Federal Family Planning
Talk about the law of unintended consequences! Once again we see that anything the federal government subsidizes, we get more of.
Yesterday, the federal government Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
announced that all FDA-approved contraceptive drugs and devices are preventative care and should therefore be covered without co-payment or deductible by all insurance plans. A federal government MANDATE that all sexual behavior and family planning be encouraged, protected, and underwritten by the insurance companies (under pain of penalty from the federal government) is wrong on several levels.
The involvement of the federal government in this matter ultimately means that we get more sexually transmitted diseases, more unwanted pregnancies, more babies out of wedlock, more abortions, more heartache, and ultimately, more taxpayer involvement in the private lives of the sexually and fiscally irresponsible.
For the federal government to MANDATE that private companies (insurers) pay for contraceptives and abortifacient drugs oversteps its moral and legal jurisdiction in these ways:
1. Family planning is at core an individual couple’s decision; not the financial and moral responsibility of the federal government, much less all taxpayers.
2. Anyone having a moral objection to MORE irresponsible sexual behavior has no legitimate standing in this matter. The federal government has decided.
3. It sends the message that pregnancy is something to be avoided and ultimately children are undesirable. (This is schizophrenic on the part of the federal government because babies ultimately grow up and pay taxes.)
Greg Pfundstein, writing in the National Review, sees it the same way. In an August 2, 2011 article entitled, “The Misguided Birth-Control Crusade Continues”, he writes:
“An editorial by a doctor in the employ of Planned Parenthood published in the New York Times on the morning of the release of the IOM report contains a classic example of the fake sob stories often used by those who promote government sponsored contraception. The author laments that her daughter can’t afford an IUD, and is left to make do instead with a contraceptive injection. “Health insurers continue to charge fees that make it difficult, sometimes impossible, for women to prevent unintended pregnancy.”
One could quibble that there is one obvious alternative for the author’s daughter, an employed, divorced mother of three — one generally not subject to any fees.
“Today’s system of co-payments and deductibles for birth control,” the author concludes, “sends a terrible message to women like my daughter: when it comes to planning your family, you’re on your own.” Alas, it is no longer so. It is no longer enough for women to be free to make decisions about their own sexual behavior. Now we all must shoulder the economic responsibility for those decisions.” Source: National Review
When will the arrogant and irresponsible employees of the federal government realize that a central government based in Washington DC cannot possibly micromanage the lives of each of the 313 million citizens of these United States? There will always be something they did not anticipate or plan for, hence we have unintentional consequences of overreaching federal legislation. Said differently, once again they have overstepped their jurisdiction in this matter.
Photo Sources: Time Inc. and Life Site News
