"Private parts" and politics don't mix

by Lisa Carey 

Many states have started making decisions about women and their "private parts."  These decisions are wrong in so many ways and affect our families, our faith, and our future.

According to St. Louis Today: “The Senate passed a bill that would let employers deny health insurance coverage for birth control for employees who cannot prove a medical need for it.” On the same day, the House “passed a bill that would shield health care workers from participating in anything that conflicts with their conscience.”

In Arizona,  House Bill 2625, allows any employer to refuse to cover contraception that will be used "for contraceptive, abortifacient, abortion or sterilization purposes." If a woman wants the cost of her contraception covered, she has to "submit a claim" to her employer providing evidence of a medical condition, such as endometriosis or polycystic ovarian syndrome, that can be treated with birth control Arizona state Rep. Debbie Lesko (R) says: "My bill does one thing and one thing alone. It allows an employer with religious objections to opt out."  

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney: "Vote for the other guy" if you want birth control covered. 

Thanks to insurance "gender rating," women pay more for health insurance than men, even among plans that don't include female-specific services like maternity coverage.

Maine state Rep. Lance Harvell questions why pap smears are covered by insurance.

Rick Santorum declares that states should be allowed to outlaw birth control.

Be sure to see these 10 Reasons the Rest of the World Thinks the U.S. is Nuts and these 101 Assaults in the "War on Women" for even more myths and misconceptions about women's bodies and our health. 

These laws are a long time coming.  I just didn't see them.  Let's look at my family.  We have four children.  We lost two children during pregnancies. 

I'm over the age of 40 but still able to have children, though in my case it could, though it sounds dramatic, kill me.   After the birth of my youngest I went on birth control, because it's the only way to keep me safe and a mother to the children I do have.   My insurance company quit paying for it, citing some law in the state that they were incorporated having to do with "birth control is not a medically necessary prescription" therefore it's not going to be paid. "

Yep, I heard it first, a little over a year ago, before the rampage against women's rights and health in 2011 began and I didn't listen.  So, I started paying my $85.00 a month for birth control on top of my $500+ insurance plan, even though I do have a medically mandated reason for needing it.  The insurance company didn't agree.   Now I continue to pay, in more ways than one if these practices are not stopped.

Thanks to Gov. Rick Perry, my young teenage daughter was going to be given a vaccine (which of course my insurance didn't want to pay for since she was only 14) because he decided it medically necessary to vaccinate against HPV.  At least some people were smart enough to overturn that decision and my daughter was spared having to explain her sex life (and lack thereof) to a doctor she didn't even have a relationship with. . . oh wait, maybe the doctor's wouldn't give the vaccine now because according to these politicians and mouthpieces, medical providers don't have to do anything that goes against their morals and doesn't this just give girls the idea that it's okay to have sex? After all they are now protected from a serious form of cancer.  They can still get pregnant though, because they can't get birth control. 

My younger daughters may find that their physical well-being in the future is compromised as medical providers, instead of  abiding by the Hippocratic oath to "first do no harm," doctors or other medical providers who are "morally against" a treatment, medicine or type of care and may withhold that  treatment, from you, me and our daughters, based on laws like these. 

Now your personal opinion may agree with those that say so and so shouldn't be on birth control.  But that's your personal opinion.  Personal being the operative word.  It's not politics.  It's not a law. It's my health and yours that we are talking about here.  It's your daughter's, your niece, your mother, and your sister and no one, but no one should be treating my private parts as public property.

So to all of you who are reaching into my womb, I say, "Hands Off!"  I won't tell you what to do with your body, don't you tell me what to do with mine.