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...over-educated and under-experienced, or so they say...

Friday, March 16, 2012

Freedom Hinges On Birth Control... Really?!

So there is a proposed law that would grant employers in Arizona the right to request that women being prescribed birth control pills provide proof that they're using it for non-sexual reasons. 


Excuse me, but what business is it of mine what you use birth control for?  Furthermore, what business is it of my employer what you, or I, use birth control for?  Last time I checked, all my employer should really care about is whether or not I show up on time and whether or not I actually do my job.  You want to check me for illegal substances?  You want to check me for behaviors that keep me from bringing your company anything other than prosperity?  Sure, go ahead.  You want to check me for birth control and ask what I'm using it for?  Excuse me, that's none of your business.  


And the funniest part about all of this?  This comes from the "Right," this comes from the same Republicans that constantly claim to be about less government and claim to be about the freedom of the individual.  At this point it appears they have no right to make that claim.  


I know that this comes in the wake of the Catholic Church debacle with the government placing a law that requires businesses to provide healthcare that covers the cost of birth control.  I know this is a direct result of that.  And I know that the debate there was about the First Amendment and religious freedom, but please... where do we draw the line?!  This is an invasion of one's right to privacy and one's individual freedom!  


If we put it into practice it would go something like this:


Employer forgive me, for I may have sinned.  I need to take birth control pills because I have polycystic ovarian syndrome.  Please, have mercy on me.  I have provided my medical records to show you that I cannot help my condition.  Please have mercy on me.  


Employer forgive me, for I may have sinned.  I am a married woman, but my husband and I are not ready to have children.  I make 8 dollars an hour and he is unemployed and birth control pills cost $50 a month and on my salary that's a large burden to bear.  Please understand that it isn't that we don't want to have children right now, it's just that this isn't the best time for it.  And condoms still have a great risk, and the rhythm method has long proven ineffective.  Please... Please great and wise employer, show me mercy.  Please allow me to have this one thing. 


Employer forgive me, I am a young girl with a boyfriend and we are sexually active but that's really none of your business but still... I do recognize that raising a child right now is not something I can do because my current circumstance is not financially stable enough to have a child so... is there any way you can help me here?  You aren't paying me enough to cover this on my own so... please?  Please???


Since when does someone have to account to their employer about what they do with their personal sexual life?  Since when?!  


This disgusts me... I am disgusted...  


"We have to respect the people that have moral objections to birth control..."


How about this: I have moral objections to parents that have babies because they didn't use birth control and now they have a kid on their hands that they don't give a rat's ass about and they have no desire to bother to spend time raising the child right!  Please!  Give these people birth control!


I'm sorry if you disagree with me here, but this whole thing makes me sick.  This is, no matter how you want to paint it, a religiously charged law and the problem here is that religiously based businesses are already allowed to opt out of covering contraceptives.  This law applies to companies that have no religious affiliation.  This law would apply to companies that employ people from all walks of life and various beliefs.  This law would infringe on the freedoms of the people that may or may not adhere to any religion at all and excuse me... but how is that American?  


America is not supposed to be a country that oppresses people with religion, and somehow we find ourselves in this spot.  You want to combat what the government applied to the health insurance law that sent the Catholic Church up in arms?  Fine... do so, but find some way other than infringing upon the personal and private freedoms of the individuals of this country!  And for God's sake... Religious "Right" will you please read your Bible???  The last time I checked, Jesus said "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and render unto God what is God's."  And you can argue until the cows come home about how that statement was about taxes, but I will argue until the cows come home about how that statement was about your personal walk!  I will argue that God Himself made a case for separation of church and state right there.  I will argue that you are "Pilgrims In A Strange Land" and let him without sin cast the first stone, and damn it... none of you can cast the first stone and you know it.  And I will remind you that it is more important to examine the log in your own eye before you focus on the speck in your brother's eye, and I would argue that the log in your eye is a lifetime of examination.  


Back off!  You are embarrassing representations of Christ!  Jesus was a man of compassion and forgiveness, and you are people of judgment and law.  So please... do us all a favor and shut up before you make us all look so bad that we find ourselves with no religious freedom to work with at all because you burned every merciful bridge we were given and you spent more time worrying about your stupid vote instead of worrying about healing the people!  And trust me, the loss of religious freedom is coming... trust me... that's coming... and you, my judgmental friends, will be the largest part of our downfall.


I want to see this country run like a well oiled machine.  I want to see the economy fixed.  I want to see people working and people doing something other than just surviving.  I want to see children being educated well.  I want to see the people that get lost somewhere along the way through life's dark shadows find a way back on their feet and create a life for themselves that makes them happy.  I want to see our individual freedoms retained when the threat of losing them looms in the forefront of the social atmosphere.  But for the life of me, I can't see how government, right or left, is going to help us, as a unified free country of people, accomplish this!  The only thing that can possibly help us in this realm is if we start to shrug off our old archaic judgments and start to see our fellow human beings as people responsible for their own actions and as people with potential instead of simply people to throw stones at.  And that's exactly what this law is, among others -- throwing stones.  


We must find a way to balance... We must find a way to coexist... Much will be lost, if we don't.  And please... really?  In a world of war and unemployed individuals, you have nothing better to do with your time than worry about what woman is using birth control and why?  


Idiots...













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