Half the Population is Apparently Very Sick

Oy vey es mier, sometimes I want to hug politicians, but more often I want to just throw up all over them. This will never happen, and it's probably better that way, but recently they've been grating on the nerves a little more than usual. For those who read the post I wrote about my parents, you will have gleaned that I had an interest in politics before I entered college. That interest faded when I started the political science program, but I suspect that my political leanings and interests will never go away completely. This is why the hubbub going on in the government recently has made me want to tear my hair out, and why the latest decision about health care and insurance has pushed me closer to that precipice. I'm talking about the new mandate for all health insurance providers to cover birth control and sterilization procedures, and for all employers to opt in to those new measures.

Now, on the surface these mandates seem reasonable. After all, they're billed as preventative care, and who doesn't want to prevent disease? Oh wait, what's that you say.....? Fertility isn't a disease? You mean that children aren't infectious and communicable like smallpox or rubella? Strange, since that's what birth control and sterilization prevent: children. I cannot imagine who thought this was a good idea, since the reasoning for this bill's passage was that, in preventing pregnancy (which occasionally has complications), any medical issues caused by pregnancy would be prevented as well. This reasoning is shaky, since all pregnancies do not cause complications, and treating these complications should be the paramount concern, not preventing pregnancy from happening.

Also, this legislation isn't entirely fair. A woman's ability to conceive new life is a horrific disease that needs to be stopped, but a man's erectile dysfunction is as well? A woman can't be fertile without the chance of bringing forth a new blight on the planet and the human race (a baby), but a man's virility is imperative? Pardon me if I find that laughable and idiotic. If the government wants to cut down unwanted pregnancy (which DHHS claims account for 50% of all pregnancies), perhaps they could funnel resources into something worthwhile, like stopping rape? Or they could institute programs in schools that teach kids that they have inherent worth, making them less likely to go around looking for love and acceptance through sex when they're in their teens. These both account for unwanted pregnancies, and if we could cut them down, we'd see a decrease in the rate.

Two of the biggest supporters of this bill were President Obama and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. Each of them has two children and a spouse. I wonder if they would be willing to say to their spouses and kids the message they've put out with this bill. I hope not. I cannot imagine a parent telling their children that they had a right to prevent them being born, or a married person telling their spouse that the decision to have children rests only with one of them. The whole thing reeks of selfishness, and a desire for what is best for oneself regardless of what is best for another.


This bill ignores the value of human life and of the people it will supposedly "help", and is blatantly prejudicial to religious organizations and people who do not want to fund contraception. Yes, there are "religious exemptions", but they allow for an organization to be exempt if it only ever does business with people who are adherents of that religion. So a Catholic (or Orthodox Jewish, or conservative Protestant) hospital can be exempt only if it caters exclusively to Catholic, Orthodox Jewish, or conservative Protestant clientele. This is ridiculous, since no hospital run by anyone worth their salt is going to stop to check what your religious affiliation is before they treat you, they're just going to treat you.

I resent this bill and its message. I resent the fact that people will be forced to violate their consciences at the government's whim. I resent the people in government who pushed for this bill's enactment, and those who did nothing to stop it. The government is telling Americans that half the population is at risk for a very severe disease called pregnancy, and the end result, children, needs to be avoided at all costs. Half the population is apparently very sick, and as one of them, I can assure you I prefer I remain that way.