EASTON, Md., February 10, 2012 — Breaking News from ABC News: the White House is about to cave to pressure from opponents of the Health Care contraception mandate by allowing employees to get birth control as part of their health insurance by going through a health care provider and not through their employer. Expect an announcement later today.
The battle is on, once again. So once more women must take to the barricades to defend their and their families' access to birth control. Make no mistake about it, there is a movement afoot in this country to do away with contraception, whether it is the Catholic bishops or Rick Santorum.
This despite the fact that contraception is the reason the number of abortions has steadily dropped in this country, as have teen pregnancies and teen abortions. Talk about prevention. More than 99% of all women in the U.S. aged 15–44 who have ever had sex have used at least one contraceptive method. That includes women of all religious persuasions, including Catholics.
Now the issue has moved front and center with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' ruling that all health insurers in the U.S. must cover birth control for women by August 1, 2013. This is one of the key provisions of the 2010 health care law that now makes many preventive services free for most Americans who have insurance from vaccines for children to cancer screenings to wellness visits for senior. This follows a strong recommendation from the Institute of Medicine.
Contraception Saves Lives
And the reason is simple as Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) noted: "Access to birth control is directly linked to declines in maternal and infant mortality, can reduce the risk of ovarian cancer, and is linked to overall good health outcomes. Nationwide, 1.5 million women use contraceptives only as treatment for serious medical conditions. Most importantly, broadening access to birth control will help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions, a goal we all should share."
The Pill, a favorite of women
This has nothing to do with religious freedom. In fact, the Obama administration went out of its way to accommodate that freedom. As Secretary Sebelius said, "That's why in the rule we put forward, we specifically carved out from the policy religious organizations that primarily employ people of their own faith. This exemption includes churches and other houses of worship, and could also include other church-affiliated organizations.
"In choosing this exemption, we looked first at state laws already in place across the country. Of the 28 states that currently require contraception to be covered by insurance, eight have no religious exemption at all."
In other words: Houses of worship do not have to provide insurance that covers contraception, but those organizations which are affiliated with a church or temple such as a hospital, a college, or charity must offer such coverage.
Twenty-eight states already have "contraceptive equity" in their insurance plans. In 2004, the California Supreme Court found that religious organizations whose employees are not Catholic still have a right to contraception through the insurance provided by that institution. Not to grant them that insurance was deemed a violation of workers' rights. And New York's highest court also denied a similar claim by Catholic Charities (which also wanted to be exempted from the contraception mandate), saying "the [insurance] law didn't target religious beliefs and that a broad public interest is served by addressing gender disparities in medical costs."
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Catholic Charities' appeal of the ruling. Yet even now, according to NPR, the Catholic bishops are seeking to expand the exemption to any business owned by a Catholic.
Not surprisingly, the American public stands with the Obama Administration on this issue as seen in the most recent poll by Public Religion Research Institute as seen in this graph on the right:
Republican Candidates Inflame the Debate
And then there are the Republicans who irresponsibly denounce Sebelius and Obama with Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, and Newt Gingrich leading the charge. What century do they live in? Romney's so-called RomneyCare in Massachusetts had the same provisions that he is now denouncing. But what do we expect from a candidate who flips and flops more than a flounder caught in a net? Ron Paul even said last fall that the Obama mandate for contraception makes a "mockery" of religious rights. As for Newt, he never misses an chance to wrap himself in the robes of religiosity. He wasn't known as Mr. Opportunist in Congress for nothing.
But it is Santorum that people should worry about now that he has established himself as a real challenger to Romney. Emboldened by his latest wins, Santorum said earlier this week that Obama's mandate on contraception was like "the French revolution." "Ladies and gentlemen, we are a long way from that, but if we do follow the path of President Obama and his overt hostility to faith in America, then we are headed down that road" to the "guillotine." This is the same man who rails against big government, but who sees no problem with the government interfering in the private lives of our citizens.
As Santorum said in an interview as recently as October 2011 in DeMoines, Iowa: “One of the things I will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is I think of the dangers of contraception in this country. Many of the Christian faith have said, well, that’s okay, contraception is okay. It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”
Rick Santorum states, as recently as CPAC, that he is not against contraception, but he is against forcing employers to provide/pay for it as a right. Photo: AP
And remember these are the same Republican candidates who support the Personhood Amendment that is wending its way through the states, hoping to succeed where it failed in Mississippi: recognizing a zygote as a person. Add to this list the bogus attack on Planned Parenthood and its breast cancer screening, and the message from the Republicans is very clear: turn back the clock on women' rights.
What is particularly sad is to see some Democratic senators go all weasely, criticizing the administration for including the protection of contraception in the health care law. They and their Republican colleagues had better start looking at the polls, particularly those that show Americans by 66% do not believe the Republicans have the same priorities for America that they have. The Republican Congress' latest move to thwart Obama on contraception is only the latest example of such backward thinking.
The handwriting is on the wall for those wishing to make birth control an issue and take on women voters. Women are ready just as they were when the Susan Komen Foundation defunded Planned Parenthood. We are not in 1950 anymore. This is the 21st Century. And women are not going to take it anymore.
To contact Catherine Poe, see above. Her work appears in HYPERLINK "http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/ad-lib/"Ad Lib in the Communities at the Washington Times. She can also be heard on the HYPERLINK "http://www.americasdemocrats.org/"Democrats for America's Future. She is also a contributor to broadcast, print and online media.
This article is the copyrighted property of the writer and Communities @ WashingtonTimes.com. Written permission must be obtained before reprint in online or print media. REPRINTING TWTC CONTENT WITHOUT PERMISSION AND/OR PAYMENT IS THEFT AND PUNISHABLE BY LAW.
