HHS Moves to define contraception as abortionFolks- this is bad. Seriously, incredibly, almost stunningly bad. It demonstrates a level of scientific incompetence only seen in certain religious circles, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out who is behind this.
Here is the telling paragraph:
Up until now, the federal government followed the definition of pregnancy accepted by the American Medical Association and our nation's pregnancy experts, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which is: pregnancy begins at implantation. With this proposal, however, HHS is dismissing medical experts and opting instead to accept a definition of pregnancy based on polling data. It now claims that pregnancy begins at some biologically unknowable moment (there's no test to determine if a woman's egg has been fertilized). Under these new standards there would be no way for a woman to prove she's not pregnant. Thus, any woman could be denied contraception under HHS' new science.
The real irony with all the abortion back-and-forth is that the religious people who are forcing this upon us are ignoring their precious Bronze-age document and what it says about abortion: which is nothing. In fact, it only says that life begins at birth- when the child draws its first breath, because God breathed life into the bodies of his creations. Until then, the child is not a person- and in fact, there are even passages that talk about forcing miscarriages in the Old Testament. Of course, those are ignored- as are any passages in Scripture that might be inconvenient to their arguement, and their goal of pretty much making women slaves to their biology.
I took the Pill for years to regulate my cycles and keep my endometriosis at a manageable level. And other women take it for similar reasons. But many take it to manage their own family sizes, or to prevent pregnancy. Pregnancy is not a walk in the park, and for some of us, it is a death sentence. Removing that safety barrier will send a lot of women to doctors for more permanent solutions. Will those be outlawed, too?
What really bothers me is how all this anti-contraception, rights-reducing chipping away is so counter-intuitive. Our population is exploding- in spite of all the 'empty cradle' wailing that is going on. This country is replacing itself just fine. We're the only Western country that is exceeding its replacement rate. But I think that the edge is getting near- we've exploited nearly every arable acre and patch of dirt on this planet, our oceans have become toilets, and our aquifers are being sucked dry even as heating from all our exhalations and activities is growing, shrinking the places we do have to live.
The idea of limitless conception in the light of what is happening to us in the long run is reprehensible, and shows a lack of vision and compassion in those who would force this upon us- and upon countries they've dominated. Their real reason for all of this willy-nilly birthing isn't enslaving women- although that is part of it- women are
not people in their eyes. (That cherry-picked Scripture of theirs says so!) No, it's hastening the return of Jesus: once the world is turned into a giant toxic landfill crawling with diseased, starving, genetically deformed and debased people (believers all!), Jesus will come and scoop the entire lot up, like some sort of cosmic "Wall-E" and tote them all up to heaven, leaving the 'un-saved' to rot with the planet.
How charmingly compassionate. This mindset is why we are worse off now than we were 7 years ago, and why we're seeing our rights slipping away like eels through our hands. It why the US is now the least-admired country in the world, and why a match is being waved at the powder keg that is the Islamic world. And this mindset is why our leadership in science and engineering is going to hell- when our kids are not taught proper biology, they cannot compete with other countries who have no compunction of understanding what is and is not a proper theory.
What can we do? We can let HHS know that this is not a good idea. We can tell our Congressmen and women that this is not a good idea. We can get doctors and lawyers to rip it apart, and we can hope that more rational minds will rescue our government from the clutches of the politico-religious junta that has stolen the seats of power, and restore it to some semblance of balance. There is room for religious belief, but religious belief should never,
ever dictate health (or government) policies. That is where we need to put the stick in.
I know that some of my esteemed colleagues here on LJ have written some pretty amazing screeds (heads in beehives, anyone?) screaming in rage about this- but I prefer a more rational tack: Direct that rage into Getting Something Done TO CHANGE THE POLICY. Instead of inchoate screaming, use that anger to light a fire under your butts- male and female (because, guys, you're tangled in this too- it isn't a 'girl thing'- you might be forced into 18+ years of indentured servitude against your will!)- and change things!
It is clear that the religious forces behind this have no shame, no humility, and a hell of a lot of hubris, and power is on their side. We need to deprive them of that power. We need to take them out of power and shove them back into the dark corners they crawled out of. We can let them inflict their beliefs on their own people, but not on the rest of us. That is the key: find these people, and de-fang them. Send them packing. Sue them, fire them, find some nasty little secret (sexual, most likely), empty their coffers, and run them out of power.
That is what we can do. No torch-bearing mobs, no screaming in the streets. Just determined, goal-oriented action. It is how these people got into power. Get off your complacent butts and take their jobs, people, get into the school-boards, the grass-roots, the town councils, the local and state governments, and kick them out! Kansas did it, and so did Pennsylvania.
THAT is why we're America. We can learn from our mistakes. Let's learn from this one and reclaim our country, or we'll lose it to a bunch of people who believe that Bronze-age tribal religions are a good thing.
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