Religion and Reproduction

This is a straight-up rant. This post isn't meant to be sexy. It's not specifically about sex, or fucking, or all the fun things my life occasionally entails. Fun Fact: In high school I was voted Most Opinionated. Here is a taste of why.

[Side note: I was also voted Most Boy Crazy. Snicker as you wish.]



NEWS FLASH: Catholics use birth control. Jews use birth controls. Muslims, Buddhists, and even Atheists use birth control. And you know what, that is just one of their many rights as American citizens.

In various religions, it is against their most conservative practices to use condoms, the pill, the patch, the ring, the matchstick, and/or the morning after pill. But you know what, people still use them.

Why?

Because condoms help against spreading disease. Because some women don't want to get pregnant. Because sex is fun and is often enjoyed for more than procreation. Because I wouldn't want to have the child of my rapist. Or my cousin. Or my father. Because, as Americans, it is our right to choose.

I can't help but be pissed when I hear Republican Presidential candidates equate the new healthcare rule concerning contraception coverage to an assault against religious freedom. Unless someone is removing the pills from their dispenser and shoving them down your throat, there is no assault on religious freedom.

You know what is an assault that involves religion? Trying to force your views and practices on people who do not share your beliefs, namely your employees who want to prevent pregnancy but can't because you refuse to cover the medication in their healthcare plans.

This mess has less to do with religion and more to do with women's reproductive rights. But conservatives don't want to talk about that. Women don't have sex for fun. What am I talking about? Meanwhile, those of you who've read my blog, or yah know have had hands on practice, know that thinking is utter bullshit.

The new healthcare rule is, in fact, a step to give women more freedom with their reproductive rights.

Hey Catholic hospital, you're a fucking hospital first! Hey Catholic college, you're a fucking college first! And you know what? Plenty of your employees aren't fucking Catholic!

So yes, you need to cover this portion of their healthcare in your plans just like you cover vasectomies and Viagra. And even if an employee is Catholic or Jewish or Muslim, they get to choose what goes into their body, if they want to use condoms, or have sex for fun, or prevent a pregnancy, whether from a lover or from a rapist.

I get so sick and tired of members of the right spouting bullshit trying to trump up the vote. This time they're speaking to misogynists who still believe they have a say in what I do with my body. It's my fucking body, assholes. Step the fuck off!

Mitt Romney, while governor of Massachusetts, passed a law requiring Catholic hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape victims.

Please, re-read that last statement.

It is important because of a few choice points: 1- If the law was created, it usually means they had to make it in the first place, as in Catholic hospitals were NOT offering emergency contraception to rape victims. (Lemonade moments in-fucking-deed) 2- Romney is a fucking opportunist hypocrite, criticizing the President on reproductive rights after having signed into law similar rights in his own state. & 3- What the fuck, Catholic hospitals!?! Seriously, what the fuck!?!

I was baptized Catholic, and reached my first communion before my mother converted to Baptist. I went to a Catholic middle and high school. I went to a public college. I call myself Christian because I believe there is something greater than myself. Call it God. Call it the essence that is life. There is something.

But you know one thing I did learn while suffering through Religion classes I gave little to no weight to: There was this cool guy named Jesus who, if he were alive today, would be a Socialist. Feeding the poor. Healing the sick. You're probably going to hell if you're rich. And, shit, keeping the wine flowing and the party going. Cool guy.

One part about this current "debate" that I find incredibly disturbing is the Quiverfull movement. First, no birth control whatsoever? Not even the rhythm method? Scary. But beyond that, the idea that you can have enough children to eventually out populate the left/liberals/Democrats, and thereby usher our country into a conservative utopia, downgrades women into baby making machines, children into votes, and liberty and freedom into just buzz words.

But hey, why am I surprised? I'm a black woman and a bleeding heart liberal. It isn't like this country has been so welcoming of my kind, even if I was born here.

[Fun fact: go Google 'Mississippi apendectomy'. I just learned about this a few months ago. This country is so fucked up.]

/rant