The Government's Attack on Freedom, Morality, Conscience, and Womanhood

I usually try to stay out of politics, but I cannot help but comment on this latest development in the Health Care Issue. Many of you know that all health care services will be forced to provide contraceptions, sterilizations, and some abortatives. This includes all religious organizations and such who have moral issues with these, though, they are being given a year to get used to it. And to gain that year, they have to apply and be given that year. (For the full release, go here:http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2012pres/01/20120120a.html )

This is an abomination! It is a direct contradiction to the very reason our country was founded: Freedom of religion. Our founding fathers came over the ocean to find a place where their religious differences would be allowed. (Granted, they didn't have a stellar history in keeping to that, but still.) We have a separation of church and state not so that the state stays clear of all religious influence but so that our churches are not run by the state.

Our constitution has always protected the conscience of the human person. Our government has always recognized that it cannot force its ideals upon everyone. This is why we have the variety of religions we do here, and we don't have an official state religion. What the government is doing is an attack on not only our religious freedom but on our personal freedom as well. This is not okay!

Our religious freedom is something to be fought for. Our personal freedom even moreso. No one should be able to force me to do something I do not wish to do if it goes against my moral beliefs. And in a country that professes religious freedom, I should not have to choose between health care and my conscience. This is a travesty, A warping of all that is good about our nation! My friends, morality, absolutes, and respect for the human individual is being attacked by this declaration.

But what makes this even harder to bear is that they think they are doing the American woman good by making these thing readily available. In fact, in their news release, they said,

Scientists have abundant evidence that birth control has significant health benefits for women and their families, it is documented to significantly reduce health costs, and is the most commonly taken drug in America by young and middle-aged women. This rule will provide women with greater access to contraception by requiring coverage and by prohibiting cost sharing.

First off, birth control has several very significant health risks as well. The National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, WebMD, The Journal of Sexual Medicine (Yes, that is actually a scientific journal), and several other websites all cite sources and studies done that have concretely established links to oral contraceptives – that “most commonly taken drug in America by young and middle-aged women” – and breast and liver cancer. Tell me how this is helpful to the women being given these drugs?

Some of these drugs are being taken off the market because of other problems with them (like Yaz). Others have been shown to increase the level of unbound testosterone in a woman which can cause many problems:

“The research concluded that women who used the oral contraceptive pill may be exposed to long-term problems from low values of "unbound" testosterone potentially leading to continuing sexual, metabolic, and mental health consequences.”

and

“Oral contraceptives have been the preferred method of birth control because of their ease of use and high rate of effectiveness. However, in some women oral contraceptives have ironically been associated with women's sexual health problems and testosterone hormonal problems. Now there are data that oral contraceptive pills may have lasting adverse effects on the hormone testosterone.”

Dr. Claudia Panzer, an endocrinologist in Denver, CO, says the following concerning oral contraceptives:

"It is important for physicians prescribing oral contraceptives to point out to their patients potential sexual side effects, such as decreased desire, arousal, decreased lubrication and increased sexual pain. Also if women present with these complaints, it is crucial to recognize the link between sexual dysfunction and the oral contraceptive and not to attribute these complaints solely to psychological causes."

In addition to the link to breast cancer, the following are all side effects.

• Nausea, vomiting, constipation, or bloating
• Irregular menstruation and spotting
• Breast swelling or tenderness
• Decreased libido
• Weight gain or loss of appetite
• Mood swings, anxiety, nervousness or depression
• Changes in vaginal discharge and vaginal infections
• Headaches, dizziness and fatigue
• High blood pressure and cholesterol
• Acne or permanent discolouration of the face
• Fluid retention
• Bone density loss
• Hair loss or changes in hair growth
• Enlarged ovarian follicles
• Eye problems or vision impairment
• Gallbladder disease and gallstones
• Embolism
• Resistance to Insulin
• Immune system suppression
• Heart attack
• Stroke
• Breast tumors and liver tumors
• Ectopic Pregnacies
• Links with certain cancers such as cervical cancer
• Blood clots in legs, lungs, heart and brain
• Jaundice

Are these health risks really worth forcing people to compromise their consciences over just so people can have sex with 'little to no consequence'? “ Scientists have abundant evidence that birth control has significant health benefits for women and their families, it is documented to significantly reduce health costs.” What health benefits are there for a woman taking birth control? Regulating periods, sure, but most people don't take BC to regulate their periods. Some do, yes, but not most. Most use it as it's “meant” to be used: to keep from having a baby after sex.

"The government should not force Americans to act as if pregnancy is a disease to be prevented at all costs,” says Cardincal-designate Timothy Dolan. Yet this is exactly what it is doing. It is saying that birth control has significant health benefits. Did you know that having children – and having them before the age of thirty – actually decreases your chances of breast cancer? It seems to me that birth control, by acting as though pregnancy is something to be eschewed at all costs, is actually contributing to the increase in breast cancer. This is not helping our women be healthy. This is decreasing those chances.

If medicine is supposed to increase the productivity and functionality of an organ, why do we count something that decreases – and can actually stop – its functionality as a medicine? Typically, we call those things diseases. Why, then, should we be forcing people to pass out – on a health care plan – drugs that go against the whole concept of medicine? Why should we be compromising our consciences to do something that goes against the whole point of health care in the first place?

This new mandate is chipping at the sanctity of human life, morality, and absolutism. It is saying that the right to have an abortion and the right to have sex without consequence is more important than the conscience of an individual and a religion. This is a blatant disregard for the thousands of Catholics and the many Protestants and other religions who have issues with contraception, sterilization, and abortatives. This is a direct attack on religious freedom. This is not a hope and help women. This increases those diseases which are most problematic to women.

This is an attack on the true meaning of womanhood – the ability to be a mother. It is an attack on religious freedom, on moral absolutes, on the right to say that something is wrong. Please, my brothers and sisters, stand up against this with me! Don't let this go unchecked. This is our government stepping way out of line, and we have to say something about this.