Controlling births

What an issue.

In America, we agree that our government does not control our lives. We believe in privacy, the right to practice whatever religion we want, the right to choose the kind of education we want. It really isn't that complicated. But people make it so.

Should employers be able to limit the types of healthcare they offer to employees if that care conflicts with their religious views? Everyone should be answering no.

What if my employer, a public school district, decided it didn't believe in birth control and so I had to start paying out-of-pocket for prescription birth control? Well, wouldn't that be my employer forcing me to live by their own personal beliefs? And we don't believe in doing that here in America.

It is one thing for an employer not to believe in birth control. But when we say they legally don't have to offer insurance to cover some of those services, we have crossed a huge line. And those who want to restrict this sort of access think they are PROTECTING the rights to freedom of religion! It's so twisted and obvious.

Rick Santorum actually says things out loud that suggest the wide availability of birth control has had negative moral and social impacts on this country (NYTimes, Romney Sets Off Furor on Contraception Bill, Mar 1, 2012).  Um, what? Sure, a woman can have sex now and has greatly reduced her chances of having an unplanned pregnancy. Is she a slut, then? Sorry Santorum, but you can't control the morals of each woman in America. That was called the Puritan culture, and it sort of died out. For a reason. Because we decided we didn't want to live under a theocracy. If he does, fine, but he better not bring me in with him. That's called freedom.

What is even more ironic is that contraception prevents abortions, something anyone with a pulse knows that Santorum doesn't support. It also prevents unplanned pregnancies, sometimes reducing the number of children in orphanages, foster homes, etc. Do we want to live in a modern society where everyone has twenty children because of a lack of birth control? I don't think he's thought this through in a logical way, which isn't a shock.

We cannot force our own religious beliefs onto other people. Just because you think it's the right course of life doesn't mean you can force other people to live the same way. We should be very frightened by thinking like this, particularly from a man who wants to be the President of the United States. Don't we have better problems to worry about? Like how he got this far in the presidential race to begin with?