Women and contraception, with a tinge of costs and affordability, have recently come into global focus again with President Obama calling on a law student to cheer her up after she was at the receiving end of a ferocious verbal attack.
The student Sandra Fluke, a third-year law student from Georgetown University, was called “A prostitute who wants her contraceptives paid with tax payers money” by the controversial radio host Rush Limbaugh.
The comment was in reference to her testimony to the Congress, where she supported Obama’s ruling that institutions affiliated to religions, should provide insurance coverage for medicinal contraceptives.
Ms. Fluke was earlier the president at the reproductive Justice Group at the University, and she testified to the Congress on the 23rd February.
In her testimony Fluke said that she heard painful stories of woman from Georgetown and other schools, resulting from their religiously affiliated employer refusing contraceptive coverage in insurance.
She also spoke for her friend who had to remove her ovary because her insurance didn’t cover her birth control prescriptions, she desperately needed to prevent the growth of cyst. Fluke estimated that it would cost about $3000 for birth control prescription without insurance.
Limbaugh had earlier raised controversy by his comments to a commercial ad in which the actor Michael J. Fox supported Missouri Democratic Senate candidate Claire McCaskill, a proponent of stem cell research.
A victim of Parkinson’s disease, Michael J. Fox was categorized by Limbaugh as acting for the commercial. “This is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn’t take his medication or he’s acting, one of the two”, the radio host had then said.
It’s not a surprise that Limbaugh soon found himself at the receiving end of a backlash with calls even for his sponsor’s to pull off from his shows. Responding to his comments, Fluke said she considered Limbaugh as being beyond the limits of civil discourse. Fluke has released a statement in Washington expressing gratitude for the support extended to her, while Limbaugh has apologized. In a statement made on his website, the radio host said that his choice of words was wrong and that he did not intend to make a personal attack.
The issue might have died down for now and is likely to crop up similarly, anytime later. The core to the entire issue is religion.
Abortion, contraception, gay marriages are among the several contemporary issues anchored in the domains of religion.
Contemporary lives and lifestyles are those that evolved over time. In our evolution we have changed every aspect of our life to suit the needs of the days, expect challenging those dictated by religion.
We try and live in a totally different world, refusing to let go of our religious hold.
Most of the things man holds onto today are not the need of the day. He holds on to it because he simply believes that it is the right and the necessary, although he doesn’t realize why.
An understanding of Darwin’s views of human evolution would shed more light on this.
In our religious life, we have been taught of religious requirements, and have reconciled to accept them. We don’t introspect religion because across generations we have accepted and obliged it, and this has become a part of our heredity. Issues like this will crop up then and there until we decide to address the core fact, which is how far is religious views relevant today?.
Religion and God are to prevail upon man to live a virtuous life in a society and not to teach or preach upon him, sex and contraception. Contraceptives are the indeed the need of the day.
Sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted childbirths, financial difficulties, child raising difficulties, health and education requirements depleting natural resources etc., weren’t in place when religion first asked men to abandon contraceptives.
We all need to urgently sit and recognize the fact that God will not alleviate the problem that contraceptives can. Once we all achieve a consensus, we shall all pray God and seek from him, better and more effective contraceptives at lower costs.
