Female Voices

A number of times governmental figures have claimed to speak for all women in terms of their decisions dealing with the HHS Mandate (who's effects I think are well laid out in the Sisters of Life's article regarding their future if the mandate takes hold).  However, a large number of women's voices have been unheard in this debate, mine included.  While I was in New York this weekend, I sat down with my good friend Brittany and we discussed our own personal and educated views of the Mandate.  We both have graduated from NYU and have multiple degrees to our names, we are not the uneducated masses most people assume are the only women who could possibly not support this plan.  So why haven't we been heard?  Why haven't we been included in the debate? 

Recently, two powerful and educated women (Helen M. Alvare JD and Kim Daniels JD) drafted a letter that succinctly captures these unheard voices and touches on our leading arguments against the "contraception for all" rule.  I present this letter so that many voices may not go unheard even at the threat of stirring controversy or debate.  I welcome discussions and conversations that spark from this and I look forward to how we might all grow through these debates.  I copy the letter here:

OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA, SECRETARY SEBELIUS AND MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
DON'T CLAIM TO SPEAK FOR ALL WOMEN

We are women who support the competing voice offered by Catholic institutions on matters of sex, marriage and family life. Most of us are Catholic, but some are not. We are Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Many, at some point in our careers, have worked for a Catholic institution. We are proud to have been part of the religious mission of that school, or hospital, or social service organization. We are proud to have been associated not only with the work Catholic institutions perform in the community – particularly for the most vulnerable -- but also with the shared sense of purpose found among colleagues who chose their job because, in a religious institution, a job is always also a vocation.

Those currently invoking "women's health" in an attempt to shout down anyone who disagrees with forcing religious institutions or individuals to violate deeply held beliefs are more than a little mistaken, and more than a little dishonest. Even setting aside their simplistic equation of "costless" birth control with "equality," note that they have never responded to the large body of scholarly research indicating that many forms of contraception have serious side effects, or that some forms act at some times to destroy embryos, or that government contraceptive programs inevitably change the sex, dating and marriage markets in ways that lead to more empty sex, more non-marital births and more abortions. It is women who suffer disproportionately when these things happen.

No one speaks for all women on these issues. Those who purport to do so are simply attempting to deflect attention from the serious religious liberty issues currently at stake. Each of us, Catholic or not, is proud to stand with the Catholic Church and its rich, life-affirming teachings on sex, marriage and family life. We call on President Obama and our Representatives in Congress to allow religious institutions and individuals to continue to witness to their faiths in all their fullness.

Helen M. Alvaré JD
Associate Professor of Law
George Mason University (VA)*
 
                       

Kim Daniels JD
Former Counsel
Thomas More Law Center (MD)

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