So alot going on.

Controversy and accusations flying about animal control. Still trying to build a coal plant, still selling(?) power, GeeGuy still waiting for public records …?

But I’m not going to write about any of that. Wait, I sorta just did. I’m going to write about the full page Planned Parenthood petition printed in the Tribune. It made me put down the paper and go mow the lawn.

This is not some form of discrimination against women. I have issues with that. It is not about 2,000 years of tyranny. Oppression? We do not, as a sex, have a certain right to purchase birth control. We have the opportunity to, if there is someone who has it for sale. But to try to claim that this is somehow violating your rights is sexism in itself.

So I did a little research on the religion angle. Here.

On July 25th 1968 the Vatican called a press conference. In the papal encyclical entitled Humanae Vitae (”Of Human Life”), Pope Paul VI ended the speculation over oral contraceptives and birth control once and for all. In addition to condemning abortion and sterilization, the Pope singled out the Pill for its role in separating the act of sex from procreation. The Pill, Humanae Vitae declared, “opened up a wide and easy road… toward conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality. Man, growing used to contraceptive practices, may lose respect for the woman and come to the point of considering her as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment, and no longer as his respected and beloved companion.”

And there.

I agree to an extent, that contraceptives have assisted in the moral decline of our country. However, I feel in this, as with many other moral decisions, it is left to us, in our own wisdom, to make the personal choice that is right for us. It is the teachings of your elders as you grow and learn, the things that shape you, that mould who you are, and ultimately how you feel about the decisions you make in your life. If you choose to embrace the teachings of this Church, you will not use Birth Control.

How do people truly justify claiming any right to force someone to commit a mortal sin just so they do not have to drive across town. Because without all the hypotheticals, and Oh my Gosh scenario’s, that is just what this is. (Sadly, I personally feel that there are a great number of people in this country who should use birth control, and do not. However I won’t go into that right now.)

So from a religious angle, I agree completely with the owners of Snyder, as long as they truly embrace the teachings of the Church and pull all forms of contraception. Viagra and such are meaningless to this discussion.  

Pharmacists don’t have to sell everything. They referred everyone elsewere, there is no question of women unable to fill the prescription at another store, and come on. There are plenty of drugs you cannot buy at every pharmacy.

So does an individual business owner have a right to not sell a product for any reason. Absolutely. Does an individual business owner have a right to not sell a product for no reason. Absolutely.

So it comes down to a flimsy argument about you violating my rights. Perhaps some of the folks advocating force from the government to further the rights of women should read that last sentence the Pope gave in his justification.

I am a woman in Great Falls, Montana, and I can do just about anything I want.  I can usually get a guy to change my flat tire, so I can drive to almost any store I want and get birth control. Hell, I can buy condoms at the Cum & Go. I can fill my 12 year old son’s prescription at three pharmacys in this town. And I do not believe my rights have been violated.

3 July 2007 | Life | Comments