Wednesday, 06 August 2008

• "No Comment"

  I'm sure you've all heard about the recent attack on a woman's ability to have access to birth control.  It seems like the one person who doesn't want to discuss this issue is Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt. A few days ago, health care blogger Scott Swenson asked Secretary Leavitt whether it will be "HHS policy that the 98 percent of Americans who use contraception at some point in their lives are terminating rather than preventing pregnancy." Leavitt's reply: no comment.

  So I wrote him a message, and left it on his blog as a comment on the most recent entry:

  I am a mother, a wife, and a working member of my community.  I am currently trying to balance a job and an education, and am in no way able to afford another child, especially with the questionable economy.  I am very upset to find out that my right to prevent pregnancy through use of the birth control pill is about to be lost.

  This is unacceptable.  If I become pregnant, it will cost the state thousands in Medicaid dollars spent on my health care, and my family will be without income during the time of my delivery.  I am not about to give up my financial security and my right to take care of myself because someone else's religion defines my prevention of pregnancy as the termination of pregnancy.  This is religious oppression, and is the opposite of what this country was founded upon and what it stands for.

  When a person takes the Hippocratic Oath, he/she promises "To practice and prescribe to the best of my ability for the good of my patients, and to try to avoid harming them" and "To keep the good of the patient as the highest priority."  It is in violation of this sacred oath to refuse to offer birth control to one in need of it.  A person who has moral objections to caring for patients should simply change careers, not do a job half-way.

  Sir, how would you like to be recorded in the history books?  As the man who failed to protect the rights of the 98% of Americans who use birth control?  Or as the man who stood up for the health of the people when it was difficult?  I trust that you will make the right decision on this matter.

  Join me in making a statement.  Leave your own comment, and spread the word.

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