Furor Over “Free Birth Control” Just A Lot of Hot Air

“I want it and I want it now!”

How many times have we heard commercials with that sentence? It seems to now be part of the left's push towards socialized medicine, beginning with “free birth control,” as evidenced by a female heckler towards GOP presidential candidate, Mitt Romney.




This is but the latest in a series of phony calls from Democrats in fabricating a GOP “war on women” that has grown from the testimony given by supposed Law Student Sandra Fluke weeks ago. That she appears to be trained and well entrenched leftist activist as well isn’t reported, though.

Her cry of birth control for women not be covered by health insurance has resonated across the land as our ‘lamestream media’ that promotes the march to socialism echoes the call daily. But is that even a true stand?

What also doesn’t make the news is that this is not the first time this has come up. In the 2008 campaign, Senator John McCain was confronted with the question, “It’s unfair that health insurance companies cover Viagra but not birth control. Do you have an opinion on that?”

McCain stumbled in reply, “I don’t know enough about it to give you an informed answer.”

That caused FactCheck.org to investigate the claim and they concluded in 2008,

“The premise of the reporter’s question is a myth. We couldn’t find any data that show a disparity between health insurance companies that cover Viagra and those that cover birth control. The full range of contraceptives, in fact, are covered by more than 86 percent of private insurance plans written for employers.”

Thirteen years ago, 1999 the New York Times reported,

“Around the country, more than a half-dozen state legislatures, swayed largely by insurers' coverage of Viagra treatment, have recently passed measures requiring carriers that cover prescription drugs to pay for women's contraceptives as well. More states are expected to follow.”

No, not every insurance policy will cover birth control, but a significant number already do. That gives us a choice. Not everyone wants Viagra or Birth Control and added coverage also adds costs to premiums. Those who want it covered have the choice just as those who don’t want or need also have a choice.

So what is the entire outcry about?

I am of the mind that it is just another play on our innate compassion for others being used against us to push towards full socialized medicine provided “free” by the government. We already see the cry for free drugs for addicts or at least lower costs under calls for legalization. We see Transgender wanting to be given free sex change operations. These are but 2 examples and where does it end? Nothing is free. Someone must pay for it.

A commonly asked question in this ongoing debate, “As a society do we really want women who can’t afford birth control and don’t want babies to be having them?” The implication is that providing “free” birth control costs us less in the long run.

Not addressed is what of those who want more babies to increase the amount of “free” money received through welfare? What of those women who don’t want birth control due to adverse side effects? Do we force drug addicted women or the professional poverty class to take them or be sterilized so they stop popping out babies?

People must become responsible for themselves again. What have we become that we allow our sexual urges to control us? Where does the “I want it free and I want it now” attitude end?

Do we give everybody a house so they don’t end up sick from sleeping out in the weather? The argument that we must supply them birth control so they don’t produce babies that we must care for is an emotional argument to dull our senses to the real goal, socialized medicine.

Planned Parenthood reports they provide birth control from $15 to $50 a month. WalMart sells birth control for less than $10. Where is the urgent need? It’s available and affordable already. But think a moment. Most insurance policies have a co-pay on prescriptions of maybe $15 to $20 for generics and $35 to $40 for name brand prescriptions. Where is the savings for these people with it available at such a low price as WalMart provides? Is the effort to end co-pays and place more of the burden for other people’s choices in the lap of an employer?

No, it’s time we stood and called the leftists and Democrats on this. The disparity claim being used is a myth, just as FactCheck told us back in 2008.

Birth control is widely available and affordable for those who want it.

The whole argument is just a lot of hot air!