The Right to Choose
By: Annika Dahlberg
Recently, a new section of the Department of Health and Human Services, the Division of Conscience and Religious Freedom, sent a ripple of worry through both women and the LGBT+ community, fearing this new division could allow health care services to receive public funds to deny certain services. Contraception, abortions, in vitro fertilization, HIV testing and treatment, hormone therapy, gender-confirmation surgery, and mental health care, all seen as areas of controversy within different factions of Christianity, could be denied to patients due to their doctors moral preferences.
People fear that if a healthcare professional is able to deny a person services based on their religious preferences, safety and personal choice is compromised. I respect the right to believe anything you choose, but I shouldn’t have to sacrifice my well-being because someone else’s beliefs intrude on my health and safety. It is a personal choice that should not be forced upon me or anyone else.
Two years ago, Mississippi state legislature passed the Religious Liberty Accommodations Act, an act protecting religious beliefs by allowing people to deny certain requests based on their individual morals. It allows organizations to make decisions based on their “religious beliefs and moral conviction free from discrimination charges.” It’s an act like this that lets churches bypass the law. Wheaton College refused to comply with the affordable care act being that it covers contraception.
And everyday, I watch the people I love pretend to be someone they aren’t because some old book allegedly provides justification in choosing religion over their children. I do not understand where their priorities lie. Isn’t the idea of an all-accepting god meant to encourage all to be accepting?
To be clear, I am not against religion. Religion is a personal choice, a decision made by a person, but it should never be forced or used to inflict harm or pain upon anyone.
Everyone deserves the ability to live their life how they choose. If you love your god or gods, by all means, worship them. But if you won’t let a girl love another girl, you have stolen the basic right you get every day: a right to choose.
Religions should stay out of law and in the hearts of the people who associate with them.
By: Annika Dahlberg
Recently, a new section of the Department of Health and Human Services, the Division of Conscience and Religious Freedom, sent a ripple of worry through both women and the LGBT+ community, fearing this new division could allow health care services to receive public funds to deny certain services. Contraception, abortions, in vitro fertilization, HIV testing and treatment, hormone therapy, gender-confirmation surgery, and mental health care, all seen as areas of controversy within different factions of Christianity, could be denied to patients due to their doctors moral preferences.
People fear that if a healthcare professional is able to deny a person services based on their religious preferences, safety and personal choice is compromised. I respect the right to believe anything you choose, but I shouldn’t have to sacrifice my well-being because someone else’s beliefs intrude on my health and safety. It is a personal choice that should not be forced upon me or anyone else.
Two years ago, Mississippi state legislature passed the Religious Liberty Accommodations Act, an act protecting religious beliefs by allowing people to deny certain requests based on their individual morals. It allows organizations to make decisions based on their “religious beliefs and moral conviction free from discrimination charges.” It’s an act like this that lets churches bypass the law. Wheaton College refused to comply with the affordable care act being that it covers contraception.
And everyday, I watch the people I love pretend to be someone they aren’t because some old book allegedly provides justification in choosing religion over their children. I do not understand where their priorities lie. Isn’t the idea of an all-accepting god meant to encourage all to be accepting?
To be clear, I am not against religion. Religion is a personal choice, a decision made by a person, but it should never be forced or used to inflict harm or pain upon anyone.
Everyone deserves the ability to live their life how they choose. If you love your god or gods, by all means, worship them. But if you won’t let a girl love another girl, you have stolen the basic right you get every day: a right to choose.
Religions should stay out of law and in the hearts of the people who associate with them.
