Meanwhile, the war against women continues…

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The right wing in the States has taken some hard blows lately: the war against equality for homosexuals has been forced to retreat on several fronts (don’t worry, the right wing is biding its time for a major strike), and the war against terrorism is progressing in starts and stops, but mostly in stops these days (it’s difficult to maintain enthusiasm while pulling troops and moving operations underground). On the other hand, the war against any sort of gun control is coming along swimmingly in spite of the rash of school shootings and the astounding number of victims due to gun violence. In 2011, nearly 11 people died from gun shots every day.

So, who can the right wing take time to attack these days? Women, obviously. They make great victims, especially women with precarious finances and who can be labelled as vaguely ‘unchristian’ for their health care decisions.

Interesting how the same people who go buck wild with hatred at the barest mention of establishing gun restriction laws because it steps on the toes of the 2nd amendment will trample the 1st amendment—guaranteeing freedom of religion with it’s underlying principle of separation of church and state—in order to push their religious beliefs onto others.

And now businesses can be people, too. Yes, a corporation has not only feelings that can be hurt, but deeply held religious beliefs and moral standards. A corporation, whose only concern should be the bottom line, now has the power to decide if a woman is acting against the corporation’s religious beliefs. Because freedom of religion only goes one direction—the way of the most powerful.

Freedom to be free from imposed religious beliefs doesn’t stand a chance in this war.

Freedom for a woman to be able to choose and afford the best birth control for her life, her health and her family is being stripped away with this Supreme Court decision. All because a business, which should not be worried about private health concerns, deeply believes that the business itself is morally right and the woman is morally wrong in how she prevents pregnancy. Choosing whether or not to try for a pregnancy is one of the most critical aspects of a woman’s health during her reproductive years. This decision has an enormous impact on a woman’s mental, physical and emotional state of being.  There are also financial considerations tangled up in preventing unwanted pregnancies. A lot of women (way too many) have low hourly wages and no paid maternity leave…like the women working at Hobby Lobby.

I want to say thank you, Switzerland. We have private health insurance that might not cover all forms of birth control, but does cover maternity in hospitals and paid maternity leave. Switzerland does not allow businesses, pharmacies or insurance companies choose whether a woman can have access to certain kinds of health care, but leaves health decisions to the woman, her family and her doctor. No one dismisses science and the mechanics of conception to make egregious claims that prevention of conception is actually an abortion. Switzerland might not be perfect, but at least there is no war against women here.

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