Misogynistic assholes alert

[veronica_rich]

You know I can't even make this shit up. Welcome to America.

Now, here is the letter I plan to fax a few times tomorrow to the DHHS secretary. See if you find any mistakes to correct, or suggestions for changes. (And yes, it may be a tidge personal, but I tried to keep the "I" factor down as much as possible, and I tried to stick with facts even in the persuasive parts.) Feel free to write your own missive and steal whatever you like from this, if nobody puts forth obvious inaccuracies.

Hon. Mike Leavitt, Secretary
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Via facsimile: 202-690-7203

RE: Health care worker protections; redefining contraception

Dear Mr. Leavitt:

Regarding an article in today’s Los Angeles Times about the recent proposal to protect the jobs of health care workers who refuse to provide certain medical services to patients – notably, refusal to perform, prescribe, or dispense requested contraception – I would respectfully point out that the very definition of doing one’s job is in doing one’s job. Should that job become distasteful or run counter to one’s principles, I would expect such a person to seek alternative employment, not to petition their management to essentially continue to pay them for not doing their job.

Refusing to provide information to women about their reproductive choices is criminal; it is a clear violation of their civil rights, and to encourage such behavior will place at least a share of the burden of liability on your agency. (Lest the defense in this matter be that the Department has the unqualified backing of The White House, it would be wise to remember that the Supreme Court has hardly been fully supportive of this lame duck administration’s other questionably legal policies of late.)

Besides the simple biological fact that contraception – by its definition – is not the same as abortion in the prevention of pregnancy, there are other medical benefits many women derive from various forms of contraception. These include, most notably, regulation of menstrual cycles, inhibiting formation of cysts, and protection against some disease. There are women – who are, by the way, more than half the U.S. population and a significant contributor to the workforce and the U.S. public treasury – for whom contraception is literally a lifesaver and insurance they do not suffer needlessly for a week every month from a condition they could not control (being born female).

Adopting any policy or regulation which would allow a health care worker to escape their primary duty – their patient’s physical and mental welfare – is unconscionable. I urge you and your department to carefully reconsider this.

Thank you,

Veronica Rich

cc: Congresscritters (no, don’t write that! Replace with your own)

By the by, if you need to find your Congresscritters, try this site.

Comments

[yoiebear.livejournal.com]

Sounds good to me!

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[kahva.livejournal.com]

Amen, hallelujah and pass the generic Provera! I have PCOS, and I do NOT want to think about what the past 8.5, almost 9 years would've been like if I had not been diagnosed, and had not been put on Ortho-Cyclen (switched to generic Provera almost a year ago because of high blood pressure concerns). If this idiot want to push through this change, then he can pay ALL of my hospital bills should I develop endometrial cancer if this change somehow interferes with my ability to get the medication which has saved me from much pain and discomfort, not to mention quite possibly my life (as in, the risk of endometrial cancer). This doesn't even get into the issues that rape victims could potentially face if this "redefinition" goes through.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine this will go anywhere. In fact, I'll send my letter ... but I've learned from lots of political watching over the years that when something is going on to get a lot of attention, it usually means something else - worse - is also going on, usually under the radar. I just wonder what dog this tail is wagging.

[porridgebird.livejournal.com]

When I wrote mine, I added that I'd like to see the same consideration applied to the military -- so I could enlist and get all the benefits, and then stay home because fighting is against my religion.

(And anyone can invent a religion! I'm an ordained minister (http://www.themonastery.org/); my religion is whatever I say it is.) (No I did not put that in my letter.)

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

The double standard, it runs thick. (Someone pointed out on Feministing that the particular Christians wanting this in place would be the same ones screaming AGAINST if Muslims were breeding like bunnies.)

[mamazano.livejournal.com]

I remember having to put my daughter on birth control pills when she first started menstruating at 12. Her cramps were (and still are) unbearable and her cycles were wild and unpredictable. At the time she was a student at a Catholic school, but I was informed that this form of contraceptive use was NOT a sin (praise the Lord!) because we were treating a medical condition, not trying to prevent contraception.

Glory be! My Sicilian mother told me (in a moment of honesty, not to be mean) that if the Church had allowed contraception, neither me or my older sister would have been born. She and my father already had five children and were having trouble feeding them.

My Sicilian grandmother had 18 live births, thanks to the Church and it's policies.

That is a choice (religion) but our government is not. How dare they interfere in my daughter's health issues! If I needed to hear that crap, I'd listen to the Pope.

(can you tell I am a very lapsed Catholic?)

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it's because she had two teenager DAUGHTERS and no sons or if it's just how she is, but Mom - who is very traditional about a lot of things - has never spoken against contraception or abortion. And when she would hear stories around our little town about girls who'd gotten knocked up, while other people were being vicious, Mom would be sympathetic. "People who live in glass houses can't throw rocks," she'd explain of her refusal to join in, referring to our potential to do the same (i.e., possessing a uterus).

Let's see - one great-grandmother had 14 kids ... another had 7 ... the other two didn't have that many, but plenty, each. I'm NOT doing it even once. And nobody can force me.

[gobsmacked.livejournal.com]

If I needed to hear that crap, I'd listen to the Pope.
And it's not just about not making babies.

In my home province they've made Gardasil free to all girls over 14 via the school boards. Naturally some of the Catholic school boards tried to opt out. Why? Gardasil isn't a contraceptive.

Because knowing that they wouldn't get HPV and hence be more likely to get cervical cancer might encourage some of the girls to have sex before marriage.

Truthfully, I don't know if this is anything Pope Sidious spoke about, but it's apparently "against Catholic values" to try to protect young girls from contracting a potentially fatal disease.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

The only thing I would have against that vaccination (am I thinking of the right thing?) is there are some lingering medical questions as to whether enough testing was done to make sure it's as safe as can be, or that it's not misleading with its claims.

[immortal-jedi.livejournal.com]

There is a difference between contraception and abortion.

And the Department of Health is going way too far. I hadn't read that article, thank you for bringing it to my attention.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

There is a difference, yes. Of course, I feel about one like I feel about the other - the state has better things to do than shove its collective plug up my vagina for anything going in or coming out *G* - but for purposes of this correspondence, I thought I'd stick with the issue at hand.

Apparently this may be just for places receiving government funds - but that's sort of what I figured and I think my content still jives with that. (I hope so, anyway.)

[immortal-jedi.livejournal.com]

I don't feel the same about them- but I recognize that a lot of people do, on either side.

Some of the idea is good- let people follow their morals- but when it comes to medicine- do what the doctors says. And birth control is used for a lot of things, not just... well, birth control. Some women need it to control other issues, like insane moodswings do to hormones. I was once told that I might need to go onto birth control to help control my acne (this was eight years ago. Luckily, the topical medicine actually worked.)

[caniad.livejournal.com]

Yikes. What nonsense. I'm no supporter of abortion (and I know that people will disagree with me...), but not in a million years could I argue that contraception is equivalent to abortion. Two related but widely divergent events, as far as I'm concerned. I can't see how this would get passed anyway. Every time I hear stuff like this, I take yet one more step away from the religious right. (And I'm not even within hollering distance now.) How do people with basically good principles always get these things so wrong?

[vejiicakes.livejournal.com]

FUCK.