Harrop’s false dilemma

Froma Harrop’s Oct. 27 article calling for government to provide free (taxpayer-funded) contraception is rife with fallacies. One of the battle cries of the feminist movement is that “government should stay out of my bedroom.” Now, it seems the caveat has been added; “except to pay for my contraception. Then it should get out.” This is a textbook example of hypocrisy on the part of those in favor of free contraception.

Harrop’s argument rests on the false dilemma that a low-income woman must either spend a week’s pay on contraception, or get pregnant. The premise here is that having sex is an absolute necessity from the perspective of health care, on the same general level as chemotherapy for the cancer patient, or insulin for the diabetic. To assert otherwise is “crazy social policy.”

As for the disregard of many Catholics, including Melinda Gates, for their own church’s teachings, their actions in no way delegitimize the Catholic Church’s position, any more than a child disobeying his father somehow proves that the rules his father set for him are stupid.

Stop allowing liberals to blur the line between need and want, while trampling the consciences of millions of Americans in the process.

Ryan Cysewski

Mica, Wash.