It’s no surprise that Rick Santorum, who returned to Texas this week to campaign with pastors at a McKinney church near Dallas, is opposed to a federal requirement that employer health insurance plans cover contraception. But the Republican presidential candidate went even further on Friday:
“This has nothing to do with access. This is having someone pay for it, pay for something that shouldn’t even be in an insurance plan anyway because it is not, really an insurable item. This is something that is affordable, available. You don’t need insurance for these types of relatively small expenditures. This is simply someone trying to impose their values on somebody else, with the arm of the government doing so. That should offend everybody, people of faith and no faith that the government could get on a roll that is that aggressive.”
Let’s leave aside for now the issue of who is trying to impose their values on whom here. What really startled us was Santorum’s claim that contraception shouldn’t be covered by any insurance because people can afford it on their own.
The cost of contraception varies by method and insurance coverage, of course. But birth control pills cost from about $160 to $600 a year. Maybe that’s affordable for people in Santorum’s income bracket, but many low- and middle-income families might find it difficult to squeeze that expense into their tight budgets.
Of course, Santorum thinks government should be able to ban contraception anyway. We imagine that pleases the religious-right leaders who endorsed Santorum at their emergency summit meeting in Texas last month.
I don’t want my taxes paying for it. Condoms can be cheap. People need to learn to do without sex until they are married. Most of these things are for people who want to live a sinful lifestyle sleeping around anyway. The country won’t survive if this kind of nonsense continues.
This guy is totally out of it. He will say and do anything. If the religious nuts told him to jump off a bridge he would probably do it. Anybody that jumps in bed with religious fanatics is not somebody we want to run the country. Another Hitler.
The problem with these 1%ers, is the inability to understand what a poor or even middle class person goes through trying to make ends meet, the cost of birth control to him would be less expensive than if it cost 1 cent per year to the average person. That is why I can’t imagine why anyone who does not make at least $250,000 a year could support these 1%ers.
Santorum is indeed wholly out of touch with what it’s like to live on less than a $250,000 a year, which he probably now regards as low middle income.
Another interesting fact about contraception and insurance is that insurance pools whose policies offer contraception coverage have lower loss ratios (payouts to policy holders) than those that do not. The reason? With access to contraception, women have fewer children and fewer abortions, saving money for the insurance companies. It’s also cheaper to treat conditions like endometriosis with contraceptive pills than surgery. Lower loss ratios is an additional reason that the administration is mandating coverage without co-pays, co-insurance or deductibles. It lowers costs for everyone. An appropriate consequence of all that is that policies funded by religious institutions that do not cover contraception cost more!
Little Ricky Sanctimonious is another of those that tries to impose their sectarian views and constraints on everyone else. They do this by putting little road blocks up where ever they can. If birth control is such a trivial expense, then why not put birth in the same category. Then we would see how the size of the litters would shrink.
RtRev,
You said that people should learn to do without sex until they are married, that the country will not survive if this nonsense continues.
At the time the Constitutional Convention was held in 1787 45% of American women were pregnant when they married. In two sepearte counties in Massachusetts, that bastion of puritanism, the pregnacy rate among women marrying exceeded 90% These are documented facts, statistics that you can look up if you care to take the time. So your statement is completely false.
As for myself I would much rather pay for birth control for women that cannot afford it as opposed to the alternative – the same women getting pregnant and having children they cannot afford to raise. I am a fiscal conservative who believes in common sense solutions and not ideologically driven polices that fail. That is why I am no longer a republican.
“This guy is totally out of it. He will say and do anything. If the religious nuts told him to jump off a bridge he would probably do it. Anybody that jumps in bed with religious fanatics is not somebody we want to run the country. Another Hitler.”
I am sorry to have to break this to you Richard, but that is not quite true. Santorum actually believes the full spectrum of radical right wingnut ideology. He does not have to just say anything or do anything. All he has to do is be himself.
With its four remaining viable candidates, the Republican Party is CLEARLY working overtime to elect Mr. Obama President. Never in all my days on this planet have I seen such an array of—words escape me—no they do not—FRUITCAKES trying to become the nominee of that party. Eisenhower is twirling in his grave at this bunch of unelectable misfits. We knew that the Republican Party that once really was a Grand Old Party had been taken over by a bunch of nuts—but I doubt anyone expected to see this.
You remember my prophecy from last year. The Lord told me that he was going to be “teeing them up” for disaster in 2012.
Charles the latest Gallup results show a Romney-Obama contest a dead heat at 48-48 as of last Tuesday. Obama would beat Ron Paul by 3 points, Santorum by 8 points and Gingrich by 12 points if the election were held right now.
The birth control spat with the Catholic Church did Obama no good, he needs to put that behind him as quickly as possible. He also overreached; if a Catholic hospital or university is 100% privately funded, if it exists without any taxpayer dollars, the federal government has no business intruding and setting policy. Unquestionably the Catholic Church stance on birth control is retarded and promotes poverty – just look at Mexico or Latin America. However the clause in the 1st Amendment “or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” is applicable in this case.
It’s interesting that Romney’s a Mormon but it’s Santorum envisioning a nation of large families.
The religious right is already in my doctor’s office. Rick Santorum wants into my bedroom. Creationists are intent on ‘remodeling’ my study. Michelle Obama is demanding access to my kitchen. Maybe I should start digging a basement so I’ll have a place to hide…
Hey JamesBreck,
I just like stirring the fire ants up.
Actually Santorum is a Catholic so he would be adamently opposed to birth control. I taught at a Catholic School and they didn’t cover any birth control incuding vasectomies, tubals, pills or anything that would have conflicted with their views.
Have A good day
“Most of these things are for people who want to live a sinful lifestyle sleeping around anyway.”
Geez, Right! You are as far out of touch with reality as Santorum is!! How many married couples on your street have eleven children? How many with two kids do you think use/used condoms rather than birth control pills or the like?
ANd how abortions do we have in this country? Lets not be too out of touch.
If acolytes (altar boys) could get pregnant, the Catholic Church would be demanding contraceptives.
Anomynus: I am an 86 year old woman who was raped at 16 and would not have been able to finish my education without my mother’s extreme effort to get me an abortion. (My late husband and I had an excellent marriage for
over 40 years. Every7 sane person should acknowledge that circumstances control whether this is a necessity or a whim.
JamesBreck said:
“He also overreached; if a Catholic hospital or university is 100% privately funded, if it exists without any taxpayer dollars, the federal government has no business intruding and setting policy. Unquestionably the Catholic Church stance on birth control is retarded and promotes poverty – just look at Mexico or Latin America. However the clause in the 1st Amendment “or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” is applicable in this case.”
Wrong, the types of institutions you describe are already exempt. We are precisely talking about hospital and university systems that accept government, funds, employ large numbers of non Catholics, and haven’t raised a peep about this in the last 10 years they’ve been mandated to provide these same policies at a state level. There is no war on religion here, only on the Obama admin, and women’s health ends up being the casualties.
So oine sin excuses another. It was through incest that 2 nations came about.
As for rape God can still work things out.