Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Prejudice Disguised as Religious Freedom

Jerry Moran’s “Kansas Common Sense” newsletter is anything but common sense. In his Feb. 13, 2012 edition, he claims that the Department of Health and Human Services is mandating that many service providers in “Kansas will have to cover services they consider immoral.”

What services does Moran believe are immoral?

Contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs—health care
necessities for many Kansans, especially Kansas women.

Here is what Moran is really saying: if a pharmacist, who chose her profession and was not forced to become one, decides that she does not want to fill prescriptions for contraceptives or abortion-inducing drugs, she doesn’t have to, and can claim religious grounds for refusing to do so.

Let’s substitute other, similar factors and see where this road leads us.

Let’s assume that the pharmacist decides she cannot fill prescriptions for life-saving medications because her religion won’t allow her to “play God.”

Or, let’s say, she refuses to fill life-prolonging prescriptions for terminally ill patients because only God can decide who will live or die.

Or, let’s say, she refuses to fill prescriptions for American Indians, Hispanics, or anyone of “color” because her religion does not recognize them as “chosen” people.

While Moran attempts to say that these people should not have to compromise their personal religious beliefs in the fulfilling of their professional duties based solely on their religious preferences, he’s opening a whole can of worms that will eat away at the fabric of our democracy, allowing prejudices of all kinds to rule so that discrimination is encouraged, not penalized.

Whose religious, not to mention health, rights do the Ultra Conservatives (UC), for whom Moran has become a spokesperson, really want to violate? Yours. Mine. Ours.

His attempt is another clumsy attempt by the Ultra Conservatives to control women’s sex lives, and, in the process, remove women’s rights.

And he want us to believe it is okay to do so because of his twisted interpretation of religious freedom.

Instead, how about we put a big sign on every UC pharmacist’s store, on every UC medical personnel’s medical clinics and hospitals to show that they refuse to serve everyone equally, so we’ll know what places to avoid.

What sign should we use? A swastika would be appropriate, don’t you think?

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