The War on Women | Women Health Wizard

If you?ve seen any news during the past week or so, you?re no doubt aware that there are a couple of new fronts in the War on Women.

It seems that no aspect of women?s health care is immune from right-wing hysteria. Breast exams for poor women? Why, that?s an opportunity to attack Planned Parenthood. Birth control coverage without co-pays? That?s their chance to brand the Obama administration as an enemy of religious freedom.

Nothing is safe. If it has anything at all to do with women?s access to health care, it?s on the hit list. And although women?s health advocates have won (for the moment) the first battle, the fight over contraceptive coverage continues and we can?t afford to relax yet.

In this instance, opponents have disingenuously framed their objections to the contraceptive coverage requirement as coming from concerns over religious liberty, rather than as overt opposition to birth control. In doing so, they have made statements that are offensive, dismissive and grotesquely out of touch with the real needs and day-to-day lives of women.

While talking about the rule, one pundit actually compared it to the kind of thing that might have happened in 1930?s Germany and dismissed women?s need for birth control as ?beside the point.? Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., opined on a talk-radio show that birth control was ?unrelated to the basic needs of health care.? The current leader ? according to a recent national poll ? in the Republican race for

president, Rick Santorum, said that the birth control requirement is a step toward ?the guillotine.? And, in an unwitting display of irony, the bishop of Phoenix said that the decision is an attempt to turn Catholics into ?second-class citizens.?

Women?s health is not beside the point: If you?ve seen any news over the past week or so, you?re no doubt aware that there are a couple of new fronts in the War on Women.

It seems that no aspect of women?s health care is immune from right-wing hysteria. Breast exams for poor women? Why, that?s an opportunity to attack Planned Parenthood. Birth control coverage without co-pays? That?s their chance to brand the Obama administration as an enemy of religious freedom.

Nothing is safe. If it has anything at all to do with women?s access to healthcare, it?s on the hit list. And although women?s health advocates won (for the moment) the first battle, the fight over contraceptive coverage continues, and we can?t afford to relax yet.

In this instance, opponents have disingenuously framed their objections to the requirement as coming from concerns over religious liberty, rather than as overt opposition to birth control. But in doing so, they have made statements that are offensive, dismissive, and grotesquely out of touch with the real needs and day-to-day lives of women.

While talking about the rule, one pundit actually compared it to the kind of thing that might have happened in 1930?s Germany and dismissed women?s need for birth control as ?beside the point.? Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R/NE-1) opined on a talk-radio show that birth control was ?unrelated to the basic needs of health care.? The current leader ? according to a recent national poll ? in the Republican race for President, Rick Santorum, said that the birth control requirement is a step toward ?the guillotine.? And, in an unwitting display of irony, the Bishop of Phoenix said that the decision is an attempt to turn Catholics into ?second-class citizens.?

Women?s health is not beside the point: It is the central point. Every American woman should have the same access to affordable contraceptives. The current rule will save the average American woman some $600 in out-of-pocket health care costs. For families living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to pay for day care or get their car fixed, this could make all the difference.

For millions of American women, preventing unintended pregnancy is the primary health concern: for them, birth control is basic health care. Putting aside the fact that pregnancy is inherently dangerous ? in the United States today, 24 women will die for every 100,000 live births, the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world ? most women and couples want to have the power to plan pregnancy.

Nearly every American woman will use contraceptives at some point in her life. Indeed, all of the coverage about the opposition by the Catholic bishops ignores the fact that 98 percent of Catholic women do as well. In this discussion of conscience, nobody seems interested in their beliefs and their liberty. Also missing is any recognition that a clear majority of Catholics support giving women employed by Catholic-affiliated hospitals and universities the same contraceptive coverage as everyone else.

The administration has already struck a respectfully balanced compromise: Explicitly religious employers are exempt from the new requirement. Some 335,000 churches have always been exempt, and President Obama revised the rule to respond to the concerns of some employers while preserving the promise of contraceptive coverage for the women who work for them.

Both women?s organizations and the Catholic Health Association have endorsed the new policy, but it?s doubtful that the most outspoken opponents of birth control will.

And make no mistake, this is about access to birth control. Just look at the big picture. The same opponents of this policy are working tirelessly to bar Planned Parenthood clinics from reimbursement with public funds; pass legislation to end all public funding for family planning programs in the United States and overseas; reinstate the Global Gag Rule ? essentially an international version of the Planned Parenthood ban; and to cut off aid to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for its work to increase access to contraceptives and end harmful traditional practices in the poorest countries in the world.

That we are still arguing about birth control in 2012 is shocking. And very, very troubling.

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The author is vice president for media and government relations at Population Connection (formerly Zero Population Growth or ZPG), a voice for population stabilization since 1968.

Article source: http://www.thereporter.com/opinion/ci_19948544

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