Sorry, But There’S No Comparability Not Discriminatory Viagra’S For Illness. Contraception Isn’T.

A man is impotent. This is not something he chose, but rather an unnatural medical condition from which he suffers. He wants to be able to have sex, whether it is to reproduce or to express his love for his partner. After years of trying, the medical community has discovered an effective treatment: the drug Viagra.

A woman is of child-bearing years. This is not something she chose, but a natural condition from which she may feel she suffers. She wants to have sex without worrying about getting pregnant. The medical community offers her many choices, some of which are free. One isn’t: birth control pills.

But is anyone suprised that the two have been linked, at least in the minds of the women-are-always-treated-like-second-classcitizens crybaby liberals?

On Tuesday, the two became bedmates in a political argument about the fairness of insurance coverage. About half of the 300,000 men prescribed Viagra are at least partly reimbursed by insurance companies. Most employer-based insurance plans don’t pay for birth control pills.

“A clear bias,” says Anita Nelson of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The group urges Congress to mandate insurance coverage for birth control pills.

No way. Viagra treats a medical problem: impotence. Because the media have made it out to be a performance booster for sex athletes doesn’t mean that’s what it is, or how it should be used.

Fertility, with which birth control pills interfere, in itself is not a medical problem.

If you don’t choose to have sex, you don’t get pregnant. If you do choose to have sex, there are several ways to prevent pregnancy. Some involve over-the-counter products that health insurance doesn’t cover; some cost nothing. Is it fair to single out one costly method and demand insurance coverage?

If there must be linkage, link Viagra to sterility treatments for women. Insurance coverage for treating this unnatural medical condition is spotty at best. Women who want to have children and can’t afford the costly treatments have no choices whatsoever.

But don’t try to say it is discriminatory to cover Viagra and not birth control pills. They are two different animals.