Connecticut's Roman Catholic bishops Allow Plan B
"Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for our sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen"
In a rosary-fingering frenzy, the Bishops of Connecticut reluctantly agreed to comply with Connecticut's new law just days before it went into effect.
boston.com
The church, which runs four of the state's 30 hospitals, has been fighting the legislation for the past two years, arguing that lawmakers were forcing medical personnel to violate their religious beliefs and perform chemical abortions by providing emergency contraception, sold as Plan B, to women who are ovulating.
But Catholic Bishops of Connecticut and leaders of the Catholic hospitals said in a joint statement Thursday that "since the teaching authority of the church has not definitively resolved this matter and since there is serious doubt about how Plan B pills work," the hospitals will be allowed to provide Plan B to rape victims without first requiring ovulation tests.
"To administer Plan B without an ovulation test is not an intrinsically evil act," the statement reads.
Rape crisis counselors in Connecticut said there have been unclear and inconsistent policies for supplying Plan B to victims who seek treatment in emergency rooms across the state, including some in nonreligious hospitals.
According to Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Services Inc., 40 percent of rape victims were not offered or did not receive the full dose of emergency contraception at the hospitals where they were treated during the first half of 2006."
FeministingIf a church can get you to beg permission to control your own body -- to screw, to get off, to have periods & children, to be married, to live and to die -- but most especially if a church convinces you you must plead for the right from them for you to have ANY control of ANYTHING having ANYTHING AT ALL to do with sexuality, your fundamental biological drive to survive. Once they've got an entire culture believing that sick bloodless shit and you inside the culture nodding along with it.
Okay, so they were forced to comply. Whatevs. At least women in Connecticut can rest a little easier. But here's an interesting tidbit. Apparently, state church officials wanted to mandate an ovulation test for women seeking emergency contraception before they would dispense it. The idea being if a woman was ovulating there was a better chance of conception having taken place--and then they wouldn't give her EC.
And people have the nerve to argue that anti-choice shit isn't about controlling women's bodies?
Once a church has your ass wrapped up tighter than a tick needing blood, desperate for God's Holy Blessing because you just have got to have the Priest's permission to GET LAID and He Ain't. Giving. You.None. ...YOU FILTHY FUCKING SCUM... None. No permission for you. You're a sinner who has lusted in your heart and probably in your body too, your rich, ripe, tight sinner's body, just step into this room and tell me your lustful thoughts, tell me what you do alone in your room at night, what the two of you did out in the bleachers after the ballgame, just whisper it all quietly right here... Then it's --
Lord Have Mercy On Me, A Sinner, because you're DAMNED TO HELL. So you pray and pray and you pray some more. You beg for forgiveness, but forgiveness ain't never, ever coming for you once they got you by the ovaries and balls, 'cause they absolutely own yo ass and now, sucka, it's time for you to earn your keep... keeping the marks in line.
The grip of a church when they grab you by your sexuality is damn near impossible to break free from.
Breaking free from the early indoctrination that human sexuality is sinful by most of the Children of the Book, which gives male religious leaders -- male priests -- such a hold over his congregation, is an enormously difficult undertaking, requiring breaking out of an entire world-view and eventually acquiring a completely new ontology for living. Managing it usually requires a big breakdown with the Church, a strong sense of Self, determination, enough smarts to make sense of it all, friends and family to support the transition, and enormous good fortune to have everything come together correctly. Absent any of these, it's usually just easier to fall back into the Church life you've always known, or into a similar church.
I am encouraged that today in at least one more state, the law now protects poor people and the Catholic people who by necessity go to these hospitals. Religion be damned. This is medicine, not mummery.
The actual Jesus & Mary would be happy. It's a start.
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