Men Wanted
Source: Truthdig
Hang a ‘Men Wanted’ Sign on This ‘Women’s Issue’
A pharmacist in Boston holds a generic emergency contraceptive, a type that will be exempt from some companies’ health plans because of their religious objections. AP/Elise Amendola
Set aside the U.S. Supreme Court’s radical determination that a for-profit corporation is a “person” with protected religious beliefs. The real shame is that last week’s ruling ignores the real people involved—women, yes, but also their male sex partners.
Contraception has long been regarded as a “women’s issue,” but the reality is that women, apart from addressing certain health needs, use contraception because they are in sexual relationships with men. The men in those relationships have—or should have—a big interest in women’s access to reliable and affordable birth control. But that’s often too little in evidence. This was especially so in the atmosphere surrounding the Hobby Lobby decision and its aftermath. The case stemmed from the family-owned corporation’s religious objection to providing full contraception coverage for its employees.
Look at crowd photos taken outside the Supreme Court when the case was argued last March and, again, when decision was announced June 30. Most of the men in the pictures are Hobby Lobby supporters, holding signs with anti-abortion and religious-freedom slogans or picturing fetuses. Men are harder to spot amid the “Birth Control Not My Boss’s Business” signs, among those who argued that Hobby Lobby should not be able to opt out of the birth control mandate in the Affordable Care Act because of the religious beliefs of the company’s owners.
Our highly stratified political system is partly to blame. Within hours of the court’s announcement, my email inbox was flooded with outraged messages from advocacy groups and politicians, slamming the decision and asking for donations to support individual candidates or campaigns to promote contraceptive access. But my husband, who is on many of the same email lists, didn’t get most of those pitches. I guess that as a man he’s not expected to care as much about this issue, so why bother to send him solicitations.
Read more: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/hang_a_men_wanted_sign_on_this_womens_issue_20140709
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Sheesh guys. You all been asleep at the switch or something.
It's as important to you as it is to her.
