Contraceptive issue
The religious right’s grip on the Republican Party is a reminder of the religious and political patriarchal institutions obsessed with sexuality and disdain for females in particular.
It is inconceivable to most Americans the same people who want to block access to birth control by limiting medical insurance coverage and attacking Planned Parenthood under the guise of Christianity and anti-abortion, simultaneously belong to a political party that endangers the sick, the disabled and families in poverty through punitive economic, medical and social policies.
The problem with immigrants at our southern border the Republican Party uses to rally their voting base is as much due to poverty from overpopulation through a macho sexual culture perpetuated by the Catholic Church as that of political instability in Central America.
The higher incidence of life-threatening lupus in Black and Hispanic women in the United States, an autoimmune disease impacting primarily women, not to mention the rising incidence of lupus in Nigeria, can also be attributed to a reliance on female hormonal contraception because of a lack of male contraception throughout the world.
Instead of blaming and tormenting women and the poor for unplanned pregnancies, world political, medical and religious leaders should be focusing on men taking more responsibility, using more condoms and getting more vasectomies.
Cheryl Nash,
Port Angeles