By now, surely nearly everyone in the United States has heard about Rush Limbaugh’s attack on Sandra Fluke, the college student who testified on the federal contraception mandate for health insurance. The flap began with the objections of certain religious organizations, such as the Catholic church, to providing coverage for contraception under the new federal mandate, and the ensuing all-male hearing on it before the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee. I find this stand of some churches deeply ironic*, but fine – my feelings about their policy positions are irrelevant in this instance. What is relevant is the freedom this nation guarantees to its religious institutions, the benefit to and obligation of society to ensure the availability of health care for its members, and equal treatment of every individual under the law.
So grant a religious exemption from the contraception mandate, under the condition that any institution which chooses this exemption provide a “cash bonus” in every woman’s pay package that is adequate to pay for the contraception she needs on the open market. The church then is free from supporting a “sin” it dislikes, while the contraception needs of its employees are met fairly. Then the “sin” is born by the individual, should she choose to spend her bonus in this way, and not by the religious institution.
* Denial of contraception increases the incidence of unwanted pregnancy, driving the demand for abortion up. Prohibition of abortion drives supply down. The natural result is an increase in the price of abortion, with providers stepping in to enjoy the rewards of higher prices. Women with resources leave the country to get safe, legal abortions in countries where it's legal. Desperate women seek back-alley abortions, with all the health risks that entails. Women without resources birth unwanted children into a life of poverty, neglect, sometimes abuse, and often, eventually, a life of crime. (See "Freakonomics," by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner.)
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