Okay, so yesterday I wrote about the Obama/Catholic row over birth control. Fairly quickly, I got called out on my lack of research into the prices of female birth control, which apparently is highly expensive, even the cheap stuff.
This is what I get for assuming I could judge the price of one contraceptive based on the price of one for the opposite gender. So much for equality of the sexes. Though I suppose I should have realized this, being that one is basically a latex balloon, and the others made of complex chemical formula or objects placed internally.
My bad, sorry.
The problem with the above was largely that everyone complaining about the situation argued it on the grounds of “Rights” either those of religions or those of women (why are men not mentioned, we too use contraception? I think that’s ground for a future post somewhere). No one mentioned the price, at least not in any of the articles or news shows I saw. See, if they started dragging out how much this stuff cost I can’t be sure that would have changed the discussion, but it might have made some of this whole making organizations pay for their workers contraception with insurance a bit clearer and less “trample-y” on rights.
I’m still not cool with governments forcing organizations to pay against their moral codes. Though a commenter on yesterdays article mentioned that doctors who are Jehovah’s Witnesses still have to do blood transfusions despite that they don’t believe such action is moral (which is something I did not know, if anyone has more info on this, please share). Though I would say that situation is different, because it is making someone perform their duty to a job, not making an entire organization violate it’s scripture. and the JW has the choice not to be a doctor. A religious organization doesn’t really have a choice about being a religious organization.
Then again, if the other articles I have read are anything to go by, the religious issue is not a moot point, beyond both sides using it to distract the public for their own ends. Apparently, Obama has declared that religious organizations are exempt again, but the Insurance Companies have to provide contraception free of charge now to their clients.
A suspicious man might wonder if that was the plan all along…
“making someone perform their duty to a job, not making an entire organization violate it’s scripture. and the JW has the choice not to be a doctor.”
This statement could be turned on it’s head. Don’t Catholics also have the option to not be doctors or run hospitals?
A doctor’s job is to provide medical care to their patient, to provide the best care possible and provide the best quality of life for their patient. Birth control can be and *is* prescribed for reasons other than contraception, and I can think of a few people -myself included- who’s quality of life is directly related to being able to afford birth control. Only one out of my circle of friends actually uses it for actual contraception. So when the other option is for surgery to remove our lady parts entirely, or being hooked up to morphine drips for a few days out of each month, then birth control is what’s giving us the best quality of life… and a doctor not prescribing it means that they aren’t doing their job.
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