Opinion

The birth control mandate: Another step in creating a dependent class?

AWR Hawkins, Ph.D. Conservative Writer
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As the outrage continues to grow over the birth control/abortion pill mandate the Obama administration is requiring all employers to abide by, there is an especially troubling possibility that needs to be drawn out into the light and examined. Namely, what if the mandate isn’t about “women’s rights”? What if it’s really a bald attempt to draw even more people onto the government dole by giving them “free” birth control pills and abortifacients?

In light of the way the Obama administration has handled things to date, such a ploy seems as believable as it is disturbing.

Consider this: Early on in Obama’s presidency, unemployment benefits began to be extended to the point that now, in 2012, an unemployed American can draw a paycheck from the U.S. government for 99 weeks. At the same time, the administration literally shopped for new food stamp recipients, and now we’ve witnessed the greatest surge in food stamp dependence in U.S. history. On top of this, we’ve seen the emergence of programs that pay for cell phones (“Obama Phones”) for the poor and that not only pay for school breakfasts and lunches, but also for dinners.

And these things are just the tip of the iceberg. The administration has been using taxpayer dollars to create a class of persons completely dependent upon the government — a class Obama will be expecting to say “thanks” by voting for him in November 2012.

In the midst of these government enticements and giveaways, it makes sense that the administration would look for other things it can give away more or less as icing on the cake.

Enter birth control pills and abortifacients. By using the HHS mandate to further the provision of “free” things, the administration can both continue to encourage government dependence in those already taking part in other programs and can perhaps even draw in outliers who have yet to look to the government to “bail them out” of their problems.

This is dangerous inasmuch as it is antithetical to the very foundation of our nation, a foundation of personal responsibility and limited government intrusion into our lives, and it sets us on a course of looking more deeply to government for help in matters of life: even matters of conscience.

Under the Obama administration, a full 47 percent of households in America have grown accustomed to not being required to pay any federal income taxes. And while there’s no doubt the administration is also expecting these households to return the “kindness” it has shown them and vote to give the president one more term of distributing other people’s wealth, there’s also no doubt he could greatly enlarge the number of votes he’s counting on by giving women their birth control pills and abortifacients for “free” as well.

AWR Hawkins is a conservative columnist who has written extensively on political issues for HumanEvents.com, Pajamas Media, Townhall.com, and Andrew Breitbart’s BigPeace.com, BigHollywood.com, BigGovernment.com, and BigJournalism.com. He holds a Ph.D. in U.S. military history from Texas Tech University, and was a visiting fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in the summer of 2010. Follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.