Fact: in 2014, the rate of abortions per 1,000 women dropped below the rate of abortions when Roe v. Wade was passed in 1973.
Fact: services provided by family planning visits net a savings of over $11 million when comparing prevention methods to expenditures made by the government in order to subsidize needs otherwise necessary without prevention.
With the war on Planned Parenthood and an administration constantly flip-flopping their stance on insurance-covered birth control, it’s time to take a look at why Republicans feel the way they do.
Many arguments have pervaded over the years. Republicans have argued that having access to birth control increases the number of sexual partners a woman is likely to have.
Nope.
Republicans have also argued that having access to cheap and free birth control constitutes an excuse for “recreational sex,” so subsidizing women’s birth control is like paying for them to go to the movies.
Uh… Not so much.
There was even a failed attempt at passing the Mississippi Personhood amendment, which would have changed the legal definition of “person” and given it to a fertilized egg. This new definition would have opened the potential for birth control to be rendered illegal, since some of them work by making the uterus inhospitable to already-fertilized eggs.
The truth of the matter is that no argument can be made for getting rid of birth control that doesn’t involve religion. For them, it’s about their religious-based morals being heard and adhered to rather than understanding women’s basic rights to necessary healthcare products.
The Republican Party is excellent at spouting rhetoric concerning our Founding Fathers. Everything from stating that they wouldn’t want the federal government to be involved in state issues all the way to stating that they would not have supported gay marriage has taken place over the years.
So, let’s take a look at what our Founding Fathers actually said about religion in regards to government. After all, they are the Republicans’ main basis of example, so it seems.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
That would be our First Amendment to the Constitution.
“The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
That would be Article VI of the Constitution.
The title “God” isn’t even mentioned in our Constitution!
In our Declaration of Independence, the words “religion” and “religious” don’t appear either.
Do you know what does appear in our Declaration of Independence?
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
See the word Creator? What word precedes it?
The phrase is, “their Creator.” Not, “our Creator.” Not, “this country’s established Creator.”
Their Creator. As in, whomever that person establishes as their Creator.
Don’t believe me? Alright, what about this little tidbit of history?
“The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
That would be a quote from John Adams.
“I am for freedom of religion and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another.”
That would be Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Elbridge Gerry.
Still not convinced?
“Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”
That, my friends, is George Washington.
So, the next time someone attempts to educate you on how religion somehow justifies a decision in our government with regards to any topic, much less birth control, you can let them know exactly where our Founding Fathers stood with regards to religion and the relationship it has with our government.
Check out this video of Rachel Maddow talking about the Christian war on birth control:
Featured Image By Beathan Via ThinkProgress.
