In the year 2012 the U.S. is having a political battle of epic magnitude: Whether to stay in 2012 or go back to 1950. When you think politics in the U.S. can't become even more ignorant and ridiculous a debate about contraception creeps in. President Obama sent a law to congress that under his health care plan, business and organizations that have hired staff must provide contraception to women free of charge. This created a huge backlash from Catholics that said this "infringed on our religious liberties" and should not be forced to provide contraceptives due to "their religious views" To compromise President Obama stated that under the bill religious places such as churches wouldn't have to provide contraceptives to their employees, the insurance would do so. Even this compromise didn't calm all Catholics worries.
It is of my opinion that although trying to be fair, President Obama went soft on this issue. The government issuing a law that says "employers must provide free contraceptives to their female employees" is not infringing on religious liberties. Why is this? because the health of the people of this nation is not in the hands of the church and religion and these entities do not have a say what is best for the people in terms of medicine. Their religious' rights do not enable them to take away what could help people's lives. Their religious' rights are: freedom to express religion without persecution anywhere in this nation, no matter what religion. They have the right to not agree with this law, or potential law, but have no right to ignore it or harm women's lives.
I can understand Obama's compromise to try and defuse the situation, but this still lead to thoughts of utter ignorance. Rick Santorum said if he was nominated the Republican nominee for the 2012 election he would explain why contraceptives are bad because "contraceptives cause more unwanted births and pregnancies" ...... What drugs is he taking? That is like saying "Toothpaste is bad because it doesn't clean your teeth" When it comes to medicine and women's and men's health, leave it to doctors.
This is getting to the point where religious universities are threatening to cut students healthcare because they have to provide contraceptives. What great religious and peaceful action, deny people the right to be healthy, I'm sure Jesus would've wanted it that way. In recent news crazy ass Rush Limbaugh called a Georgetown laws student by the name of Sandra Fluke a "slut" because she said that her university should provide contraceptives because "Contraception can cost a woman over $3,000 during law school," she said. "For a lot of students like me who are on public interest scholarships, that's practically an entire summer's salary." This is because "that Georgetown, a Catholic university, won't cover it for her"
The people and government must not allow this to happen. Health is and should be a universal right to the people of a nation, if not provided it is criminal. If doesn't matter if religion wants to stay in the 13th century, it doesn't mean the government has to nor the people. In addition this view about women and contraceptives does not reflect everyone's religious views, so a small group of people should not have a say about people's health and if people of religious views have a problem with abortion and unwanted births, then why wouldn't you support contraceptives? This would logically prevent such measures.
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