Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire

Another Undeclared War

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

We’ve become accustomed to wars that never were really declared wars, but wreaked pain and destruction on both the attacked and the attacker. Iraq and Afghanistan come to mind. Other wars are not only declared but shouted from the rooftops – the Wars on Poverty, Drugs, and Terrorism – with little progress to show in any of them.

Now another war confronts us as a society and, I believe, as Christians. It is an undeclared war, to be sure, but emerging nevertheless. It is a war on women. Have we noticed? Do we care? Abortion has been legal in this country for nearly 40 years. People of faith debate whether or not it is a moral choice, and both arguments in that debate have merit. Yet, we are seeing attempts to curb this legal medical procedure by inserting time-consuming and invasive procedures for women in its procurement. The Commonwealth of Virginia legislature has endorsed an invasive procedure deemed unnecessary and extraordinary by doctors and health care providers, all in an effort to dissuade women from having this legal procedure. (A Midwest legislator, in an effort to prove a point, suggested legislation that would require men to have invasive prostate exams prior to obtaining a prescription for Viagra!)

Inexplicably and surprisingly, birth control has emerged as an issue in the political realm. Who would have thought that in 2012 we would have to argue for the inclusion of contraception in insurance coverage? Our own legislature is entertaining a bill that would allow employers who object to birth control – and any other medical procedure – on moral grounds (no articulation of what moral grounds would be the standard, or whether it would simply be left to the whims of the individual employer) to exclude those procedures from their medical insurance coverage. This attack goes beyond the procedures themselves to include attacks on those organizations that provide these health care services. Some political candidates for the office of President pledge to abolish Planned Parenthood, which largely serves poor women and a wide range of their health care needs. Recently, our state legislature has proposed legislation that would deny federal funding for Medicaid to those hospital and healthcare providers who provide these procedures – or even provide women with referral services and information on where they can be obtained.