Over the last few weeks we've been subjected to a repeat of the old "culture wars" bullshit with respect to the battle by the right-wing to restrict reproductive rights. If I was a Democrat, I'd be overjoyed, because it'd be a sign the Republicans have nothing at all left in their toolbox. Additionally, the Republicans have ensured that any voter with a uterus who doesn't think her purpose in life is to pump out babies for Jesus is going to vote against Republicans this fall. It's been a truly fantastical blunder on the part of the right wing; apathy could have dramatically suppressed the left's voting base this year, as there was previously little difference between, say, Obama and Mitt Romney. Instead the Republicans have done what the Democrats were little incapable of doing on their own; they've motivated the Democrat base of women and younger voters to get out and volunteer and vote.
This fight flared up recently with an organization of Catholic Bishops opposing a mandate in the Health Care Reform law for insurers to provide birth control without a co-pay. Initially the Bishops were opposed to the mandate on the grounds that it forced health care plans provided by religious organizations to make contraception available. For example, an employee health care plan at a Catholic hospital, or a student health care plan at a Catholic university (we'll be coming back to this later), or for employees of a Catholic non-profit organization like a charity.
Previously, under the health care reform law as it had stood, these groups would have been required to provide birth control coverage as part of laws requiring a uniform minimum standard of care across all health care providers. Supposedly this restricted the religious freedom of these organizations; while they can provide Viagra coverage without any moral qualms (presumably for those priests who can't keep it up while molesting children), they're horribly offended at the thought that somebody might not want to pump out an endless stream of children. It should go without saying that the Catholic Church as an organization has not the least bit of moral high ground in opposing anything.
Predictably, the Obama administration caved in to the pressure, offering the USCCB yet another compromise in a long string of compromises to regressive right-wing politics.
Obama said Friday he had heard those objections and moved to exempt "religious organizations" from paying for contraceptives if they have a "religious objection." Instead, insurers will be responsible for providing this coverage, which over time should add little or nothing to their costs. That is the case, officials said, because preventing a pregnancy saves money in health care costs.
"Religious organizations won't have to pay for these services, and no religious institutions will have to provide these services directly," the president said.
Also predictably, as has been the case with every other previous compromise the Obama Administration has made, it wasn't good enough for these fanatical yahoos:
"The only complete solution to this religious liberty problem is for HHS [Department of Health and Human Services] to rescind the mandate of these objectionable services," the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said.
...
"We will continue — with no less vigor, no less sense of urgency — our efforts to correct this problem through the other two branches of government," they said.
And now we're seeing the legislative branch, especially a Republican-controlled House devoid of any valuable ideas for actually improving anything in this country,
holding hearings on this "issue". They're also preventing anyone with a favorable view of birth control from speaking at these hearings, and the hearings are dominated (like any good Christian marriage) by males.
President Obama’s compromise plan to require free insurance coverage of contraceptives for women touched off a tumultuous debate on Thursday in which members of Congress mixed political theater with soul-searching over potential threats to religious liberty.
Lutheran and Baptist clergymen and an Orthodox rabbi joined a Roman Catholic bishop in telling lawmakers that Mr. Obama’s latest policy of shifting the responsibility for paying for the contraceptives from religious institutions to their health insurers was unworkable and did not allay concerns about government entanglement with religion.
This prompted a rare show of spine from Democrat lawmakers,
who walked out of the hearings in a show of protest.
Three Democrats walked out of a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing on religious liberty and the birth control rule on Thursday to protest Chairman Darrell Issa's (R-Calif.) refusal to allow a progressive woman to testify in favor of the Obama administration's contraception rule. The morning panel at the hearing consisted exclusively of men from conservative religious organizations.
"What I want to know is, where are the women?" Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) asked Issa before walking out of the hearing after the first panel. "I look at this panel, and I don't see one single individual representing the tens of millions of women across the country who want and need insurance coverage for basic preventative health care services, including family planning. Where are the women?"
The Republicans blocked a Democrat witness from testifying in that hearing, Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke. If she sounds familiar, it's because Rush Limbaugh called her a slut recently, and unless you've been living under a rock and mine is the first diary or news item you've seen since taking a 1 month vacation from the internet on a deserted island, you're probably familiar with the firestorm that erupted after Limbaugh's stubbornly misogynistic comment. What you may not be aware of is the reason why Fluke was going to testify:
Fluke has been a vocal supporter of the Obama administration's decision not to exempt religiously-affiliated employers from having to offer contraception, without a co-pay, to their employees under their health insurance. The White House recently rolled out a compromise, where insurance companies would have to pick up the cost of the contraception if an organization determined the requirement violated its religious sensibilities.
After walking out of the hearing Thursday, Holmes Norton pulled Fluke into the hallway to allow her to speak to reporters. Fluke began to cry as she told the story of her 32-year-old friend who was diagnosed with ovarian cysts and prescribed birth control pills as the only remedy for her condition that could save her from becoming infertile. Because her student insurance did not cover contraception, Fluke's friend could not afford her medication, and she eventually lost her ovary and began experiencing symptoms of early menopause.
"Those are the consequences of this policy, and those are the voices the chairman silenced today," Fluke said.
And here we come to the crux of the matter. These religious wackos and right wing culture warriors, from Darrel Issa to Timothy Dolan to Rush Limbaugh, and all their legions of unthinking religious fanatic followers, have no real understanding of birth control. Rush Limbaugh seems to think that you have to pay for birth control every time you have sex, so somebody with a high cost for birth control must be having a lot of sex. I've seen this same misguided viewpoint related online by mindless "dittoheads". Here's the case for birth control, explained in such a way that hopefully anybody can understand it.
First, any woman who doesn't want to get pregnant should be on birth control. This includes women who are unmarried but in a committed relationship who don't want to get pregnant. Women who are single but who don't want to risk becoming pregnant for any reason may be on birth control. Additionally, there are many married women who don't want to get pregnant. Having a child is extremely expensive, and many times young couples choose to wait before starting a family. Condoms break and, let's face it, they're not as enjoyable.
Second, everybody who pays into a health care plan is probably paying for something they might find objectionable. Right now we're paying for people who go "doctor-shopping" in order to abuse prescription pain pills. Personally I'm religiously opposed to our current medical practice of forcibly prolonging life when its quality is severely degraded and there's no hope for recovery. If I ever get that far gone, have the Chief put a pillow over my face and snuff me before walking off into the sunset. And yet, I have to pay for these things, and it's a major source of income for our medical industry. The same is true for anybody paying taxes. Quakers have to pay their taxes despite being religious pacifists, and those taxes still go to pay for our elective wars around the globe.
Third, and most decisively, women with any number of health conditions can be treated by birth control. What the religious males opposed to birth control don't realize because they're uniformly medically ignorant is that almost every form of birth control is essentially a hormonal treatment. As a result, the following conditions are treated by birth control:
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS): is a hormonal imbalance which causes irregular menstrual periods, acne, and excess hair growth. Birth control pills work by lowering certain hormone levels to regulate menstrual periods. When hormone levels are decreased to normal, acne and hair growth often improve.
Endometriosis: Most girls with endometriosis have cramps or pelvic pain during their menstrual cycle. Birth control pills are often prescribed to treat endometriosis and work by temporarily preventing periods. When hormonal treatment is prescribed continuously, young women will rarely have periods, or not at all. Since periods can cause pain for young women with endometriosis, stopping periods will usually improve cramps and pelvic pain.
Lack of periods (“amenorrhea”) from low weight, stress, excessive exercise, or damage to the ovaries from radiation or chemotherapy: With any of these conditions, the hormone “estrogen” is not made in normal amounts by the body. Birth control pills may be prescribed to replace estrogen, which helps to regulate the menstrual cycle. For girls whose menstrual periods are irregular (too few - or not at all), birth control pills can help to regulate the menstrual cycle to every 28 days and provide the body with normal amounts of estrogen. Normal estrogen levels are important for healthy bones.
Menstrual Cramps: When over-the-counter medications don't help with severe cramps, birth control pills may be the solution because they prevent ovulation and lighten periods.
Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS): Symptoms of PMS such as mood swings, breast soreness, and bloating, along with acne can occur up to 2 weeks before a young women's period. Birth control pills may be prescribed to stop ovulation and keep hormone levels balanced. Symptoms may improve, particularly when oral contraceptive pills are prescribed continuously.
Heavy Menstrual Periods: Birth control pills can reduce the amount and length of menstrual bleeding.
Acne: For moderate to severe acne, which over-the-counter and prescription medications haven't cured, birth control pills may be prescribed. The hormones in the Pill can help stop acne from forming. Be patient though, since it takes several months for birth control pills to work.
These are all critical uses for birth control medication, and they are all medical conditions that the Republicans, Rush Limbaugh, and these religious organizations don't think should be covered for women. The argument I see from fundamentalist ignorant people is "Why should we pay for sluts like Fluke to have sex?" Well, you're not. Your health care provider, in providing no-cost birth control, is paying to treat the above conditions, and your health care provider is also paying a little bit now to avoid the high costs of pregnancies which would occur without birth control. Self-righteously proclaiming "just don't have sex" is a shitty argument to use when it's often married couples using birth control medication as part of not having a family until they're ready.
Additionally, Republicans have tried to put forth bills that would allow employer health insurance plans to simply refuse to pay for anything so long as they are religiously or morally opposed to it. As pointed out on another blog, the flaws in this thinking are obvious:
That same bill would have allowed an employer to choose health insurance plans denying care for any condition, for any reason, as long as that reason is couched as a religious or moral objection. Need a blood transfusion? Better hope there’s not a Jehovah’s Witness on the board of directors. In fact, there wouldn’t even need to be a Witness anywhere in the company, employers could deny everything from antibiotics to surgery simply by claiming it violated their conscience. How much money might employers save if they suddenly found diabetes, heart disease, or cancer morally objectionable?
One thing is clear, if Republicans keep up on this path, they'll be heading for an incredible electoral loss in November that will dwarf any gains they may have made in 2010.
Update from the comments, on endometriosis
I beg to differ with the
definition of endometriosis. I had it and it was not just some cramps and pain. It was excruciatingly painful and debilitating and was the cause of me eventually needing two surgeries, one to remove the endometriomass and one for a complete hysterectomy at age 29. I was extremely ill 3 weeks out of every month.
Endometriosis is a condition where some piece or part of the endometrium tissue dislodges from the lining of the Uterus and where ever it ends up it has a "period" every monthly cycle just as the one in the uterus. Mine was in my body cavity. I had a mass of menstrual blood that grew from the size of an acorn to the size of a large grapefruit in quite short time that was in my body cavity somewhere near the intestines and bladder with no place to go.
I was very ill. They used the pill to try to eleviate the situation by stopping periods. It did nothing to help me but apparently it helps some.
So, I wouldn't describe it as just some cramps and some pain. It is serious stuff and most often prevents a woman from ever getting pregnant.
Cross-posted to my blog, Liberally Geeky