By Gay Wilmerding
Extending a cautious oar early 7 August, I begin to turn.
Cawing over my shoulder betrays crows chasing an eagle. Facing shore, I pause in magic between dense fog and partial sight.
An eagle alights, its body invisible against the dark fir, its head bright. Another cries from a nearby madrone, its red trunk and green leaves saturated in color on the grey day.
Silence. We eye each other for several minutes. I float on, the birds remain.
That evening another head shines against green madrone leaves, body dark in silhouette against brilliant sun.
Cecile Richards addresses Bellingham’s Planned Parenthood. Clad in black, her broken arm in black cast accentuates her slim figure and razor sharp observations on 30 June’s Supreme Court “Hobby Lobby” decision. Denying contraception mandates in the Affordable Care Act has profound implications for women, “placing them back in the fifties” with respect to civil rights and basic care. She exhorts us to vote.
As corporations do not eat, bleed, feel pain or die, extending personhood is flawed theory. Using First Amendment freedom of religion to deny women medical options is as perverse as using its free speech clause to allow unlimited domestic and foreign business donations to electoral candidates in “Citizens United” and “McCutcheon.”
Sustaining her injury in a Boston scuffle following a 5-4 decision, I recall Cecile’s compliments on a glorious, 2012 October evening.
No security required on San Juan with orcas breaching behind her, the national president describes access to reproductive health across the country and on island with Monica Harrington, who mentions catholicwatch.org, and Linda McCarthy who explains that, unique in the U.S., 100 percent of Mount Baker Planned Parenthood tax-deductible gifts stay here for Bellingham, Mount Vernon and Friday Harbor clinics.
I voted with islanders to subsidize San Juan Island’s hospital, pledging almost 15 percent of my property tax dollars for 50 years. Jobs are essential in a rural county with only one hospital. Whether in a fog of illness or moral conflict consider: Ethical and Religious Directives (ERDs) mean religious belief governs care, not science.
Should I connive for legal, medical services knowing individuals could be fired or lose admitting privileges under ERD policies? No.
Rather than self censor, I discover fine, independent, local providers and mainland, secular facilities. Should accident or illness lead to incoherence, I am fearful, whatever my age or condition, of being taken to an ERD facility.
Should my spouse suffer illness and try to exercise Washington’s Death with Dignity options, his Advanced End of Life Directive will be ignored if it “conflicts with hospital policy, law or the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care.” This troubling PeaceHealth Whatcom Region policy is posted on our Hospital District website without amendment for our community.
As medical costs lead to bankruptcy, personal cost for institutional bias may be our home.
Should my teenagers need full reproductive health care, Planned Parenthood across from the post office will provide, not Peace Health. Nationally, one in five females of reproductive age use this non-profit; males are its fastest growing population. Telephone and web increase access to “Care. No matter what.”
Crafter of pro-life political plank, evangelist Frank Schaeffer now advocates abortions decrease with increase of medical and social options for “families to prosper.” Thus, separation of Church and State works.
Under Washington State laws and the U.S. Constitution, every islander has autonomy and access to science-based, best-medical practice under the Affordable Care Act. Expanding private insurance mandate to public option of Medicare-for-all could save 30 cents of every dollar.
Religious persecution causes waves of American settlement; some rebel against taxation without representation. Will mid-term election’s $4 billion flood unite progressive and conservative voters on basics? Challenge ERD chains?
To avoid medical refugees, can we design systems responsive to users? Imagine vibrant beauty of multi-faceted healthcare, where blue “h”s throughout the county denote health resources.
What keeps us well? Where are personal and tax dollars well spent?
— Editor’s note: San Juan Island’s Gay Wilmerding volunteers at various civic and public programs, and finds balance in rowing.
