Unless you have been living under a rock lately, you’ve undoubtedly heard the controversy started by Rush Limbaugh when he called a female law student a slut and prostitute because she supported the mandate from the White House that would require employers to provide a health insurance plan that covers female contraceptives. Now let me be clear, because I don’t want to spend my whole post talking about how Rush Limbaugh is an idiot; Rush Limbaugh is an idiot. Clear enough? Ok, let’s move on to what I really want to talk about.
This latest outburst by Limbaugh is just another example of how the Republican Party and Republican media fails to effectively frame an argument that otherwise could be a very valid one. The GOP has an addiction to appeal the moral and religious base when making arguments instead of forming a legitimate argument based on affordability and individual liberty.
The sad part about this fact is it doesn’t just apply to Rush Limbaugh. While discussing his views on contraception, Rick Santorum said he didn’t support it because it gives individuals “a license to do things in the sexual realm that is counter to the way it should be.” This argument assumes either A. that only unwed women are using contraceptives or B. that the use of any type of contraceptive is counter to the way things “should be.” It completely ignores that married couples use contraceptives as a way to plan families. It also doesn’t address the fact that even if it is morally wrong to have pre-marital sex, the government cannot and should not legislate morality.
Let’s now move on to the legitimate argument the Republican Party should have made when this debate started. The mandate would require that employers have to supply a health insurance plan that would cover contraception regardless of religious belief. Given that at our country’s most core belief is the freedom of religion, this debate should have been over before it even started. The idea that the government can dictate anything to a religious organization should repulse us to the point that this mandate should have been a non-starter.
Now let’s look at the individual liberty argument. Even if the employer were not a religious organization, the government should not be regulating businesses at this level. Some may argue that government currently regulates businesses with waste disposal requirements and air quality requirements. The reason these regulations exist is because they directly affect all members of society without the ability for individuals to avoid the adverse effects. This is not true of the contraceptive argument. Clearly, there is no legislation requiring that employees choose the insurance provided by the employer. Although it would be more expensive, individuals who desire a health insurance policy that pays for contraceptives could shop for one on the open market.
The choices don’t end here either. Women could look for other options than merely their insurance provider for affordable contraception. Interestingly enough, the Wall Street Journal reported that Miss Fluke could have purchased her birth control for around $9 a month instead of the $3000 per year that she claimed from a local retail store. That is the price without any health insurance. Women could also require that their sexual partner wear a condom like the years before the creation of the birth control pill. And if none of these options seem viable and a woman still does not want to get pregnant, she could abstain from having sex. Obviously, the choice of an employer not to provide a health insurance plan that provides free contraceptives does not directly impact the entire society and even fails to impact their own employees in an unavoidable manner.
The icing on the cake could be the affordability argument. While many on the pro-mandate side would argue that this does not cost the taxpayer any government money, we can see that this just isn’t true. If the government requires this of all employers, they too need to provide this option for their employees whose wages are paid by tax revenues. Also, if private companies have to provide this option, they have less money to hire new employees or provide raises. This, in turn, reduces the wages that are paid by the company and tax revenue collected by the government. In a time when our government is running deficits over a trillion dollars a year and at least 8.3% of Americans are out of work, this is a mandate we simply cannot afford.
The biggest obstacle the GOP should have faced during this debate was the predictable attempt by the Democrats to cast the GOP as the heartless party that doesn’t care about women’s rights. This would need to be balanced by the arguments that the GOP believes women should have the right to choose the best contraceptive method for them as individuals and businesses have the same right to choose the best health care options for their employees. It is not a heartless viewpoint, but one that requires individuals to be responsible for the choices they make, and does not pretend to know the best option for them. The GOP could even go as far as to say they know the birth control pill was not the option that all women would choose, and that the government was essentially promoting the pill as the best option when this should be a decision made at the individual level with the input of a medical doctor.
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