[Vision2020] Say What?
viva stowell
vivastowell at gmail.com
Sun Mar 4 14:20:57 PST 2012
This issue is, contraception pills or hormone regulation pills as they
could also be called are prescribed more for other medical ailments.
These can vary from cramp regulation to cancer treatment, endometriosis
to adenomyosis. None of these things would be wished on my worse enemy.
Distinctions are not made as to why the pill is prescribed.
Many drugs have warning labels that say "do not take if pregnant" and some
of these are abortive. Should people/companies be able to deny these
sometimes life saving drugs also.
I understand that people have strong feelings about contraception, however,
"the pill" is life saving medicine. I wish I could think of something to
compare it to from a male perspective, but I can't.
I am left thinking, if you don't want to take the pill, don't. But allow
this medicine to be covered as part of basic health care.
--Viva
Moscow
On Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 8:13 PM, <vision2020-request at moscow.com> wrote:
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> 1. Re: Say What? (deb)
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2012 20:13:04 -0600
> From: "deb" <debismith at moscow.com>
> To: "Donovan Arnold" <donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com>, "lfalen"
> <lfalen at turbonet.com>, "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>, "Moscow
> Vision 2020" <Vision2020 at moscow.com>
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Say What?
> Message-ID: <831E140368424ADFAC8F4378C44CA49E at OwnerPC>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Roger normally has some "restricted vision" views, but I never would have
> expected him to buy into this particular jingoistic idiocy. I thought he
> was too able to reason through issues. guess I was wrong....or I was just
> too willing to give the benefit of the doubt to an otherwise pretty good
> guy.
> Debi R-S
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Donovan Arnold
> To: lfalen ; Tom Hansen ; Moscow Vision 2020
> Sent: Friday, March 02, 2012 8:21 PM
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Say What?
>
>
> Roger reasons,
>
> "The problem is why should the taxpayer foot the bill. Or for that matter
> any religious group that opposes it (contraception) on ground that it is
> against ther belief."
>
> It is against my religion to bomb people overseas for oil and greedy
> billionaires to maintain an extravagant lifestyle. Why should I have to pay
> for that? Why don't the people that want to start needless wars simply chip
> in and do it themselves and leave taxes to just things every single person
> in the United States agrees to purchase?
>
> It is isn't reasonable, that's why. The reality is pregnancy and not
> getting pregnant are medical and economic issues that need to be covered
> because it impacts everyone. For a company to just cover men's medical
> issues and not women's is sexist and immoral. If we simply allowed
> companies to choose which medical expenses to cover for women, women would
> not have the same job and educational opportunities as men. It would only
> be a denial of a person's religious beliefs if they were personally forced
> to participate in the event, or not event in this case. A conscientious
> objector in wartime isn't forced to pick up a gun and shoot someone, but
> they are still required to pay their taxes that supports something they
> disagree with. The government isn't making a choice, or forcing a decision
> for a woman, it is in fact giving her the choice to follow or not follow
> what she and her doctor feel is best for her medical and economic health.
>
> Donovan Arnold
>
>
> From: lfalen <lfalen at turbonet.com>
> To: Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com>; Moscow Vision 2020 <
> Vision2020 at moscow.com>
> Sent: Friday, March 2, 2012 6:29 PM
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Say What?
>
>
> I do not have a problem with contraception. The problem is why should the
> taxpayer foot the bill. Or for that matter any religious group that opposes
> it on ground that it is against ther belief. Obama's accommodation does not
> change that. It is still a matter of the government forcing their will on
> people. Freedom of religion is still being trampled. If anyone desires
> birth control regardless of who the work for, they can pay for it or by an
> insurance policy on their on that covers it.
> Roger
> -----Original message-----
> From: Tom Hansen thansen at moscow.com
> Date: Fri, 02 Mar 2012 13:57:40 -0800
> To: Moscow Vision 2020 Vision2020 at moscow.com
> Subject: [Vision2020] Say What?
>
> > ?What does it say about the college co-ed Sandra Fluke, who goes before
> a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to
> have sex, what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her
> a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She?s having so much sex
> she can?t afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers
> to pay her to have sex. What does that make us? We?re the pimps.?
> >
> > - Rush Limbaugh
> >
> http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2012/03/rush_limbaugh_calls_woman_on_bhtml
> >
> > ------------
> >
> > Sandra Fluke's testimony before congress (in its entirety)
> >
> http://www.whatthefolly.com/2012/02/23/transcript-sandra-fluke-testifies-on-why-women-should-be-allowed-access-to-contraception-and-reproductive-health-care/
> >
> > ?My name is Sandra Fluke, and I?m a third-year student at Georgetown
> Law School. I?m also a past-president of Georgetown Law Students for
> Reproductive Justice or LSRJ. And I?d like to acknowledge my fellow LSRJ
> members and allies and all of the student activists with us and thank them
> so much for being here today.
> >
> > ?We, as Georgetown LSRJ, are here today because we?re so grateful that
> this regulation implements the non-partisan medical advice of the Institute
> of Medicine.
> >
> > ?I attend a Jesuit law school that does not provide contraceptive
> coverage in its student health plan. And just as we students have faced
> financial, emotional, and medical burdens as a result, employees at
> religiously-affiliated hospitals and institutions and universities across
> the country have suffered similar burdens.
> >
> > ?We are all grateful for the new regulation that will meet the critical
> health care needs of so many women.
> >
> > ?Simultaneously, the recently announced adjustment addresses any
> potential conflict with the religious identity of Catholic or Jesuit
> institutions.
> >
> > ?When I look around my campus, I see the faces of the women affected by
> this lack of contraceptive coverage.
> >
> > ?And especially in the last week, I have heard more and more of their
> stories. On a daily basis, I hear yet from another woman from Georgetown or
> from another school or who works for a religiously-affiliated employer, and
> they tell me that they have suffered financially and emotionally and
> medically because of this lack of coverage.
> >
> > ?And so, I?m here today to share their voices, and I want to thank you
> for allowing them ? not me ? to be heard.
> >
> > ?Without insurance coverage, contraception, as you know, can cost a
> woman over $3,000 during law school. For a lot of students who, like me,
> are on public interest scholarships, that?s practically an entire summers
> salary. 40% of the female students at Georgetown Law reported to us that
> they struggle financially as a result of this policy.
> >
> > ?One told us about how embarrassed and just powerless she felt when she
> was standing at the pharmacy counter and learned for the first time that
> contraception was not covered on her insurance and she had to turn and walk
> away because she couldn?t afford that prescription. Women like her have no
> choice but to go without contraception.
> >
> > ?Just last week, a married female student told me that she had to stop
> using contraception because she and her husband just couldn?t fit it into
> their budget anymore. Women employed in low-wage jobs without contraceptive
> coverage face the same choice.
> >
> > ?And some might respond that contraception is accessible in lots of
> other ways. Unfortunately, that?s just not true.
> >
> > ?Women?s health clinic provide a vital medical service, but as the
> Guttmacher Institute has definitely documented, these clinics are unable to
> meet the crushing demand for these services. Clinics are closing, and women
> are being forced to go without the medical care they need.
> >
> > ?How can Congress consider the [Rep. Jeff] Fortenberry (R-Neb.), [Sen.
> Marco] Rubio (R-Fla.) and [Sen. Roy] Blunt (R-Mo.) legislation to allow
> even more employers and institutions to refuse contraception coverage and
> then respond that the non-profit clinics should step up to take care of the
> resulting medical crisis, particularly when so many legislators are
> attempting to de-fund those very same clinics?
> >
> > ?These denial of contraceptive coverage impact real people.
> >
> > ?In the worst cases, women who need these medications for other medical
> conditions suffer very dire consequences.
> >
> > ?A friend of mine, for example, has polycystic ovarian syndrome, and
> she has to take prescription birth control to stop cysts from growing on
> her ovaries. Her prescription is technically covered by Georgetown?s
> insurance because it?s not intended to prevent pregnancy.
> > ?Unfortunately, under many religious institutions and insurance plans,
> it wouldn?t be. There would be no exception for other medical needs. And
> under Sen. Blunt?s amendment, Sen. Rubio?s bill or Rep. Fortenberry?s bill
> there?s no requirement that such an exception be made for these medical
> needs.
> >
> > ?When this exception does exist, these exceptions don?t accomplish
> their well-intended goals because when you let university administrators or
> other employers rather than women and their doctors dictate whose medical
> needs are legitimate and whose are not, women?s health takes a back seat to
> a bureaucracy focused on policing her body.
> >
> > ?In 65% of the cases at our school, our female students were
> interrogated by insurance representatives and university medical staff
> about why they needed prescription and whether they were lying about their
> symptoms.
> >
> > ?For my friend and 20% of the women in her situation, she never got the
> insurance company to cover her prescription. Despite verifications of her
> illness from her doctor, her claim was denied repeatedly on the assumption
> that she really wanted birth control to prevent pregnancy. She?s gay. So
> clearly polycystic ovarian syndrome was a much more urgent concern than
> accidental pregnancy for her.
> >
> > ?After months paying over $100 out-of-pocket, she just couldn?t afford
> her medication anymore, and she had to stop taking it.
> >
> > ?I learned about all of this when I walked out of a test and got a
> message from her that in the middle of the night in her final exam period
> she?d been in the emergency room. She?d been there all night in just
> terrible, excruciating pain. She wrote to me, ?It was so painful I?d woke
> up thinking I?ve been shot.?
> >
> > ?Without her taking the birth control, a massive cyst the size of a
> tennis ball had grown on her ovary. She had to have surgery to remove her
> entire ovary as a result.
> >
> > ?On the morning I was originally scheduled to give this testimony, she
> was sitting in a doctor?s office, trying to cope with the consequences of
> this medical catastrophe.
> >
> > ?Since last year?s surgery, she?s been experiencing night sweats and
> weight gain and other symptoms of early menopause as a result of the
> removal of her ovary. She?s 32-years-old.
> >
> > ?As she put it, ?If my body indeed does enter early menopause, no
> fertility specialist in the world will be able to help me have my own
> children. I will have no choice at giving my mother her desperately desired
> grandbabies simply because the insurance policy that I paid for, totally
> unsubsidized by my school, wouldn?t cover my prescription for birth control
> when I needed it.?
> >
> > ?Now, in addition to potentially facing the health complications that
> come with having menopause at such an early age ? increased risk of cancer,
> heart disease, osteoporosis ? she may never be able to conceive a child.
> >
> > ?Some may say that my friend?s tragic story is rare. Its not. I wish it
> were
> > ?One woman told us doctors believe she has endometriosis, but that
> can?t be proven without surgery. So the insurance has not been willing to
> cover her medication ? the contraception she needs to treat her
> endometriosis.
> >
> > ?Recently, another woman told me that she also has polycystic ovarian
> syndrome and she?s struggling to pay for her medication and is terrified to
> not have access to it.
> >
> > ?Due to the barriers erected by Georgetown?s policy, she hasn?t been
> reimbursed for her medications since last August.
> >
> > ?I sincerely pray that we don?t have to wait until she loses an ovary
> or is diagnosed with cancer before her needs and the needs of all of these
> women are taken seriously.
> >
> > ?Because this is the message that not requiring coverage of
> contraception sends: A woman?s reproductive health care isn?t a necessity,
> isn?t a priority.
> >
> > ?One woman told us that she knew birth control wasn?t covered on the
> insurance and she assumed that that?s how Georgetown?s insurance handle all
> of women?s reproductive and sexual health care. So when she was raped, she
> didn?t go to the doctor, even to be examined or tested for sexually
> transmitted infections, because she thought insurance wasn?t going to cover
> something like that ? something that was related to a woman?s reproductive
> health.
> > ?As one other student put it: ?This policy communicates to female
> students that our school doesn?t understand our needs.?
> >
> > ?These are not feelings that male fellow student experience and they?re
> not burdens that male students must shoulder.
> >
> > ?In the media lately, some conservative Catholic organizations have
> been asking what did we expect when we enroll in a Catholic school?
> >
> > ?We can only answer that we expected women to be treated equally, to
> not have our school create untenable burdens that impede our academic
> success.
> >
> > ?We expected that our schools would live up to the Jesuit creed of cura
> personalis? ? to care for the whole person by meeting all of our medical
> needs.
> >
> > ?We expected that when we told our universities of the problem this
> policy created for us as students, they would help us.
> >
> > ?We expected that when 94% of students oppose the policy the university
> would respect our choices regarding insurance students pay for ? completely
> unsubsidized by the university.
> >
> > ?We did not expect that women would be told in the national media that
> we should have gone to school elsewhere.
> >
> > ?And even if that meant going to a less prestigious university, we
> refuse to pick between a quality education and our health. And we resent
> that in the 21st century, anyone think it?s acceptable to ask us to make
> this choice simply because we are women.
> >
> > ?Many of the women whose stories I?ve shared today are Catholic women.
> So ours is not a war against the church. It is a struggle for the access to
> the health care we need.
> >
> > ?The President of the Association of Jesuit Colleges has shared that
> Jesuit colleges and the universities appreciate the modifications to the
> rule announced recently. Religious concerns are addressed and women get the
> health care they need. And I sincerely hope that that is something we can
> all agree upon.
> >
> > ?Thank you very much.?
> >
> > -----------------------------------------
> >
> > Seeya later, Moscow.
> >
> > Tom Hansen
> > Post Falls, Idaho
> >
> > "If not us, who?
> > If not now, when?"
> >
> > - Unknown
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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