I've only just read about Obama's new birth control policy that mandates that birth control is guaranteed as part of insurance from all employers. I don't know why this is such a problem. It has long since been a non-issue for men to take their procreation into their hands. Men can have themselves sterilized, no questions asked. But women, that's a whole other matter. This world is fraught with political and religious debates over so many things. But something has occurred to me, thanks to comedian Daniel Tosh, believe it or not. I don't believe the root of the problem with the new policy has anything to do with religion at all. And I know what people are thinking. But Catholics don't believe in Birth Control, they feel it is violation of the natural progression of what the human body is for, blah, blah, blah. Yes, they do actually believe that. But stop and think. Does the Bible actually say anything against birth control. No. Why? Because it wasn't available in BC times. The Bible doesn't say anything about most stuff that the church (both Catholic and Protestant) deems immoral or un-Christian. At the core this is all about politics. It is a belief that has been indoctrinated into society, largely patriarchal society that was in control of women. Why are most of these so-called religious debates over big 'moral' issues almost always related to decisions that women alone experience?

Because patriarchal society has been so effective at combining religion with subjugation of women. The separation of church and state are very new ideas. We've had hundreds of years of the 2 being intertwined and only a little over 200 of trying to separate them. Are you some kind of feminist you may be asking? Some kind, yeah! I know this is hard to swallow for the religious types. I am a recovering or rather a reformed fundamentalist. I was raised as a fundamentalist. I became a Wiccan in 1996. And as Daniel Tosh pointed out in one of his stand-up routines, gay marriage doesn't bother you because it's wrong, it bothers you because gays make you uncomfortable.  I don't have to be gay to feel this way or to be compassionate toward homosexuality even though my very fundamentalist mother would disagree. This is just a matter of being so ingrained with a belief that something is wrong that your mind actually tricks you into believing that peoples choices, behaviors, and preferences are against nature, God, humanity. That's a pretty audacious and outrageous judgment.

But I'm getting side-tracked. Abortion; birth-control; they've always been something very 'sensitive' and 'touchy'. Well, I'm tired of these things being so taboo. They're taboo because we've been brainwashed into thinking that they are. It's women who get pregnant; it's women who must give birth. And yet it's mostly men who are shouting the loudest about what we, as women, should and can do with our bodies. I grew up with fundamentalism. So I can tell many tales of things that most people would find absurd. For instance, in some churches it is considered wrong for women to be ministers. Women should not be allowed to hold positions of authority at all according to some schools of thought. While the majority of people may find these notions absurd, they all come down from our very long patriarchal history. It wasn't that long ago, we forget, that women couldn't even vote, or own property. Yes times and things in the Western world are by and large much better for women as a whole. But these so-called religious debates over what largely affects women, shouldn't even be up for debate. The sad fact is, that I don't even think they realize it. People have been brainwashed so effectively, they really truly believe that these things are of a religious nature. They really believe that it is in conflict with their 'morality'.

I became pregnant in high school and suffered terribly before I could get an abortion. I was 17, just a few month shy of my 18th birthday. Somehow the school guidance councilor knew. She just knew. It's funny how other women, especially older ones, can just know these things. But she explained to me that if I were pregnant and had an abortion, that I would be expelled from school. I went to Catholic school and although I wasn't a Catholic, I was held up to their stupid so-called rules of morality and conduct. I denied, denied, and denied. I had my abortion, no one found out (aside from my mother and a handful of friends) & I finished high school, and graduated. So hah!!! My abortion would have been taken care of a lot faster if the law wasn't again working against women and girls. The law in West Virginia is set up for us to fail. The age of consent in WV is 16. But you're not allowed to have an abortion without consent until you are 18 years of age. How appalling!!! So they consider you old enough to consent to sex, but not old enough to deal with the consequences on your own?! I am only so grateful that I didn't get myself into that situation earlier. For if it had been a week or 2 earlier than it had been, who knows where I would've wound up. As a child-free person and someone who has tocophobia, that was one of my worst nightmares come true. I wonder are there other child-free individuals who've been forced to give birth to an unwanted child? I'm sure there are an incalculable amount. And there are few things sadder than a child who is unwanted.

So in essence consider that all of the things that are moral, ethical, and/or right may be simply things that you've been taught to believe are right because if they don't feel right or if there is any part of you which has questioned, as I have and will continue to do, then I hope that you can take this one tidbit of wisdom with you:

No truly moral act or belief would cause others to suffer or be subjugated.