Home   >   News   >   Current Affairs   >   With Birth Control Pills and Hormonal Therapy for All

With Birth Control Pills and Hormonal Therapy for All

By on March 13, 2012

The political landscape is lit up by fires ignited by those attacking hormonal therapy affecting conception. At a time when most Americans are worrying about the sluggish economic recovery, rising gasoline prices and high unemployment, voices on the extreme right are obsessed with stamping out anything remotely connected to voluntary termination of pregnancy. Now that fire has spread to the topic of conception itself.

Birth control pills are principally female hormones given by mouth intended to override the patient’s own internal hormonal cycle. This can prevent conception by interfering with the sequence of releases supporting conception. These pills are also prescribed when great pain. heavy bleeding or irregularity are at issue. After a short course of hormonal therapy, some women who experienced irregular menses will begin to have fairly normal cycles. There are other indications for this therapy.

Recently voices from the lunatic fringe in America have characterized women wanting a prescription for birth control pills as ‘sluts’ and ‘prostitutes.’  At the same time these same talkers continue to agitate against government support of unwanted babies belonging to ‘welfare queens,’  penalizing the child as much as the mother in their actions. It is surprising how many of these voices belong to well-fed, elderly men bankrolled by shadowy contributors.

In Virginia, the state has gone even farther in its crusade against hormones. The legislature there passed a law demanding an ultrasound test before a patient can be allowed to terminate a pregnancy for any reason. Initially this mandate required a probe to be inserted into the patient’s vagina to produce an image. The goal was to discourage the patient from proceeding. After some public outcry, the demand was modified but not dropped. Governor Bob McDonnell signed it into law.

It is ironic that those who scream loudly about health reform as increasing government interference in the practice of medicine have no qualms stepping in when gynaecology is concerned. I am the father of three healthy children who would have struggled mightily if termination of any pregnancy had been recommended for my wife. Life is precious. But politics has no place in the doctor’s consultation room. Neither have other people’s religious beliefs. These are personal matters.

The writers of the Constitution were wise in deciding there would be no official religion in the United States. They were correct in allowing wide religious freedom within limits. And they were prudent to guarantee one of those limits was legislation, separating religious beliefs from the law of the land. There have always been dissenters, those who interpreted laws to their own purposes.

In 2010, this country elected some new office holders.  Voters were sending a message to the White House and anyone who would listen that they were unhappy with the progress and focus of national economic recovery. Unfortunately many of these new legislators regarded themselves as anointed to meddle in any social issue that struck their fancy, while playing politics with the crucial issues that propelled them into office. They joined like-minded legislators who saw their opportunity to play ‘God.’  The result has been gridlock and paralysis in Washington on issues that matter most to voters, and elsewhere, folly and foolishness on social and individual issues.

This November the electorate has an opportunity, indeed a moral obligation, to reassert the wisdom of the founding fathers. This transcends party affiliation or philosophy. Consider it an urgent effort to keep the ship of state from running aground. Those who would meddle into the delivery of medical care (as opposed to its financing) or impose their own religious beliefs on others, or behave in a fashion that thwarts action on vital issues must be turned out of office. Let’s have no more last-minute deals on the national debt! No closing down the government for party solidarity! No more filibusters as a favor to lobbyists and high rollers.

Unfortunately many polls show that voters usually tolerate their own local dysfunctional official but agitate to dump the rest. Not this year! It should not matter how great your guy or gal may have been kissing babies, how ‘cute’ on the stump, how nice showing up for the local weeny roast, how successful at buzzword bingo. If the candidate’s actions do not significantly help solve the matters that matter to most Americans, out the door they go in November. Seeing the same tired faces back running the show in 2013 is more than any American should be asked to endure.

Unwanted pregnancy is not the most pressing issue facing the US this election year. Few of today’s current office holders are indispensable. Some office holders old and new cry out for replacement. It is time for you to take matters seriously in hand. Just consider it a therapeutic termination from the body politic.

Tom Godfrey

About Tom Godfrey

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

HTML tags are not allowed.