UNITED STATES
Holland Sentinel
By Marcia Meoli
Community columnist
Posted Mar 20, 2012
Holland —
The controversy surrounding regulations mandating coverage of birth control in health insurance demonstrates once again the persistence our culture wars and the manipulation of women’s issues. No one challenged the fact that the vast majority of American women, including Catholic women, use birth control. No one challenged the fact that birth control has become a matter of public health for women. No one claimed that any employer would have to pay directly for any birth control — it would only be paid by insurance companies.
When it comes to women, and specifically the independence of women to make decisions about their lives, our society cannot seem to act rationally.
There are any number of uses of health insurance to which an employer might have religious objections. How about an objection to all extramarital sexual activity or drug use? Should an employer be able to exclude coverage from sexually transmitted diseases by claiming that most of these come from promiscuous sexual activity? There are any number of issues that could arise, including restrictions on end-of-life decisions. …
Who started the debate? America’s Catholic bishops, with conservative enemies of President Obama only too happy to oblige in supporting them. The argument was really one of purity. The bishops did not want any of their money going to support birth control, over which they have a moral objection. Where was that purity when the bishops were faced with the horrible sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests? Pedophiles were kept on by American bishops for years, sometimes allowing further contact with children.
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