Catholic Bishops are taking a stand. They are standing strong against the rights of women to receive birth control coverage as a part of their health insurance. The Catholic Church condemns condoms and hormonal birth control methods as unholy sin. Despite the position of the church's leadership, there is a comprehensive study that shows 98 percent of sexually experienced Catholic women have used a method of contraception other than natural family planning. The male leadership of the Catholic Church is so disconnected from their own followers that they would doom 98 percent of their own female congregation to hell's fire.

Representative Darrell Issa decided to hold a panel meeting to discuss this topic. Conveniently enough the panel was composed entirely of men, most in religious garb. No doctors, no experts in the health field, no proponents of birth control as preventative care, and no females. In fact the only "doctor" to be found on the panel was the PhD (Doctor of moral Philosophy) who literally referred to the distribution of female contraception as equal to "soul rape". When discussing women's rights it would be awfully nice to hear the opinion of at least one person affected by the decision. Is this not America? When did we suddenly become a third world country where women are not allowed to speak?

Is it just me or did the priesthood lose all of its credibility advocating on behalf of children with its never-ending accusations of sexual abuse? To me it is ironic that they maintain stony silence regarding sexual abuse scandals and their very own accused and convicted priest while choosing to use their platform to loudly preach against the use of the birth control pill. This is highlighted in the current landmark Pennsylvania court case against the Philadelphia archdiocese where decades worth of complaints lodged against priests were buried by the cardinal's own secretary. It is okay to sweep it under the rug when Catholic priests hurt children, but preventing unwanted pregnancies is a sin worth fighting for? I guess if you are having sex with prepubescent girls and altar boys, then you don't need birth control. They may cloak the revocation of birth control coverage in the garb of religious beliefs but perhaps true intent of withholding contraception is simply to create more children. More children equal more Catholics, and more Catholics equal more choir boys...

Is it hypocritical to anyone else that the same priests have no trouble covering the prescription for Viagra? Should we hold an all-women panel to discuss?