On September 24, I received an email. It asked me to "stand right now to defend women's reproductive health and rights".
I received the message from a fellow Mommy who I knew from a youth leadership/gardening/feed refugees program.
Hence I trusted the email.
I had thought at first that it was defending a woman's right to reproduce. I am definitely for reproduction, even though I am not very good at it. Seriously, that was my first thought.
Trusting the mom who sent the email and trusting the spin on 'women's reproductive health and rights' made me almost support the wrong side...almost.
In actuality the email was asking me to oppose a regulation that would protect health care providers or institutions from being forced to perform services that violate their consciouses.
So to flip this, the email might be asking me to force doctors who, because of moral values, do not want to perform abortion to perform abortions. The email was asking me to force health care workers who, because of religious values, do not want to perform for reproductive treatments for women choosing not to marry men, but other women. The email wanted me to compel hospitals run by religious institutions to perform services that go against their teachings.
If you are religious, this is a serious thing. It is like asking a Muslim to touch a pig. It is like asking a Hasidic Jew to break the Sabbath Day. It is like asking a Christian to kill. Oh, wait, it just might be. It is a sentence to hell, and that is a hard thing; or just serious discrimination.
Where the email went wrong was that after I figured out that my right to have children was not being compromised, it made me believe that if a woman wanted an abortion or sterilization that she would not be able to under the regulation.
Of course she would be able to.
What this regulation would do is enable the poor doctor, who cannot kill a child, or cause that one should be born into a family without a mommy AND a daddy, to avoid discrimination.
This has little to do with the women, and everything to do with the doctors, and their being able to live according to their own beliefs.
From the HHS Regulation Document:
"This regulation does not limit patient access to health care, but rather protects any individual health care provider or institution from being compelled to participate in, or from being punished for refusal to participate in, a service that, for example, violates their conscience."
It is too late to send in opinions. That ended on September 25. However, it is not too late to learn about changing definitions, and become involved in slowing down the moral decline of our good world.
In actuality the email was asking me to oppose a regulation that would protect health care providers or institutions from being forced to perform services that violate their consciouses.
So to flip this, the email might be asking me to force doctors who, because of moral values, do not want to perform abortion to perform abortions. The email was asking me to force health care workers who, because of religious values, do not want to perform for reproductive treatments for women choosing not to marry men, but other women. The email wanted me to compel hospitals run by religious institutions to perform services that go against their teachings.
If you are religious, this is a serious thing. It is like asking a Muslim to touch a pig. It is like asking a Hasidic Jew to break the Sabbath Day. It is like asking a Christian to kill. Oh, wait, it just might be. It is a sentence to hell, and that is a hard thing; or just serious discrimination.
Where the email went wrong was that after I figured out that my right to have children was not being compromised, it made me believe that if a woman wanted an abortion or sterilization that she would not be able to under the regulation.
Of course she would be able to.
What this regulation would do is enable the poor doctor, who cannot kill a child, or cause that one should be born into a family without a mommy AND a daddy, to avoid discrimination.
This has little to do with the women, and everything to do with the doctors, and their being able to live according to their own beliefs.
From the HHS Regulation Document:
"This regulation does not limit patient access to health care, but rather protects any individual health care provider or institution from being compelled to participate in, or from being punished for refusal to participate in, a service that, for example, violates their conscience."
It is too late to send in opinions. That ended on September 25. However, it is not too late to learn about changing definitions, and become involved in slowing down the moral decline of our good world.
Comments
I was preparing for a lesson yesterday by creating a collage of different temptations that we face in the world today. I used Google Images to find pictures of cigarettes and DVD covers of inappropriate films and the like. Without thinking it through, I typed in the word abortion, expecting to see pictures of abortion clinics or pro-choice signs. What I saw was heartbreaking and ugly. I sat at my computer and cried for several minutes.
I am appalled that there are doctors out there who are discriminated against for refusing to perform these services.
P.S. Are you on facebook? If so...there's a new group for our study abroad group there...it's kind of fun to reconnect.