http://reason.com/archives/2013/12/11/more-contraception-less-conscription
In a rational world, women in the U.S. would be able to buy birth control over the counter — something that is perfectly safe to do, and that women in other countries do as a matter of routine.
But because American women cannot, the country is now embroiled in an unnecessary debate — one that, exacerbated by tendentious red-team/blue-team cheerleading, has produced an almost poisonous level of mendacity. If the prevaricators prevail, they will roll back the country’s progress toward broader individual freedom of conscience.
The debate concerns Obamacare’s contraception mandate. That bureaucratic (not legislative) edict now exempts certain religious institutions thanks to a compromise earlier this year. But that leaves some businesses, such as current litigants Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood, on the hook despite their own faith-based objections. The Supreme Court recently agreed to resolve the disagreement among lower courts about whether the mandate violates religious liberty.
....
This whole fight would go away in a heartbeat if the U.S. allowed over-the-counter sales of birth control. Doing so would make obtaining contraception vastly easier, without conscripting the unwilling. It would thereby increase individual liberty for all and let everyone follow the dictates of his or her own conscience. Now that would be truly pro-choice.
In a rational world, women in the U.S. would be able to buy birth control over the counter — something that is perfectly safe to do, and that women in other countries do as a matter of routine.
But because American women cannot, the country is now embroiled in an unnecessary debate — one that, exacerbated by tendentious red-team/blue-team cheerleading, has produced an almost poisonous level of mendacity. If the prevaricators prevail, they will roll back the country’s progress toward broader individual freedom of conscience.
The debate concerns Obamacare’s contraception mandate. That bureaucratic (not legislative) edict now exempts certain religious institutions thanks to a compromise earlier this year. But that leaves some businesses, such as current litigants Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood, on the hook despite their own faith-based objections. The Supreme Court recently agreed to resolve the disagreement among lower courts about whether the mandate violates religious liberty.
....
This whole fight would go away in a heartbeat if the U.S. allowed over-the-counter sales of birth control. Doing so would make obtaining contraception vastly easier, without conscripting the unwilling. It would thereby increase individual liberty for all and let everyone follow the dictates of his or her own conscience. Now that would be truly pro-choice.