The Trump Administration is on the verge of rewriting rules that will allow employers to opt-out of previous ACA provisions on providing birth control to employees. If this happens a lot of women will suffer for it, more unwanted babies will be born (costing society a lot more money), and abortions will increase. The Paris accords and Russia have been dominating the news, but this is happening now and it will happen fast. We need to put on massive public pressure to stop this NOW.

While it is clear that the religious right in our country controls the GOP’s stance on abortion, what we sometimes miss is that this isn’t the only important thing on the table. What we’re really dealing with are people who don’t want you to have sex outside of marriage. And to this group, birth control encourages us to have sex by taking away the “repercussions” (i.e. conception), and turns us all into sex crazed teen savages.

This discussion is crazy on many levels, but let’s break them down. First, education about and availability of birth control are the single best ways to reduce abortions. Second, this very concept shows how we massively misinterpret the idea of “freedom” in this country, especially when it comes to religion. And third, this is blatant sexism, masked as religion and morality.

The facts on birth control are simple, and we have stats from across the US and from many other countries. If the government, through education campaigns (schools and advertising) makes information about birth control readily available, and provides easy access to birth control (in particular at no cost to the user, so poor people who are most at risk for unwanted pregnancy can “afford” it), then birth rates go down, unwanted births go down, and abortion rates go down. All of these are not only prima facie reasonable, but are established in fact. But this is under attack right now. The rules written to implement the ACA guaranteed access to birth control under all insurance plans (with a few exceptions), and the Trump administration is about to rewrite and reverse those rules. This is also a part of the attack on Planned Parenthood — while we usually think about this as an attack on abortion rights, it is also very much an attack on birth control, since a large number of younger and poorer Americans get their birth control from Planned Parenthood.

The problem is that some religious people, guided by their current versions of American puritanism (as seen in evangelicals and others who original Puritans would probably hate!), think that human being shouldn’t be allowed to have sex outside of marriage. They say this is immoral and wrong. Note that the Catholic church agrees with this, but the vast majority of American Catholics ignore it.

Which brings us to the question of “Religious Freedom.” We have a Constitution provided right to our religion. We  have a right to practice any religion that we want to, and do whatever that religion tells us to do. SO LONG AS YOUR RELIGIOUS PRACTICE DOES NOT HURT ANYONE ELSE. I put it in caps because I’m yelling it out. Those who argue for societal restrictions based on their religion tend to forget this. You don’t have a right to sacrifice babies (or goats, lambs, etc) in your religious ceremonies. You don’t have a right to make others take communion in your church. And you don’t have a right to tell others how they can have sex (sodomy), when they can have sex (only when married), or define when life begins (at conception), based on your religious beliefs. You don’t get to impose your religion on others, and this is what our current debate on birth control is trying to do.

Even worse, it is doing it through employers. Now, the question is whether your employer’s religion can invade your life. Every person, including employers, have the right to their own religion. But your employer does not get to decide your religion! If they are a private, religious entity engaged in worship, they can certainly have restrictions on who they employ. A Catholic Church can only take Catholics. A Jewish Synagogue only Jews. But for employers who do not have these restrictions, and they should be illegal outside of VERY limited religious circumstances, then the religion of the employer should be meaningless. If you hire people who are not of your religion and/or provide services to people who are not of your religion, then you are serving the public. You are not a private club. And you can’t discriminate when serving the public. In this case, you can’t push your religion on your employees by limiting their insurance options in discriminatory ways. And pushing your religion on someone through insurance is absolutely causing harm, and absolutely discriminatory. The Supreme Court had a few highly politicized case about this recently, and they were wrong. Corporations aren’t people. They don’t have religious rights, and can’t dictate their beliefs to employees.

And finally, we have the patriarchal sexism at the root of this issue. Insurance covers viagra so men can control their penises, but not birth control so women can control their uterus. At some level, it comes down to this. This is morally and practically insane. In particular on the practical side, birth control is enormously cheaper than having babies!

Society should rejoice in a practical sense — people are going to have sex. If you think you can stop that, good luck. Religion has been trying for millenia, and those damned teenagers, and 20 somethings, and 80 somethings still go out and fornicate! It’s like they think their body parts were made to fit together or something!

Instead, we’re back to the land of insanity — and it’s about to become law again. It’s time to get loud. Get active. And let the Trump administration, Congress, and the country know that there are reasonable people out there who will not let this stand. btw, don’t just use this in 2020 at the next Presidential election. Hold all legislators to task, ask for their stance on this, and do everything you can to support their opponents if you don’t agree. You want rights for yourself and others? Fight for them.