Religion & Politics: Abundant Political Irony Examined – Sandra Fluke’s testimony supports Culture of Life

I’m not sure if you ever saw the actual video taped testimony of Miss Sandra Fluke.

I did.

Several times.

Not once did she ever mention herself.

Not even once.

The transcript of her testimony may be downloaded via Google Docs here: http://j.mp/GK9nqY

Anywho… when you think about it, it’s a strange irony that no woman, not even a female law student named Fluke, was allowed to testify before Congress on the issue. The tragedy and travesty which is that mistake – that only one side of an issue was allowed to be heard, though not “officially” – is indeed a fluke.

Right Wing Political Pundit-Radio Entertainer Rush Limbaugh caught Hell for one of his caustically outrageous and genuinely ignorant diatribes... again. This time, his target was a woman. Next up are children. (Editorial Cartoon by Steve Benson, a 1993 Pulitzer Prize Winner for editorial cartooning, has been staff editorial cartoonist for The Arizona Republic for over 20 years. Benson summed up his career saying, "I don’t aim to please. I just aim.")

Another irony is, that while she was not “officially” heard, she was heard all the more.

Now, I understand the issue as a more complex one than is commonly presented. And, I understand it from at least two divergent perspectives – as 1.) Health Professional, and adherent of; 2.) Religious Faith.

From the first perspective, Birth Control devices treat no medical condition, malady or disease. Fertility is NOT a disease.

Time magazine’s article “The Pill at 50: Sex, Freedom and Paradox” by Nancy Gibbs, published Thursday, April 22, 2010, opens with this statement: “Consider the contradictions: It was the first medicine ever designed to be taken regularly by people who were not sick.”

However, there ARE diseases and maladies for which birth control PILLS are the medically accepted standard mode of treatment.

It would be wrong to deny coverage of the medicine for the treatment of disease or malady. It remains a matter of conjecture whether or not it should be covered by insurance as a means or method of contraception.

Most notably, Miss Fluke’s testimony specifically and pointedly addressed the problem of insurance companies refusal to pay for a common mixture of two types female hormones, estrogen and progestin, even when they are specifically prescribed to treat medical problems and disease, including polycystic ovarian disease and endometriosis. Indeed, failure to pay for medications, treatments and procedures that are a defined part of any health insurance plan continues to be among the most problematic areas of concern, and was a significantly predominate reason why such illicit activities were reigned in and forbidden by the health insurance reform laws more commonly known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ( PPACA).

Christ the LORD said that He came to give life more abundantly. And indeed, He is from the Father of Lights in Whom there is no variableness or shadow of turning. The Scripture indicates that Jesus “healed everyone who was sick,” and that He “went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.” cf. Matthew 8:16 & 9:35

As a continuing matter of faith, the encyclical known as Humanae Vitae, authored by Pope Paul VI on 25 July 1968 – also known as “On the Regulation of Birth” (which may be read here: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html) – warned about the eventual consequences of all artificial birth control devices & methods. It warned that an eventual decline in morality would result because neither women nor men would be faced with the responsibility or consequences of their sexual actions, that is, pregnancy & birth. Also, an increase in Sexually Transmitted Disease has naturally accompanied the rise in promiscuity. Further, the spectre of abortion cannot be separated from either the increase in sexual activity outside of marriage, or from the occurrences of pregnancy resulting from contraceptive failure.

Yet even in that encyclical, it is directly and specifically stated that “…the Church does not consider at all illicit the use of those therapeutic means necessary to cure bodily diseases, even if a foreseeable impediment to procreation should result there from—provided such impediment is not directly intended for any motive whatsoever. (19) (19) See Pius XII, Address to 26th Congress of Italian Association of Urology: AAS 45 (1953), 674-675; to Society of Hematology: AAS 50 (1958), 734-735 [TPS VI, 394-395].

To deny treatment for a disease, to abort, and to contracept are all part of what the Church rightly calls a “Culture of Death.”

One of our nation’s founding documents – the Declaration of Independence – states this self evident truth, that all of humanity “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Without life, there are no rights. Life is the first, preeminent and causative right, for all other rights emerge from it.

Simultaneously, I acknowledge the presence of argument concerning the Death Penalty. However, though it is a natural part of this line of thought, I shall briefly acknowledge that consistency in the issue – that of being part and parcel of the Culture of Death – means that neither abortion, nor retroactive abortion (vis a vis, capital punishment) is consistent with “life more abundantly.”

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The Steve Benson cartoon may be found here: http://www.gocomics.com/stevebenson/2012/03/09