Like many in the nation I have taken a keen interest in the administration's decision to require religious schools and hospitals to provide contraceptives, even if it violates their most fundamental tenets. Rather than attempt a recount of the controversy I will simply come to my point. Whatever the arguments made on behalf of national health care, it was never a simple matter of access and cost. It was above all a matter of politics. You cannot have the government involved in an issue and not have politics involved. Government is politics. The politicization of health care is inevitable.
What we are witnessing are the first battles in what will be an endless war over cost, coverage and inclusion. Contraception is just one of those battles. There are countless more to be fought. As long as the government is involved in health care that war will never end. It will be fought from election to election, issue to issue, and court to court.
Many seem to believe that once a law is passed, sooner or later the nation will come around and controversy will end. That might be the case with many issues, but certainly not all. That is not the case with contraceptives and abortion. It never will be. Those issues will never go away. Worse, there are many issues that are just coming into sight. Coverage for sex change surgery has already surfaced, as has the matter of coverage for same sex partners. More are not yet on the horizon but soon will be. Each new extension of coverage, each new procedure and treatment developed, each new medication discovered, will occasion political brawls as to whether and to what extent it will be covered. Each new administration will revisit the battles fought by earlier administrations. New battles will yield new results. New results will occasion new battles.
Leaving the issues of abortion and birth control aside, health care is a dynamic field. It is constantly in motion. Government will never be able to keep up. When that is coupled with the intimate and deeply personal nature of health care what we have here is a recipe for endless conflict and turmoil. As for changing birth control policy through the stroke of a pen,
those cheering the administration should keep in mind that what one
president can compel, another can forbid.
30 years after the Court overturned laws against segregation, people were not in the street arguing that the ruling be overturned. 30 years after women were given the right to vote, no one was in the street arguing that decision be overturned. Yet over 30 years after Roe v. Wade, society is still embroiled in the issue. That should tell us a lot about the matter. Clearly there is something about abortion that touches people at their very core.
Even if the rule is rescinded precedents are being set. The battle might be lost for abortion advocates but a new battle ground has been established.
