This week's Spirit & Life is by Father Shenan J. Boquet, president of Human Life International. Spirit & Life is the weekly e-column of
Human Life International.
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Does this Make Any Sense?
Dear deaconjohn,
"This
makes no sense," began the email from a colleague. He was angry about
the decision of the U.S. Department of Justice to drop its appeal of an
order by a federal judge declaring that Plan B must be sold over the
counter -- that is, without a prescription -- to any person who wants
it, no matter how young.
My
friend was half right. It makes no sense that a single judge in a court
somewhere can make such a sweeping and radical decision for the entire
country that has the potential to do great harm. It makes even less
sense when you consider the fact that there are no peer reviewed studies
that examine the long-term effects of Plan B on very young girls who
will soon be able to purchase it along with bubble gum and a diet soda
at any corner drug store. It makes no sense that the Obama
administration would suddenly drop their entirely reasonable objections
to the judge's decision; though, come to think of it, given this
administration's love affair with birth control and the abortion
industry, it made little sense for them to raise objections to the
judge's decision in the first place.
It
makes no sense to justify this idiotic decision on the basis of
"women's health" when women already had access to the drug, and there
was never anything healthy about it. It's now little girls who have
unchecked, unsupervised and uncounseled access to the drug. And its
availability is likely to give some girls the idea that there is a
"safe" "Plan B" to fall back on if they engage in risky sexual behavior.
It
makes no sense to give child rapists a "get out of jail for 50 bucks"
card that will help them eliminate the human evidence of their crimes,
allowing continued abuse of young girls. Nor does it make sense to give
young women who may be socially pressured into sex well before they are
ready any greater incentive to avoid sexually transmitted disease, which
is now at epidemic rates among American youth.
This
decision reveals how radical not only this judge is, but how radical
the Obama administration and its pro-abortion allies are. They dropped
their half-hearted opposition to this ridiculous judgment without
putting up much of a fight now that they are well past the election (the
HHS's original decision to keep Plan B access restricted to
prescription-only status for women and girls over 17 was made in 2011).
Politicians
and bureaucrats who have taken over "health care" in this nation have,
as they do with so many important terms, redefined health care. The
Affordable Care Act is most certainly not making anything more
affordable, and it isn't really about improving care. Nor was it about
providing free care for the poor, millions of whom will continue to
remain without adequate care following the bill's passage. For those
currently in power, health care is just another tool to create the
society they want -- one in which the family is no more (at least not
the traditional family), and in which religion and every other
institution is broken, except to the extent it serves the interest of
the State.
This
isn't about health, it is about separating children from their parents,
and about leaving the government the only institution left standing.
For this to happen, basic institutions of the family and the Church must
be brought to heel. Yet many practitioners of religion still sing the
praises of the system that appears to be designed to break every promise
that was made to sell it to the American people.
Not only this, but Plan B is likely an abortifacient. As HLI's series
on Plan B demonstrated, this drug that is now available to 11-year-olds
without their parents or doctors knowing is probably not a
contraceptive at all. Since it does not often prevent ovulation, the
times when it does work it probably prevents the implantation of the
tiny embryonic human being in the uterus, causing an early abortion.
Yes,
radicals are making sweeping decisions about young women's health that
are not at all in women's best interests, elevating sterility as the
highest value in health. Their vision for the healthy young girl is one
who is having sex, having abortions and using harmful contraceptive
drugs. The emotional, physical and psychological consequences be
damned.
The
Church's vision for women's health is much more natural, sane and
genuinely empowering. Young girls are taught not to think of themselves
as merely sexual objects, but to love and respect themselves, and save
themselves for marriage. Drugs that suppress natural and healthy
processes are rejected. Women who become pregnant are embraced and
supported, not pressured into "fixing the problem" by killing their
child and harming their own bodies in the process. It's a vision of
loving families creating and forming children who themselves know how to
love and discern wisely their vocations, which may include creating a
family of their own.
Now this makes sense.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Father Shenan J. Boquet
President, Human Life International
