Letter to the Editor

By Raine Klover

Contraception is health care issue

Contraception is most definitely "health care." For women who suffer from endometriosis, birth control hormones are sometimes the only thing that relieves them from crippling pain and allow them to lead productive lives. Ditto for women living with PCOS. For women who have severe health problems wherein pregnancy can be dangerous, birth control is also preventative health care.

And for millions of married and unmarried women, contraception is a moral choice. I am a happily married Christian mother of two. It is in the best interest of the health and welfare of our family to have only two children. Would conservatives rather I get pregnant and have an abortion -- or get pregnant and sign up for food stamps and Medicaid? Are they willing to pay (through the childcare tax credit) for the childcare I would then have to have, as both parents would have to head out into the workforce? And what about that extra tax break for having another dependant -- is that cool for us to take?

A recent letter writer to this paper claimed that contraception "simply allows a woman to have uninhibited sex without getting pregnant." Note there is no mention of the men that would be having uninhibited sex with these loose women -- it's all about the woman. And that is where we get to the crux of the conservative viewpoint.

Conservatives, who claim to be the party of individual freedom, actually want to legislate who gets to have sex -- and apparently the only people allowed to have sex are heterosexual married couples with unlimited resources. The rest of us lustful, sex-crazed women just need to put an aspirin between our knees and carry on.

Raine Klover

Huntington

To see the letter as posted in the Herald-Dispatch and read the comments regarding it click here.