When my father found out I started taking birth control pills in my teens, he was not a happy man.
My dad is a conservative Catholic, and so I grew up going to parochial schools and attending church on a weekly, if not biweekly, basis.
But I had a sizable ovarian cyst that had ruptured, and after considerable pain and other treatment, our family doctor prescribed the pills for some alleviation and to hinder growth of others (as another option at the time was surgery, an obviously less desired, more invasive and costly alternative).
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And over the next decade, I've remained on the pill for this purpose and I've remained a Catholic.
I'm not going to pretend every Catholic follows all the teachings (there's so many after all; I break one at least daily), but it's another for the government to do something completely against the church's teachings—and then force those institutions to follow them.
Notre Dame President Rev. John Jenkins wrote a letter last week to Kathleen Sebelius asking the Obama administration to broaden the definition of religious employer under consideration to ensure the school can continue to provide health care without going against the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. Under Obama's new policy, Notre Dame and other Catholic universities would be required to offer prescription contraceptives and sterilization services to students and employees through health care plans.
"This would compel Notre Dame to either pay for contraception and sterilization in violation of the church's moral teaching, or to discontinue our employee and student health care plans in violation of the church's social teaching. It is an impossible position," he wrote.
Impossible, indeed. But also pretty ridiculous—and that word's being thrown in Sebelius' direction, not in Jenkins.
These people can still pay for their own birth control copays—and they've got options. Planned Parenthood argues birth control without copays is one of the most important steps in preventing unintended pregnancy—I'm sorry, has it been too long since I've visited my neighborhood Planned Parenthood or are they still throwing out condoms everywhere?
Birth control—and all medication for that matter—is a personal decision. It should remain personal, and not be another thing for the taxpayer to pay for—as much as I'd love them to pay for all my medication regarding each one of my health issues.
And most importantly, it shouldn't be shoved down the throat of religious institutions morally opposed to it. As another Catholic friend of mine brought up in conversation the other day, if I worked at a Jewish organization or school, I wouldn't keep asking my employer to bring me pork sandwiches for lunch (for free, no less).
I'll pass on the pork. And I'll buy my own birth control (or medication, in my case).
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