To Conceive or Not to Conceive

That is not the question.  

The question is whether the federal government can dictate to any church, group, or individual whether their religious convictions are right or wrong.

I do not have any problem with contraceptives or those who use them.  They are free to citizens of Virginia, and I feel confident that this is true in most states.  Details of these services can be found at Virginia Department of Health.  Note that the services are available without regard to "race, age, citizenship status or income status".  You do not have to give a social security number, nor do you have to provide proof of citizenship.  Easey peasey.  

And yet, many people in this country have their knickers in a twist because Catholic agencies and schools do not want to pay for health insurance which provides contraceptives for their employees. The Catholic Church and I have an agreement: they don't tell me how to do communion, and I don't tell them whether women should use contraceptives.   I thought the Federal Government had the same agreement, but it seems that I have been mistaken about that.

I don't see conspiracies everywhere, but neither do I believe in coincidences.  If you have a short memory or maybe you just don't care so much about political debates, watch the video below which is from the Republican Presidential Debate on January 7 on ABC News in New Hampshire. 

As an important aside, someone should tell George Stephanopoulos, a whiz-bang lawyer, that the right to privacy is not guaranteed by the Constitution.  Not even mentioned.  The Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments to the Constitution) implies some right of privacy, but this concept is not specifically addressed in the Constitution.  Any right to privacy has been instituted by the Supreme Court.


 But on to the original question:  why on earth did both Santorum and Romney seem to be blind-sided by the question as to whether the states should have the right to ban contraceptives.  What?  Did you hear that correctly?  Yes, you did.  The reason they seemed perplexed by this question is because this has not been an issue for decades.  Now who among us does not believe that this debate question was  the precursor to the Catholic Church-birth control debate raging across our unfortunate country.  How unusual that the current administration chose this exact moment in history to require a religious entity to provide a service that is in direct opposition to that entity's conscience.  


If I may use an analogy, this is the same thing as the Federal Government telling CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) that they must purchase and distribute pork skins to all of their employees, whether the employees wanted to eat pork skins or not.  Think about it.   

Georgetown University is only a few minutes drive from the Commonwealth of Virginia.  I invite Ms. Sandra Fluke and any other Georgetown University law students to avail themselves of the free contraceptives in a county health department in Virginia.   Of course, there will be no television cameras or news interviews when she makes the trip to Virginia.  Bummer.