James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, and the Family Research Council as well as a newer organization, Family Talk, has compared the contraception mandate in the Affordable Care Act, to Nazism.


This is nonsensical overheated rhetoric that trivializes the atrocities of Germany under Hitler and should be deeply offensive to anyone who knows the history of World War II.

It is a complete mischaracterization of the Affordable Care Act, which only requires that non-religious institutions and companies which offer prescription drug coverage to their employees  include contraceptive drugs. Churches and religious institutions are exempt. What's more 28 states have identical or similar mandates. The one in California has been upheld in court, appealed and upheld on appeal by the California Supreme Court.

For some reason religious organizations believe they have a right to tell everyone what the law should be. It used to be that mainstream Protestants were not opposed to contraception at all. Now they want to control the lives of all of us.

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This is not first time Dobson has used a comparison with Nazi Germany to make his point. He once made a comparison of stem cell research with Nazi medical experiments:

DOBSON: You know, the thing that means so much to me here on this issue [embryonic stem cell research] is that people talk about the potential for good that can come from destroying these little embryos and how we might be able to solve the problem of juvenile diabetes. There's no indication yet that they're gonna do that, but people say that, or spinal cord injuries or such things. But I have to ask this question: In World War II, the Nazis experimented on human beings in horrible ways in the concentration camps, and I imagine, if you wanted to take the time to read about it, there would have been some discoveries there that benefited mankind. You know, if you take a utilitarian approach, that if something results in good, then it is good. But that's obviously not true. We condemn what the Nazis did because there are some things that we always could do but we haven't done, because science always has to be guided by ethics and by morality. And you remove ethics and morality, and you get what happened in Nazi Germany. That's why to Senator [Senate Majority Leader Bill] Frist [R-TN] and the others who are saying, "Look what may be accomplished." Yeah, but there's another issue, there's a higher order of ethics here.

....you obviously have no idea what "the left " is...better go back to watching Fox News...they have no idea either...

Exactly Ron.

We have lots of Socialist aspects in our society Tonya.  The police, firefighters, highways, libraries...  Socialism is not all bad!  The point is that not everyone can GET healthcare, which is what Obama is trying to do!  Make all people able to actually HAVE healthcare.  And he is being fought at every turn by the right-wingers who just want him to FAIL no matter who it hurts.  The old way didn't work, and it's never going to because of the people who don't give a shit because "they got theirs."

...yeah paid sick time...vacation time..8 hour work day...5 day work week...all instituted by conservatives...what a joke..

Yeah, damn those Unions! ;)

But the Left IS socialist just as the NAZIs were socialist. 

That is simply not the case. Nazism was a form of fascism. Despite its national socialist label, the Nazi Party in Germany opposed capitalism, socialism, and Marxism in favor of totalitarian government based on notions of racial superiority. It bears no resemblance to the government we have. Such comparisons are false history.

Every state requires drivers to have a license and liability insurance in case they cause an accident and lack the personal resources to cover costs.

Requiring people to have health insurance is similar since those without insurance and without resources to cover their health costs are a burden on the rest of us who pay for their care. Anyone can have an accident and anyone can get sick. It is not a question of self-discipline. No one with cancer can take care of themselves nor can they avoid the disease with healthy living. Among the young, accidents are the principal cause of death. Later on the cause shifts to cancer and then to heart disease.

Hospitals are required by law to care for uninsured patients until they are stabilized. The resulting financial burden has led many private hospitals to eliminate emergency rooms. Health care ought not to be a privilege of the rich.

Health savings accounts are simply another tax break for the rich. Most people these days are having trouble affording a house and saving for college and retirement even with two incomes. They do not have the funds to put into health savings accounts. Only those who are well off can do that.

But the Left IS socialist just as the NAZIs were socialist. 

If in fact you consider this to be even close to a valid comparison, you need to read the history of the Third Reich.

There is absolutely nothing better to start with than William L. Shirer's The Rise and the Fall of the Third Reich, originally published in 1960, only fifteen years after the war. Shirer was a correspondent in Germany during the rise of Hitler and interviewed him.

The collapse of Hitler's totalitarian regime was so rapid that extensive documentation in the form of original government records, private diaries, etc. could not be disposed of in time to avoid their capture by allied troops. Shirer had access to much of this voluminous material and based his account on it and on interviews with those who survived. It is an engrossing story and you will quickly see the vast differences between German fascism during Hitler's reign and American democracy now.

Our government is far from perfect as the recent disclosures about the NSA clearly show, but it is very, very far from being a totalitarian dictatorship. Any such comparisons are foolish indeed.

Tonya, despite your hours of watching Fox News and perusing Drudge, you are not an expert on healthcare or insurance companies.  and while i am not either, both happen to be the area that i have worked in for the past 11 years.  have you ever spoken to a medical provider about how O-care effects them?  have you talked to thousands of people who are out of work and struggling to find healthcare during their hiatus? 

for that matter, are you even aware that Obamacare isn't an actual insurance policy?  when people sign up, they are buying insurance from for-profit private insurance companies.  and the regulations that you call for make these policies offer real coverage.  and guess what - the insurance companies love it.  people are paying them the full cost of the policy even though the tax deductions make it substantially cheaper for the policy holder.  better still, those subsidies are fully paid for instead of being deficit spending. 

i doubt i'll change your mind, since you seem convinced that Godwin's Law is ok to violate when it comes to Obamacare.  that just shows how badly you've been brainwashed.  had we gone with a single payer or even a gov't option, i could see cries of socialism as being valid.  but this is a free market idea to reform small parts of the healthcare system.  me thinks you doth protest too much. 

Matt, it just goes to show that people can be brainwashed about a lot of things, not just religion.  Faux News will do that to people!~ Mel

and it can happen quickly.  i might have told you this before, but my mother voted for Obama in '08 when she didn't pay much attention to the news.  once she met her Fox loving husband, with Fox on all day long, she hates him with the intensity of 1000 suns.  she can't even stand to look at him.  she hates the poor and has turned definitively racist.  thanks Rupert, thanks a lot.  

I know Matt.  I'm sorry!~ Mel


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