The Contraception Debate: It's Not About Women or Religion

The two sides of the debate on whether or not the federal government should mandate free birth control coverage for women, even if the employer is associated with a religious organaization who may find birth control morally objectionable, represents a really sad truth about the divide in American politics.


The Democrats supporting the mandate accuse anybody who disagrees of misogyny and a proponent of outlawing birth control all together.  Which not all opponents of the mandate are  Republicans accuse anyone who supports the mandate of violating sacred religious freedoms.  Nowhere do you see anybody saying "Both sides are wrong here". 

To the Democrats:  just because somebody doesn't want birth control pills provided completely for free under insurance plans doesn't mean they hate women and want to outlaw contraception all together.  Some people, like myself, fully support the right of women to have access to birth control.  And by that, I mean I support the right of women to have the right to pay for their own birth control (I also don't think pills for erectile dysfunction should be provided for free either).

To the Republicans:  I do sympathize a little more with you on this issue.  But by raising a big stink about the issue and screaming about the violations of employers' religious rights (which, let's face it, are kind of being messed with here), Republicans are shifting the focus away from the real problem here, which is an inefficient and corrupt American insurance system where people must purchase insurance through their employer from a certain company, as opposed to car and homeowner's insurance, where there is no middleman and Americans can purchase whatever plan works for them.


Here's an interesting and funny video that better exemplifies my thoughts on the matter.  Full disclosure, my dad is Nick Gillespie, who is the editor-in-chief of Reason TV, the producer of this video.