As Much About Gender as Religion

I have been following the contraception controversy pretty closely.  Weighing first amendment rights versus public health is as important as any policy decision we can make.  But there is one aspect of this debate that I think has been largely overlooked:  The lack of female leadership in the Catholic Church impugns its credibility on this issue.

The reality is that men are making a decision about a health issue that largely impacts women.  Women spend far more money on contraception than do men, and of course, are far more affected by unprotected sex than are men.  So when an entity run by men claims the first amendment protects their doctrine that mainly impacts women, I think we as a society have a responsibility to look harder at the issue.

I’m far from a religious scholar, but it seems the Church has modified its stance on issues to reflect changing times.  But not this one.  Nobody is asking Catholics to condone contraception, but merely to allow people of all income levels to make their own decisions on this important health decision.  I have to believe that if women were in leadership positions, the Church would have a far different view at this point in human history.

While the first amendment is as basic to our idea of a free society as any other right, it is not absolute.  Evidence seems to clearly point to requiring health plans to cover contraception as an overriding need.  Surveys conducted by the Guttmacher Institute show that nearly one in four women with household incomes of less than $75,000 have put off a doctor’s visit for birth control to save money in the past year.  More than a quarter of women using contraception say they use it inconsistently to save money.  More than half of young adult women say they have not used their method as directed because it was cost-prohibitive.

But of course a person’s propensity to have sex is not based on income.  So there’s a health risk we’re creating based on our unwillingness to provide funding for this basic healthcare service.  We understand the value of providing other basic healthcare services to the poor.  We even provide healthcare coverage for illnesses derived from other lifestyle decisions like smoking, eating, riding motorcycles, drinking alcohol, and using illegal drugs.  The Catholic Church, however, thinks this particular choice (even this particular sin) deserves different consideration.  I have to think its male-dominated leadership has something to do with it.