Birth-Control Blues
Why contraception is the latest wedge issue dividing Republicans and Democrats.
by Ronald Brownstein
Updated: February 17, 2012 | 6:17 a.m.
National Journal
The nature of the culture war is to obliterate compromise, and often even common sense. On issues that involve moral values, both political parties find it almost impossible to operate with a scalpel. More commonly, they resort to the chainsaw.
Washington’s roiling contretemps over contraception is the latest example. Since the Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of the pill in 1960, and the Supreme Court struck down state laws banning the use of contraception in its 1965 Griswold decision, birth control had mostly avoided the firestorms surrounding issues like abortion, school prayer, and gay rights.
Some 99 percent of American women use contraception at some point, and up until recently, access to contraception hadn’t stirred much political debate. The federal legislation (Title X) that provides birth control and family planning through local clinics was cosponsored by then-Rep. George H.W. Bush and signed by Richard Nixon. Over the years, 28 states—including such Republican-leaning places as Georgia and Arizona—have required that any employer who provides prescription-drug benefits to workers must include contraception (most states exempt religious institutions). Under Bill Clinton, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission likewise ruled that federal antidiscrimination laws also impose that requirement; although some courts disagreed, George W. Bush’s administration upheld that policy.
But this truce was collapsing even before President Obama ignited a fierce backlash in January with his rule to require religious organizations (though not churches) to cover contraception at no cost in their insurance plans.
(More here.)
by Ronald Brownstein
Updated: February 17, 2012 | 6:17 a.m.
National Journal
The nature of the culture war is to obliterate compromise, and often even common sense. On issues that involve moral values, both political parties find it almost impossible to operate with a scalpel. More commonly, they resort to the chainsaw.
Washington’s roiling contretemps over contraception is the latest example. Since the Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of the pill in 1960, and the Supreme Court struck down state laws banning the use of contraception in its 1965 Griswold decision, birth control had mostly avoided the firestorms surrounding issues like abortion, school prayer, and gay rights.
Some 99 percent of American women use contraception at some point, and up until recently, access to contraception hadn’t stirred much political debate. The federal legislation (Title X) that provides birth control and family planning through local clinics was cosponsored by then-Rep. George H.W. Bush and signed by Richard Nixon. Over the years, 28 states—including such Republican-leaning places as Georgia and Arizona—have required that any employer who provides prescription-drug benefits to workers must include contraception (most states exempt religious institutions). Under Bill Clinton, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission likewise ruled that federal antidiscrimination laws also impose that requirement; although some courts disagreed, George W. Bush’s administration upheld that policy.
But this truce was collapsing even before President Obama ignited a fierce backlash in January with his rule to require religious organizations (though not churches) to cover contraception at no cost in their insurance plans.
(More here.)
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1 Comments:
The argument is not over birth control, it is about control over ones pocket book, i.e. private property. It is none of my business if other people want to engage in recreational sex but why should I be expect to pay for their contraceptives? Could my neighbor come to my house and demand that I pay for their contraceptives? Why can the government? Is there anything that liberals do not expect the government to "take care of?"
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