(In response to Emilie Eaton’s March 5 column “Limbaugh displays lack of tact.”)
MISSING THE ISSUE
Much has been said lately about contraception, the health care bill and religious institutions. The current debate isn’t truly over women’s rights — it is about whether or not a religious body can be forced to go against conscience. Catholics are “officially” opposed to birth control in all forms. But for evangelicals and other groups who agree on this issue of conscience, the issue isn’t preventing life, it is taking it. For those who believe life begins at conception, myself included, many treatments for avoiding pregnancy can be or are abortive. That means religious groups would be forced by the government to pay for the “termination” of a pregnancy. That’s the government forcing groups to pay for, what their convictions consider to be, murder. That is a serious issue.
Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show” (which I tend to enjoy) argues that there is little difference between paying an employee who will then purchase contraception, or purchase it for them. The difference is drastic, because if the contraception is killing a potential child, then the party responsible for that decision has a heavy burden.
When my wife and I got married, we had to discuss what kinds of birth control we would be OK with. We talked, and prayed (in accordance with our beliefs) about the issue. We chose to avoid all hormonal birth control because of our personal convictions. We were not OK with knowing we may risk the possibility of aborting our child (please do your own research on this issue). That is a decision we made.
My heart is not to make this into an abortion argument. I simply ask that you see beyond the media hype and tackle the real issues in question. My wife and I had to make our own decision. I believe Americans have the freedom to make their own as well. Religious institutions have also made their choice. The government shouldn’t be able to override their careful decisions about such weighty issues.
Dahvede Wood Communication & Religious Studies senior
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