Thanks for the response. If you ever feel that I'm picking on you too much, please please please let me know. It's just that you often post about issues that I care about, we have productive discussions even when we disagree, and most of the other folks who meet those criteria have gone over to Facebook.
I find myself torn on this particular issue, and hashing it out here has been helpful. On one hand, I would wholeheartedly welcome universally accessible birth control, for all the reasons you've given above and moar. My wife and I are being responsible and are committed to not having children, so I'd much rather pay for somebody else's BC than subsidize their brood through tax credits, school taxes, or welfare programs. If the right-wingers weren't held hostage by their religious beliefs, they'd realize this the The Smart Thing To Do (tm).
But on the other hand, I'm wary of the government throwing out something as fundamental as religious liberty (no pun intended) for The Good of the State. As much as I detest myself for calling "Oh noes the slippery slope!" here, I have to wonder what kind of precedent this would set (hence my obvious rhetorical trap regarding Vegan employers, which you negotiated quite well). I was raised Catholic and have grown to be somewhere between Agnostic and Deist, so I don't want the feds, or anyone else, telling me that I'm now required to give monetary support to something that goes against my beliefs, even if it is for the so-called Greater Good.
And this next bit is not directed at you, but there's a maddening amount of hypocrisy going around. The same liberals who spent eight years bitching and moaning about GWB trampling the Constitution now seem able to conveniently ignore the Establishment Clause, because in this case it gets them what they want.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2012-03-16 03:57 pm (UTC)I find myself torn on this particular issue, and hashing it out here has been helpful. On one hand, I would wholeheartedly welcome universally accessible birth control, for all the reasons you've given above and moar. My wife and I are being responsible and are committed to not having children, so I'd much rather pay for somebody else's BC than subsidize their brood through tax credits, school taxes, or welfare programs. If the right-wingers weren't held hostage by their religious beliefs, they'd realize this the The Smart Thing To Do (tm).
But on the other hand, I'm wary of the government throwing out something as fundamental as religious liberty (no pun intended) for The Good of the State. As much as I detest myself for calling "Oh noes the slippery slope!" here, I have to wonder what kind of precedent this would set (hence my obvious rhetorical trap regarding Vegan employers, which you negotiated quite well). I was raised Catholic and have grown to be somewhere between Agnostic and Deist, so I don't want the feds, or anyone else, telling me that I'm now required to give monetary support to something that goes against my beliefs, even if it is for the so-called Greater Good.
And this next bit is not directed at you, but there's a maddening amount of hypocrisy going around. The same liberals who spent eight years bitching and moaning about GWB trampling the Constitution now seem able to conveniently ignore the Establishment Clause, because in this case it gets them what they want.