This public debate on whether or not the Obama administration's sensible policy on covering birth control has turned into a boys against the girls fight. And the boys are out of touch and out of line.
Are Chris Matthews, Joe Scarborough, Mike Barnicle, EJ Dionne and George Will etc. going to run around the country telling men to wear condoms? And by the way, pay for them themselves? Because if that isn't their plan for the next few years, they need to keep quiet.
Guess what folks, people have sex. And when they do, unless women want to get pregnant, they need birth control. How dare these guys or anyone say that the young cleaning woman or secretary who just happens to work at a hospital or university owned by the Catholic church should not be able to get birth control paid for by her employer. And if she has a medical problem like endimetriosis where her doctor prescribes birth control pills for that, if they had their way she would have to buy them herself as well.
This issue isn't about religious freedom. 99% of Catholic women already use birth control. This issue is about men deciding that their medical needs are purely "medical" and yet women's medical needs are somehow subject to a political equation. If Catholic Bishops want to make their own rules as employers, then they can stop taking federal government subsidies for Medicaid and Medicare patients in their hospitals, or have their schools subsidized by government sponsored student loans. Church employees are already exempt under the administration guidelines. But they won't. Instead they will try to use political pressure to legalize their discrimination and corral their Democrat and Republican male acolytes to do their bidding for them.
America must not let political opinion be swayed on this issue by a bunch of male pundits spelling some sort of political doom for a president who wants to stand up for women's health.