Rush Limbaugh is the latest reactionary icon to come to the defense of government efforts to control women’s sexuality. According to Associated Press reports, Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke was invited to testify about her university’s health plan—which excludes contraception—before a House committee. Republican lawmakers prevented her from testifying. However, Democrats invited her to speak to them at an unofficial session.

Limbaugh opposes the use of tax dollars for contraceptives. He called Fluke a slut and a prostitute, and suggested that she make videos of her sexual escapades and post them online. The response was immediate and predictable. People throughout the nation condemned Limbaugh’s remarks, and many called for the cancellation of his national radio talk show. Dozens of businesses withdrew their advertisements from his program, and Limbaugh felt compelled to make a weak “apology.” He said that he lowered himself to the standards of liberals. Even shock jock Don Imus, who infamously referred to Black Rutgers University women’s basketball players as “nappy- headed hos,” called Limbaugh’s apology cowardly and “lame.”

The national controversy over mere contraception was generated over President Obama’s original insistence that employers — including religiously affiliated employers — provide comprehensive health care, including contraception. Catholic leaders and other religionists with reactionary views on women and sexuality cried foul.

Catholic leaders oppose the use of amniocentesis to determine if a child will be born with birth defects. This knowledge supposedly leads to women aborting their fetuses. However, amniocentesis is not only used for such allegedly sinister purposes.

Thomas Keating, in a letter in the March 9, 2012 issue of The Buffalo News, related the story of his daughter’s horrifying experience in a Western New York Catholic hospital in 2007. His daughter was scheduled by her OB/GYN for an amniocentesis to determine whether the fetus had cystic fibrosis, as was the case with her firstborn child. Meconium, a side effect of cystic fibrosis, almost killed the firstborn child.

The woman’s OB/GYN told her that if meconium is detected “at inception, while still in the womb, the baby should be delivered immediately by induced labor, and then given a super enema to dissolve the meconium.”

When the woman showed up for the amniocentesis, a nurse told her that she would not be able to have it performed. The nurse hugged her and told her that her baby was in “God’s hands.” It was the hospital’s policy to only perform amniocentesis in the fourth month of the pregnancy. Other nurses hugged the woman and joined in with the “God’s hands” rap.

The sobbing woman, fearing that she would not be able to have the child, told the nurses that she does not believe in abortion and would not have one. After hearing this, the first nurse arranged for the test to be performed in 15 minutes!

Keating ends his letter thus:

“Obviously, religious viewpoints at this hospital are more important than delivering care to those who need it. Patrick [the woman’s second child] did in fact have cystic fibrosis. He is now 4 years old.” (p. A11)

Here is a clear case of religionists whose primitive sense of morality could have led to an early death. Amniocentesis can be used in many other cases for preventive health. Yet Catholic beliefs often get in the way.

Now the Vatican is insisting that Catholics become more heavily involved in politics in the U.S. and the United Kingdom. Pope Benedict XVI urged visiting U.S. bishops to more forcefully assert teachings against premarital sex and “living in sin,” and to more strongly oppose same-sex marriages. Cardinal Timothy Dolan also called on Catholics to become more heavily involved in politics. The Catholic Church obviously wants to influence public policy geared toward controlling people’s sexuality—if only indirectly, through voting and influencing politicians.

Major political problems are already arising. The federal government has stopped providing funding for a health program in Texas that aids 130,000 low-income women, because a state law prevents clinics from receiving public money if they perform abortions. According to an Associated Press story in the March 10, 2012 issue of The Buffalo News:

The federal money, which covers 90 percent of the state’s $40 million program, will be phased out between May and September because the law violates federal regulations requiring that women have a choice in medical care…That means the Women’s Health Program will join a long list of programs nationwide on the chopping block because of their affiliations with Planned Parenthood or other groups that offer abortions. (p. A6)

The problem is caused by reactionary lawmakers in Texas that do not want the public to fund Planned Parenthood. However, as the story also points out:

As is the case with other programs now in the national spotlight, the Women’s Health Program provides cancer screenings, family planning and other women’s health services. About 44 percent of women in the Texas program go to Planned Parenthood clinics, although none that accept funding from the program may perform abortions, and no federal funds are used to terminate pregnancies. (ibid)

Again, women’s health is being sacrificed in efforts to control women’s sexuality. Moreover, religionists are gearing up to oppose efforts to legalize same-sex marriages throughout the U.S. Indeed, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, a Democrat, recently signed a bill legalizing same- sex marriages. Ministers in predominantly Black churches are giving sermons encouraging their flocks to support a referendum against the measure in November.

The war to control our sexuality — and our destiny — is in full force. We cannot sit idly by and allow reactionary forces to win.