’m back to square one with no end
momma’s hands are falling off along with her hopes and patience
for a man who can't get his life together
my father
socialized by society’s oppression in so many ways
he hasn’t gone into the emotional part of being a teenager type of faze
he drinks his feelings away while the smoke that leaves his mouth
steals another day
55 and barely standing
I need him to be there
when the hat on my head leaves the air
I need him standing
by the checkpoint waiting for his college daughter’s landing
I need him to love ma like she’s loved him for 25 years
I need to look left and right and imagine a better life
for better years
Because right now I’m still falling
I see my reality and the shattered glass above me falling too
I’m stuck hoping to fall into looking at a better you.
to the father that made me, me
if it weren’t for you and your mistakes
then i’d have no dreams
I wouldn't have a better reason to stay awake
so here's a thank you
to the many other mistakes.

"No Title As Well" by Priscilla Hoang

It’s funny how this country has so many founding fathers but I don’t have a single one.

They founded America but who found me?

You can pinpoint my location on a map.

A satellite could easily track my actions.

But my life was a single track train going in one direction.

Where is the engine?

Did it spontaneously combust?

Sometimes the temperature of my anger rises over the point of ignition when I think about my

Dad.

Who gave those motherfuckers the right to carve into a mountain?

Washington’s noble eyes bore through the social issues in America when he penned the Constitution,

While I was stuck washing a ton of knives that my dad stole for me because I loved to eat buttered toast so damn much.

I couldn’t believe it wasn’t better. My embittered mouth swallowed my words with my mom’s proverbial lashings, ones from you-got-all-your-bad-habits-from-your-dad, to the why-did-I-marry-hims.

So young, hugging my Teddy every night hoping that the fights with him would end.

She met him in San Francisco, home of the gold rush in the Golden Mountain, and thought she struck it rich like his glazed eyes at the casino,

Until finally, one day, when his cup of quarters were empty, she realized four kids too late that his actions were smoldering like a pile of ashes,

Like Jefferson, she declared her independence and Linked in to free her enslaved emotions.

When I compare my tanned complexion to my mom’s fair skin, she tells me.

“You have your D-A-D’s nose. It’s so ugly.”

And I can’t help but notice her disgust, but it’s gone in a gust of wind; she says with too much gusto,
“but you’re still beautiful,” reassuredly.

And I can’t help but notice that she blames all of the negative attributes about me on him,

Never once admitting to herself that my temper and lack of communication stemmed from what she never finished.

So what the fuck does father’s day mean to me?

He was never here. She was always busy.

Who do I love? Who do I celebrate?

And finally the realization struck.

I celebrate myself.

I celebrate the fact that in spite of never having that white picket fence family, the fact that my single mama raised me right, and struggled to get a college degree in such a lonely world, led me to the place I am now. 

I am a proud young Asian woman who can accept myself for exactly who I am.

I once hated myself for his living blood flowing through me.

the mirror reminded me daily that he is someone I could never forget.

For without him, I could not exist.

So I look at myself with compassion.

And although my insecurities can sometimes get the better of me, I grow.

Sometimes alone and vulnerable to that same gust of wind,

the colors in it whispered to me, "You will thrive." 

Somewhere deep in my roots was an acorn that grew Oak branches that intertwined in this society’s values that told me, I needed a father figure in my life.

I am barely a flowering tree but from this internal love flows rich, sweet sap

that ruins your favorite shirt when you lean against it.

And ants feed upon it like the world’s knowledge feeds me. 

Although it took me nearly sixteen years to realize this,

maybe having a father leave me was exactly what I needed 

To turn over a new leaf.

Excerpt: Fighting for reproductive justice

by Nina Jacinto

Denise Oliver Velez contributes this fierce piece to Daily Kos about the reproductive justice movement and why it matters so much:

"The poor have always been stigmatized for having children. How many times have I heard snide remarks about "those people" with "too many children"? How many women of color have been stigmatized as "unwed mothers," "baby mommas" or "female heads of households"? Having children, or more than two of them, is reserved as a privilege for the upper classes.

Not only is it deemed unacceptable to have more than two kids if you are poor, our society works to make any other choices untenable—adequate, affordable housing for low-income families is almost nil. Try to find a four or five bedroom apartment if you are not well off. Affordable day care is another barrier. Feeding a family healthy food in low income areas is almost impossible. The whole issue of reproduction goes beyond ovaries and abortion. Yes, those are part of the picture, and women on Medicaid had to pay the price for having abortion limited first—with Hyde—and no major outcry happened at the time. Repealing Hyde still really hasn't become part of the majority left's agenda.

In activist communities of color, we understood this issue of reproductive justice as a broader one, including food, clothing, shelter, the environment, health care, jobs with decent pay and day care.

But legislators and majority women's groups did not. Instead we wound up with Welfare to Work and other programs designed to adversely affect our mothers, children and families.

While many people believe that the movement to secure reproductive control or "choice" for women centers solely on abortion rights, for many women of color abortion was not the only, or primary, focus."

Read the entire piece here. 

What makes your family a Strong Family?

By Nicole Clark

Originally posted on Nicole's blog.

This week, I’ve been in Oakland, California. This is my second trip out to California in less than 3 months, and I love having any excuse to make it over to the West Coast (or the Left Coast, as some of my friends like to call it).

Along with having a mini-vacation, I traveled to Oakland to participate in the 2012 Strong Families Summit, hosted by Forward Together. Strong Families is a 10-year national initiative to change how people feel and think about families, and how lawmakers can develop more policy that is reflective of the fact that many families do not fit the stereotypical image of the nuclear family. While I’ve highlighted Strong Families before, attending the Summit gave me an even better understanding of what Strong Families represents.

The Summit brought in over 130 individuals (representing themselves, their families, communities, and organizations) to collaborate, engage, and build more around the core principles of Strong Families: building alignment and synergy based on the work organizations and communities are already doing and leveraging the unique strengths of this work, cultivating valued-based relationships that build foundation and capacity building, and expanding opportunities and resources to move beyond their community and organizational needs in order to work collaboratively.

There was so much rich information, tools, and conversations I received at the Strong Families Summit. Here are some of the highlights:

Policy Priorities and Analysis
Strong Families is expanding the definition of “family” by generating a cultural shift towards broad public support for policies on the local, state, and national level that support more families that have the least amount of resources and are the most under attack, including low-income families, immigrant families, LGBTQI families, single parent families, young parents, and families of color. There were several strategy sessions, including “Building Momentum for Strong Families Policies”. We were given two awesome tools: Policy Priorities and Policy Analysis. We were able to choose which area we wanted to focused on—LGBTQI, reproductive justice, Indigenous, immigrant rights, environmental justice, criminalization of families, safety nets/budgets, youth—and discuss what we feel should be priorities for policy makers.

Policy Priorities
The following questions gave us the opportunity to generate conversation:

1) The policy, administrative rule or budget line item we are trying to pass or stop is:_________________________________

2) The decision-maker(s) for this policy, administrative rule or budget line item is/are:_____________________________

I intentionally came to the Summit to focus more on youth, so here’s an example:

The policy, administrative rule or budget line item we are trying to pass or stop is: We are trying to pass federal and state comprehensive sex education for young people.

The decision-maker(s) for this policy, administrative rule or budget line item is/are: United States Congress. Congress continues to allocate million in federal funds for abstinence-only-until marriage programs.

Policy Analysis
Since I chose comprehensive sex education as a policy priority, the questions below helped me to think more critically about how comprehensive sex education can affect families:

1) How does this policy campaign recognize our families? Does it change the perception or definition of family in policy or culture?

2) How does this policy campaign increase resources to our families? Does it provide more money, access, or system supports?

3) How does this policy campaign extend rights to our families? Does it establish what our families need as a right or ensure our families have the same rights that other families have?

4) How does this policy campaign create opportunities to work in alliance with other groups/communities?

Organizing Young People for Strong Families
I also attended the “Organizing Young People for Strong Families” strategy session. I got the most out of this strategy session. We explored opportunities that engage young people as leaders in Strong Families campaigns at the local, state, and national levels. It was co-facilitated by Advocates For Youth. We discussed the spectrum of youth-adult partnerships:

Youth as objects: Youth are tokenized the most, are not being engaged effectively, and chosen based on quotas.

Youth as recipients: Adults feel that being part of the decisions making process “will be good for [youth]”.

Youth as partners: Adults respect the views/opinions of young people, and recognize that youth have something significant to offer.

Youth led/youth run: Youth are the experts, defining creating, delivering the final campaign/product.

It was very enlightening to hear what other organizations and people are doing with youth: Forward Together has developed teachings tool to help engage young people in sharing their family stories (birth & chosen); Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health (ICAH) uses teach-backs to help youth utilize what they’re learning in order to bring it back to their families. Young Women United has utilized various forms of research (surveys, focus groups, interviews, etc.) to engage youth; and Choice USA has helped college students to organizing against direct opposition to open broader conversations on how to engage youth in organizing work. As we continued to talk, we started to discuss the following questions:

*How can young people be a key constituency of the Strong Families movement? Strong Families recognizes young parents, but how can the message resonate with youth who aren’t parents?

*What concerns youth the most? How can we meet young people where they are while recognizing that our priorities (sex education, birth control, abortion, etc) may not the top priorities for youth?

*How can Strong Families speak to youth that have been traumatized by family, and whose definition of “family” symbolizes pain, heartache, displacement, and fear?

*How can the Strong Families’ message resonate with youth in communities in which the “nuclear family” is held onto as the standard or the ideal?

Forward Stance
The most enlightening moment I took away from the Strong Families Summit was the Forward Stance. Forward Stance is a mind-body approach to brings movements together to strengthen families and communities. It was developed by Forward Together and Norma Wong to help build capacity to understand movement building challenges and identify strategic solutions. A lot of time, we focus more on what’s going on in our heads that we don’t take the time to see how we can connect our minds in movement. Forward Stance uses stance, energy, rhythm, and awareness to help communities move as one. (Confused? Check out this video to see how it’s done. )

I had such an amazing time here in Oakland and at the Strong Families Summit. It was so refreshing to meet new colleagues, re-connect with old friends, and experience the Bay Area. Being in spaces such as the Strong Families Summit always helps to remind me of why I continue to be in the reproductive justice movement.

Check out pictures, messages, and other reflections from the 2012 Strong Families Summit.

Litigation Seeks to Turn Back the Clock on Contraception

Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan

Originally posted by the Center for American Progress.
 
by Jessica Arons

June 7 marks the 47th anniversary of Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court ruling that determined the Constitution contains a fundamental right to privacy that includes the use of contraception. But almost half a century after that landmark decision, the courts are once again embroiled in litigation about contraception.

In 1965 the question was whether the government could ban the sale of contraception to married couples. Today the question is whether the government can require religiously affiliated employers to cover contraception in employee health plans.

That’s progress. Contraception has come a long way from being classified as a contraband possession—and is now a preventive health service deemed so vital that the Department of Health and Human Services has required that starting in August it be covered by all health plans without charging co-pays or other costs to the patient. It has gone from something used furtively (“Mad Men” fans will remember Peggy being lectured by her doctor not to become a “strumpet” after going on the pill) to something that enjoys widespread public support and that has been used by 99 percent of sexually active women.

This near-universal acceptance is what makes the current wave of lawsuits and legislation challenging the regulation so surprising and has most people asking, “What’s the big deal?” The big deal, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops—who have spearheaded the charge against the Health and Human Services Department’s regulation on contraceptive coverage—is that requiring employers to cover contraception violates the religious liberty of those who object to birth control.

There are a few things to keep in mind about the conference’s arguments, however.

First, they think no employer—whether a nonprofit or a commercial enterprise—should have to cover contraception or any other health service, for that matter, if it is “contrary to the religious beliefs or moral convictions” of the employer. Lest you think I exaggerate, read the text of the Blunt amendment, which would have allowed any employer to refuse to cover any health service to which they objected for virtually any reason. It was introduced in February in response to the birth control regulation and failed to pass in the Senate by only three votes. You can also consult the roster of plaintiffs in the pending lawsuits, who run the gamut from universities and charities to a television station and an HVAC manufacturer.

Second, while they claim to only want to protect the religious liberty of employers who object to birth control, they have argued to the Obama administration that no health plan should be required to cover birth control, even when the plan sponsor has no religious or moral objection to covering it. Their reasoning is that contraception and sterilization:

…are not “health” services, and they do not “prevent” illness or disease. Instead, they disrupt the healthy functioning of the reproductive system, introducing health risks in the process; and they are designed to prevent pregnancy, which is not a disease.

This assertion, of course, is contrary to the overwhelming evidence that birth control has improved the health of women and their children, as well as the financial security of families.

The reality is that the Conference of Catholic Bishops and their allies are not merely seeking a reasonable accommodation for their religious beliefs—they are trying to impose their worldview on everyone else. Having failed to persuade any but the most faithful that using birth control is a sin, they are trying to use lawsuits, legislation, and the rulemaking process to browbeat the government into enshrining their version of morality into the law.

They may not be able to convince the government to go back to the days of banning contraception. But if they can get health plans to exclude contraception, employers to fire employees for using contraception, and pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for contraception—all with impunity—that would be enough to cut off many women from access to modern methods of family planning and would turn back the clock on the advances women have made in economic, civic, political, and family life.

It is hard to imagine going back to the pre-Griswold era, when even married couples lacked the power to manage their fertility and plan their families. But just because it seems far-fetched doesn’t mean that there are those who won’t try to make it happen anyway.

Jessica Arons is the Director of Women's Health and Rights Program at the Center for American Progress.