Brandy Andrew
Staff Writer

While I don’t intend to harp upon politics every week, I stumbled upon an issue that is very close to me and truly stupid on the part of the politicians behind it. As we are all aware, the House Republicans are taking the government closer and closer to a government shut down in order to get their way. That is not the worst of it.
Saturday night, the House Republicans slipped a rule into a bill to fund the government that would allow employers to refuse employees coverage for contraception on moral grounds; even though they know that will not be passed due to their own government shut down.
While the Republican Party has been trying to take us back to the early 1900s for a long time now, this is just absurd. They did this just to remind us that they hate women. Personally, I will not stand for this.
The fact of the matter is no one should be denied health care on any basis, but to deny contraception on moral grounds is insane. Most women I know started birth control before becoming sexually active due to biological issues.
Birth Control Pill ContainerWithout our birth control, the women in this country will suffer from PMDD, heavy and irregular menstruation, menstrual migraines, and persistent acne. Birth control can lower the risk of ovarian and endometrial cancer, plus it protects against bone thinning, ectopic pregnancy, pelvic inflammatory disease, iron deficiency anemia, cysts in the breasts and ovaries, and breast growths that are not cancer.
Along with the health issues that cause a woman to start birth control, of course women take it because they do not want to get pregnant at that point in their life. Politically and economically, it makes sense to spend the money on providing birth control rather than allowing millions of unwanted pregnancies leading to spending money to support families who cannot support themselves.
As far as morals go, we know the Republicans are against abortion. There would be a large spike in abortions if more women are getting unintentionally pregnant and decide to go that route.
Morals, however, are none of the governments business in this case. We have laws protecting citizens from those with no sense of concern for the lives and welfare of others; We don’t need the government to patrol our personal matters. The government does not get to decide when we become sexually active, whom we sleep with, or how often we do. No one in politics wants to patrol men’s sex lives. Based on the amount of sex scandals coming out of the male powered government, maybe they should.
A woman’s sexual life is of no concern whatsoever to her government, nor her employer. This is not an issue of sexuality, this is a women’s health issue.
The republicans have already told us that they think women should not be paid as much as men. That says enough about how highly they think of us. But then they said we should undergo invasive, unnecessary medical procedures, they targeted Planned Parenthood funding (which many women depend on for prescriptions and care), and now they are threatening our health.
While I could not live in this country and believe that they would take away my birth control (I cannot see it happening as of now), I still cannot live in this country knowing that there are those who want to try.
Our local Representative is Joseph Pitts. I encourage you to contact Joe Pitts. He is a House Republican and he is supposed to represent us. Let him hear your voice. Men and women both need to let him know this is not how we treat our women. Contact him at https://pitts.house.gov/contact-me.