Women's Health

New surge in the birth control/abortion debates today (personally, I think both issues should be discussed separately, but they keep getting lumped together because they are part of women's reproductive issues).  The current debate is probably because of this bill in Missouri:

http://www.newsweek.com/womens-rights-birth-control-abortion-missouri-discrimination-628538

Don't think that we really need to worry about the discrimination that could happen?  Don't think it could really go that far?  Sure it can.  We are very judgmental creatures.  All of us.  This is one of the rare times where I will profess such a blanket statement because usually there are exceptions.  But in this case. . .no.  It's human nature to compare and contrast and feel superior or better than someone or something in a myriad of settings.  For example, right now I am scoffing at the lawmakers in the above article for what I see as stupidity.  I do try to understand every side of an argument so I can form an intelligent opinion (the above article wasn't even the first I read today on the subject).  Most of the articles I looked at focus on the same thing: what could happen if the bill is passed.

Yes, that is the key word here.  No obvious precedent has been set yet though there has been at least one case on the opposite side of a woman being denied employment because she belonged to a pro-life organization (2014's Hellwege v. Tampa Family Health Centers).  So, I think it's safe to say that the possibility exists of it happening that a woman could be denied employment, housing, etc, because she chose to get an abortion or uses birth control.

There was one thing that was utmost in my mind when reading through the Missouri headlines today: why is it anyone's business if a woman has had an abortion or uses birth control?  Besides, of course, the woman, her doctor, and her partner.  The obvious answer should be: no one.  But there might be sneaky ways to ask questions to find such things out in an interview.  Chit chat type of questions and statements.  Same as a company might do to find out if a woman is pregnant or plans to have children (more on that later).  Or if something got mentioned in social media, etc etc. Anyway, obviously that's a real concern or St. Louis wouldn't have passed "an ordinance that prevents employers and housing providers from punishing women for their reproductive health choices" (see article linked above).  Seems reasonable to cover that base so why change it?

I get that it's part of the current balancing act that is going on in politics between religious freedom and "other" freedoms, but I'm not going deep down into that rabbit hole right now.  It just saddens me that we have not progressed much on these issues.  Especially birth control.  There are so many reasons why women are prescribed it that have nothing to do with their sexual choices.  And even if it is because they want to be sexually active, well, hey, they are being proactive and trying to protect themselves.  How is that wrong?  Yeah, I know.  Welcome to the ever present female death spiral.  Even menopause doesn't necessarily help a woman pull herself up into clear skies because she may still need to be on some form in order to balance her system.  And there's another loop.  (sigh)

I mentioned pregnancy earlier.  For jobs, I think that the abortion/birth control issues should be treated like pregnancy is supposed to be:

https://www1.eeoc.gov//eeoc/publications/fs-preg.cfm?renderforprint=1

Abortion and birth control should be considered to be part of the "related medical conditions" that are mentioned in the above breakdown of the law.  I know, I mentioned a separation of the two things in my first sentence of this post, but I was talking about that in terms of moral debate.  Legally, they do fall under the purview of women's health so, in this case, it makes sense to lump them together with pregnancy laws.  That is quite possibly what St. Louis was trying to do.  Define some general terms with more specific ones.

It will be interesting to see if they can push the bill through.  Obviously, I'm hoping not.