Wednesday, March 26, 2014

A Basic Right?


I heard a news segment yesterday about a business not wanting to provide certain types of birth control for their employees, citing religious reasons, despite the fact that the Affordable Care Act states otherwise.  The case has gone to the Supreme Court.  With my job dealing (indirectly) with government funded healthcare, I've thought a lot about this case and want to share my feelings.

I understand that certain types of birth control can help regulate a woman's cycle and that can be beneficial, but the case I referenced above doesn't deal with that kind of birth control, it deals mainly with so-called "morning after" pills.  In the report that I heard, some representative of the plaintiff said that the business was "picking and choosing" what part of women's health to care for, but that all of men's healthcare would be covered.

The problem with any of these arguments is that the underlying question is being ignored: do all citizens have the right to sex without consequences?  And this isn't about STD transmission because if it were, this case would be about condoms.  No, this is about being able to have sex without worrying about pregnancy.  To be clear, I relate to the worry.  When money's tight, the last thing you want to deal with is another expense.  I relate to that worry because while Allison and I were still attending OSU, she was late once.  We started getting worried, but as the days dragged on, we accepted our fate and even started getting kind of excited.  Once we found out that we weren't pregnant, we breathed a heavy sigh of relief, but we were ready to face what we thought was coming.

I am frustrated by the moral state of our country that states that birth control is a basic necessity that needs to be provided for all people.  If you don't want kids or aren't willing to accept the fact that pregnancy may occur, keep it in your pants.  (I just realized that as weird and alien a concept as polygamy seems to me, that's how everybody else feels about abstinence, or so their actions would indicate.)

I realize that I'm probably not swaying anyone in my audience as you're likely on my side already, but I've learned that writing out my arguments for some philosophical dilemma or what have you can help me make peace with it.  So thank you for allowing me a platform from which to speak.

3 comments:

Marc R. said...

It is the same people who argue that birth control is a basic right how strongly assert that abortion is a basic right. This is nothing less than modern day worship of Moloch. (And the morning-after pill, some say, is a form of abortion.)

Marc R. said...

Sorry. Make "how" into "who" in the previous post.

Grandma Bonnie said...

Wow,Marc you are so right!