CATHOLIC ATTACK

Michelle Malkin has written a bizarre column about how Catholic medical providers are being attacked by Obama.  The reverse is actually the case.  The Catholic Church has taken it upon itself to try to prevent American women from having abortions, even in the case of rape or incest, or danger to the woman's health or life.  And now they want to prevent women from even using contraception.  We have religious freedom in America, which means that one church cannot force its particular beliefs on the rest of the American population.  My ancestors came from Europe in the 1600's when Europe was being destroyed by the warfare waged by the Kings of Spain and France in the name of the Catholic Church.  They wanted to force the Catholic religion on the entire population of Europe at the point of the sword.  Convert or perish.  These wars were the reason that our constitution stated that Americans would have religious freedom.  Our ancestors were fully aware of the problems of state religion forcing its views on the entire population.  They did not want to deal with that in America.  Fortunately, we now have the freedom of our own religious beliefs.  Even most American Catholic women use contraception.  But the Catholic Church does not want to allow its health insurance companies to provide contraception to the women who happen to be working in any Catholic institution.  That would involve hundreds of thousands of women who would not have the health care they need and want.  If health insurance were totally provided by the government, the church would not have to be "morally concerned" about the insurance provided to its employees. But Malkin and many others are also totally opposed to "Obamacare."  They want the insurance companies to profit from women's health concerns; and they also want to tell the insurance companies what kind of health care women can have.  Why should the Catholic Church be allowed to tell American women whether or not they can use contraceptives? 

Many women and men decide to be sterilized to prevent further pregnancies after they have had their family.  Catholic medical providers to not want to provide this kind of health care.  This is perfectly legal health care.  Why should medical providers decide whether their conscience forbids someone else from being sterilized?  What if medical providers made all their medical decisions on the basis of their individual consciences?  Many of them would decide that if a person has been shot they  do not want to provide medical care for them.  Especially if that person had been running from the police.  Maybe physicians should simply be allowed to decide who should live and who should die?  That would save the cost of a jury trial.  Or maybe they simply don't like a given person.  Should they be allowed to refuse to treat him or her?  What about the pharmacist?  If someone has a prescription for a medication of which he does not approve, should the pharmacist be allowed to refuse to fill it?  If every physician, nurse, and pharmacist starts making "moral" decisions about who to treat and what treatment should be allowed, the medical profession whould be in total chaos.  People who go into medical practice should not be making "moral" decisions about who deserves treatment and who does not.  They need to simply practice medicine.  The Catholic Church places the interests of the fertilized egg over the life of a woman.  This is misogyny.  It began in the Middle Ages and it continues in spite of a thousand years of enlightenment.  When will it ever end?