Obama's New Plan

Birth control has been a huge social issue for a long time. Many people oppose it, while many people are for it. But recently it’s been getting a lot of attention due to President Barak Obama’s new birth control plan. He has called for religious groups to offer free contraceptive coverage for their workers.

Now this, to me, doesn’t seem entirely crazy. With the health insurance most jobs receive, free contraceptive is included in it. So why can’t people that work for religious groups have that too? If a Catholic woman works for a church, they don’t cover birth control in her health insurance plan but if a Catholic woman worked at a business corporation she does receive free contraception in her health insurance. They both believe in the same God and follow the same ideals, but just because one works for the church then she doesn’t get the birth control included in her health insurance plan? How is that fair?

Although I’m in favor of this plan, many, many Catholics are not. In the Catholic faith, birth control is not to be used. The faith does not believe in it and finds it to be a sin. In Catholicism, you are expected that you will only have sex after marriage so you wouldn’t need birth control. Wanting birth control then implies that you plan to have sex before marriage.

But sometimes, that isn’t even the case. Birth control actually helps for women’s menstrual cycles to be less of an issue. Some women have really bad cramps during their period and get extremely nauseous. By using birth control they can lessen their symptoms. Why should a woman be denied of that? She may still believe in sex after marriage but she just doesn’t want to deal with having such horrible menstrual cycles. I don’t see how that’s fair to deny her the right to have them be free under her health insurance plan.

Some Bishops around the nation had these things to say:

"We as Catholics will have no choice but to cover the cost for health insurance which provides such so-called 'services' that we consider immoral and cannot choose in good conscience."

Accusing the Obama administration of violating their first amendment rights, "We Catholics will be denied the right to follow our moral consciences, as well as the ability to offer health coverage for our employees."

"It forces us back into a position that we find untenable," said Patrick Cacchione, director of the Illinois Catholic Health Association. "We're not going to pay or provide or participate in something that we think is immoral."

Barak Obama, being under pressure, actually backed down on Friday to this new law he wanted to propose. He demanded that insurance companies step in and pay for the coverage instead.

I think this issue is going to continue to go back and forth but I really do like what Obama has in mind. I do understand that it goes against the beliefs of the Catholic Church, but I think all women should have that same coverage. Whether a woman is using it so she doesn’t become pregnant, or she’s using it to lessen her menstrual cycle symptoms, it’s the right thing to do to let them decide. If a woman is a true Catholic and gets this coverage, she wouldn’t need to use it, right? So what’s the worry? Besides, most Catholics I know (me being included) don’t follow every ideal the religion displays. So honestly, I don’t see it as a huge problem.