Take Two Aspirin and Call Me after the Election - Responding to R. Alta Charo: 'Warning: Contraceptive Drugs May Cause Political Headaches'
Perspective, New England Journal of Medicine, March 2012
3 Pages Posted: 27 Mar 2012
Date Written: March 14, 2012
Abstract
Consistent with her previous service to the President, Professor Charo observes that the Obama administration will ‘win’ if the current controversy can be framed as a dispute about contraceptives, and then loyally attempts to do just that.
“Let’s recognize,” she writes, “that the current debate is about public health and contraception.”
Actually, at root, the current debate is about who should pay for contraceptives. The policy of the Obama administration is that women who use contraceptives should not have to pay for them. Unfortunately, contraceptives cost money. If women are not to pay for them, someone else must do so.
It is possible to achieve the administration’s goal of having someone else pay for women’s contraceptives without forcing unwilling religious believers to foot the bill, without becoming entangled in complex and contentious evaluations of moral complicity, and without triggering legal challenges under the First Amendment.
Keywords: freedom of conscience, contraception, Health and Human Services
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