I don’t voice my opinion much about controversial things—it’s not that I DON’T have an opinion…..ahem….strong opinion about most issues—I’m just not a person who enjoys personal attacks about my opinions. But, every once in a while, something comes up that even I can’t keep my mouth shut about. Recently, there have been two.
- Susan B. Komen no longer awarding grants to Planned Parenthood
So, what has me all fired up about this is how political people are treating it—the biggest offender being PP themselves. I think that the emotionally charged people really need to look at why—I mean REALLY why—they made this decision. This article is pretty good. Hint: it was not political and I’m guessing that PP is not the only organization to stop receiving grants from them. Did you know that PP does not even offer mamograms? If PP is really about helping women, they should have made a regretful statement regarding this severed relationship instead of trying to destroy Komen—an organization that has spent over $1.9 BILLion dollars in breast cancer treatment and research.
- HHS Mandate
This really bothers me because it is widely ignored by the media. The issue here isn’t about whether sterilizations and contraceptives are right or not—it’s about religious liberty. It’s no mystery that the Catholic church does not believe in sterilization, contraception, and various abortifacient drugs. You don’t have to agree with it, like it, but you have to agree that it within the church’s right to not supplement it. Jews don’t eat pork—would we force them to serve it because people have a right to pork? These Catholic institutions are not saying that they will not employ those who chose to use birth control—they are saying that they cannot and will not supplement it.
To give you an idea, as of today, almost 80% of the dioceses in the country have spoken out against the HHS mandate. That's solidarity--you can't even find that during election time.
If the government feels that it is ok to take away religious liberty on this issue, where does it end? Sign this petition. It’s the right thing to do.
If you're interested in a good overview on the issue, on of my favorite Catholic bloggers wrote an open letter to Obama which covers a lot of the aspects.
