Pills and Pennies

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

http://news.yahoo.com/u-health-body-recommends-birth-control-coverage-181409769.html

A U.S. medical advisory group recommended providing women free birth control and other preventive health services under the nation's healthcare overhaul.

The Institute of Medicine report, commissioned by the Obama administration, recommended that all U.S.-approved birth control methods -- including the "morning after pill," taken shortly after intercourse to forestall pregnancy -- be added to the federal government's list of preventive health services.

"The evidence supporting contraception is quite straightforward. It works," said Dr. Alfred Berg, a member of IOM's Committee on Preventive Services for Women.


Well, if it didn't work then there wouldn't be much point in selling it, would there? *ahem* Okay, smartass asides aside I fully agree with the this idea. People who aren't really interested in being parents tend to not make the best parents. Yes, I'm making a generalization. Live with it.

However, as expected, there is opposition to this.

Without sufficient legal protection for rights of conscience, such a mandate would force all men, women and children to carry health coverage that violates the deeply-held moral and religious convictions of many," said Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the bishops' conference.

Ya know, somehow I doubt little Johnny gives a fuck where the sales tax on his Slurpee will be spent by Uncle Sam. But I think this position is absurd. The US is a representative democracy. That means, for good or ill, the people we vote for get to decide how the $ gets spent. Complaining like this is like saying that a pacifist shouldn't have their tax dollars spent on jet fighters.

Top Gun hatin' hippies aside, it's just unworkable that we should all get to decide just where our tax dollars get spent. It would be a paperwork nightmare that makes dealing with a FAFSA seems like a walk in the park. Then there's collection and making sure every penny went where it was intended. Madness! Madness, I tell you.

Living according to your values is your job. Spending your taxes in whys that will benefit the US as a whole is the government's job.

Comments

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

The RCC is the single largest religious group in the United States. They didn't stop RvW, but then the Dixiecrats didn't stop Brown v. Board of Ed. This doesn't mean they're some powerless sideshow.

[jlc20thmaine.livejournal.com]

It also doesn't mean they are evil, as portrayed be liberals and far left main stream media.

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

Some of them are. I went to a Catholic school with three confessed pedophiles, one as the president of the school and two teachers. The administration apparently knew about at least the teachers, and was more concerned with overseeing the PR machine than with defending the children entrusted to their care. And that's not half as bad as some of the bullshit they've pulled to protect pedophiles and the Church's image - see Deliver Us from Evil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deliver_Us_from_Evil_(2006_film)). I've seen Catholic missionaries burning shipments of condoms in areas of Africa ravaged by AIDS and other STIs. All these moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain.

The RCC does some good work. Most of my friends are Catholic, to varying degrees of observation, ranging from twice-a-week Mass-goers, to CEOs (Christmas and Easter Only). The people of the church are not evil, nor are most of its works. But you know what they say - build a thousand bridges, and kill one man, and you are a murderer, not a bridge-builder. The organization deserves a large proportion of the bad reputation it's gotten in the late 20th and early 21st century, because it has worked quite hard for it.

But that's entirely beside the point. It doesn't matter if they're evil, it matters if they're strong. And given the large number of followers, they're undoubtedly one of the strongest religious institutions in the United States. Their inability to stop wildly-unpopular court opinions is hardly a determining factor, given the courts' general independence.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

Two former principals and several former teachers from my highschool were pedo's. The really bad one was the local parish priest, who lived in his house next the church, next to the primary school. Not only did several families cover up for him, but the church knew and had moved him out there after dodgy stories started coming up at his previous parish.

If this were just anectdata then I wouldn't make a claim against the whole church, but the covering up of pedophilia was global and systematic. There can never be any excuse for this and I doubt that there will ever be an apology that will even begin to approach sincerity. I doubt there will be a bishop from the 20th century in Catholic heaven.

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

Oh, there'll never be an apology. Just look at Benedict's response to the issues in Ireland and Germany. Instead of owning up, trying to make amends, etc., he says that the whole thing has been blown out of proportion but an anti-Catholic media. Anti-Catholic? How can he not see that this isn't about who did it, but that it was covered up for so long, without any real repercussions?

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Fairly sure those families whose boys were diddled and girls debauched while this was willingly covered up by those fat cats would disagree with this assertion.