Suing Obama Over Birth Control Rules
May 21, 2012 1 Comment
Since Barack Obama has introduced the new healthcare bill, he has faced an onslaught of opposition against the birth control mandate, which obliges most employers to include birth control coverage in company health care packages, regardless of the organization’s stance on the issue. It was an effort by the government to improve health care for women and children, giving women more control over their pregnancies.
University of Notre Dame has decided to sue the Obama administration over this law. Since the Catholic Church is officially against birth control, Notre Dame doesn’t want to pay for contraception. In fact, it claims that it violates its religious freedom and that no institution should have to pay for a service that violates its moral code. This is dangerous territory because Notre Dame is one of the best-known Catholic colleges in the United States and other religious schools are watching closely.
An institution’s mandate shouldn’t trump a woman’s right to contraception. Every woman should have the right to choose to use birth control if it is right for her. This is just more bullshit from the American religious right to try to push back the progress this bill is for women’s health in the US. Shame on them.
Contact the author here: kait@morningquickie.com
Of course contraception should be available in all health care packages, it is a woman’s right to choose if and when she wishes to reproduce, and objecting to supplying contraception is burying your head in the sand- unprotected sex leads to unplanned pregnancy, and unplanned pregnancy often leads to abortion. The catholic church needs to have a serious think about what it feels more strongly about- whether that is preventing a life that doesn’t yet exist and is not at that time wanted, or terminating an unplanned pregnancy, because for a lot of women that is what the availability of contraception comes down to.