A requirement in President Barack Obama’s 2010 health care law for health insurance to cover basic birth control services for women — even at Catholic charities, hospitals and universities —sparked controversy in Congress last month.

Syracuse University students are equally divided on the issue.

Although some oppose Obama’s health care plan and believe the federal government may be overstepping boundaries, the support for women to have access to birth control is present.

‘Employers, even religiously affiliated employers, don’t have a right to know what kind of medicine their employees take,’ said Brittany Beyer, freshman international relations major and secretary of SU College Republicans. ‘Whatever they decide to use, that prescription plan is between them and their doctor.’

Though she said she is opposed to Obama’s health care plan, she does support all women having access to birth control. She said college students are responsible for their own decisions concerning their sex lives and contraception. Universities are the only way many college students have access to contraception, so it would benefit students if institutions supply it, Beyer said.

Amy Snider, senior history and political science major and president of SU College Democrats, said she is strongly in favor of Obama’s health care plan. She said she believes Obama’s decision to mandate health insurance coverage for contraceptives is noble and a ‘step in the right direction’ for the nation.

‘It is abhorrent that in the 21st century insurance companies must be forced to provide their female clients with birth control coverage,’ Snider said. ‘Even more sickening is the fact that many insurance companies, including my own, will provide coverage for Viagra, but not for contraceptives.’

Snider said she applauds Obama for furthering women’s rights and increasing access for women to preventive methods.

On March 1, the Senate voted to defeat a Republican proposal known as the Blunt Amendment, which would have allowed employers to opt out of providing health care coverage they disagree with on moral grounds, according to a March 1 article published by CNN.

Gaby Levy, sophomore photography major and member of College Democrats, said she opposes the Blunt Amendment.

She said if the Blunt Amendment were to pass, it would allow conservative or religious organizations to be selective of what medical treatments they want to cover based on ideological reasoning.

‘If the fear is that, by offering birth control to students, the schools are enabling unholy behavior, then I think those schools should think long and hard about whether or not the overall well-being of their female student body matters at all,’ Levy said.

Robin Riley, a professor of women’s and gender studies at SU, said she thinks the availability of birth control is important for women.

‘It allows women to act on their desires without fear of the life-altering experience of unwanted pregnancy,’ Riley said in an email. ‘Most women of all religions use birth control, so this is something of a false debate,’

People are going to have sex, she said, and therefore, they should be safe from unplanned pregnancy, as the availability of birth control reduces the need for abortions.

Levy also said she does not see the availability of birth control as a factor in whether individuals choose to engage in premarital sex.

‘The questions surrounding this component of the health care plan have a lot less to do with stopping premarital sex than they do with whether or not supporting the coverage of contraception encourages promiscuous sexual conduct,’ she said.

Consensual sexual relations have been going on between unmarried partners for decades, Levy said, and whether birth control is included in health care plans isn’t going to change that fact.

Dylan Rocke, a sophomore music industry and music history and cultures major and the vice president of College Republicans, said he is opposed to Obama’s plan because he said he does not believe the federal government should spend taxpayer money on supplying birth control. He said he does believe, however, that universities should have the power to supply contraceptives if they are spending their own tuition money.

‘It is every woman’s right to have access to birth control if she deems it necessary,’ College Republicans Secretary Beyer said. ‘Regardless of religious affiliation, you should have access to birth control if you want it.’

kfluttma@syr.edu

Published on March 5, 2012 at 12:00 pm