Guest column: It's a choice

President Barack Obama's administration is under intense scrutiny for what may be one of the greatest achievements of his presidency — restoring the separation of church and state and fighting for perhaps the greatest medical innovation of the 21st century for all women and men. In case this is news to you, the Obama administration just passed a law forcing hospitals, schools, charities and other institutions with religious affiliations to choose between providing all forms of health care to their patients and employees, or close their doors.

Of course the Roman Catholic Church, entirely run by celibate men who do not have to deal with the issues of pregnancy, childbirth, raising children, rape and birth control, took an adamant standpoint. It never ceases to amaze me that in a time of such corruption in the Church, its members remain focused on one thing: controlling women, men and their reproductive rights. As a Catholic and a sexual health peer educator for the University Health Center, I have a message for the Catholic Church. Women — Catholic or not — have the right to be on the pill and use female condoms in this country we call America. Men have the right to use male condoms, thus having safe and responsible sex, because they know they are not ready or do not want to raise a child. And thus far it has been proven to be a woman's right to have an abortion, whether as a choice or out of emergency or during pregnancy. It is up to men and women to decide — not the bishops or priests of the Catholic Church who have never changed a baby's diaper, let alone raised a child for 18 years, which is truly the hardest job most of us will ever have.

Let's get one thing straight here. Catholic hospitals are no longer charities. They are businesses that depend on our government's support with subsidies and reimbursements through Medicaid and Medicare. If the Catholic Church wants to fully fund their hospitals and continue to practice an extremely sexist and medieval view of sex and birth control, then more power to them. But as of now, a number of Catholic hospitals are subsidized by the government of the United States, and they will be soon forced to follow the laws that actually respect women's and men's rights to be responsible enough to use various methods of birth control.

Change is coming. Less than a year ago, a nun in Arizona signed off on an abortion for a woman with pulmonary hypertension, who would most likely die should the pregnancy continue. Of course her bishop demoted her and excommunicated her from the church.

I am proud to be Catholic and refuse to leave the Church. I have faith one day the Church will change for the better. It needs to enter the 21st century. It is extremely disappointing that once again, this entirely sexist, male-dominated organization is further trying to control women's and men's basic rights to access and utilize birth control. Until women have some power in the Church, men will not understand that a lot of us do not want 10 kids and to spend the rest of our lives changing diapers and breast feeding — which is why 98 percent of Catholic women in this country use or have at one time used contraceptives, and the majority of Catholics support Obama's recently passed law. Please, bishops, cardinals, Pope Benedict XVI: With all due respect, stop making men's and women's decisions for them on what to follow. Focus on what Jesus preached when writing your homilies. He never even mentions birth control.

Emily Makhlouf is a junior civil engineering major. She can be reached at emakhlou@terpmail.umd.edu.