Letters 2/28/02

Feb. 27, 2002

Barriers to contraception

As a working woman, I strongly support Senate Bill 580/582 and House Bill 5011/5012. These bills would require insurance companies to cover prescription contraceptives the same way they cover other prescriptions.
Just because I’m a woman, I have to spend 68% more in out-of-pocket costs for health care than my husband does. And I am clearly not alone. Not only does my health insurance not pay for my birth control pills — less than 20% of traditional health plans and 40% of managed care plans offer coverage for all of the most commonly-used prescription contraceptives.
Not only is this unfair to women, it is bad public health policy. Creating barriers to contraception increases the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions, increases the incidence of low birth weight babies and miscarriages, and threatens the physical and financial well-being of working families like mine.
If enacted, SB 580/582 and HB 5011/5012 would begin to close this unacceptable gender-based gap in insurance coverage. For many years, health care services like prenatal care, mammography, and even childhood immunizations were considered non-essential. Now that these services are universally accepted as necessary care, they too are fully covered by insurance — saving countless lives everyday. Coverage for family planning is the natural next step. This bill is about fairness. It’s about equity. And it’s about time.

Sandy Pfister • Little Traverse Township

Loophole in Shulick case

The Jury Nullification clause had a booster shot in Charlevoix‘s court Feb. 6 when jurors had to deal with a judge‘s admonition to them that mansalughter rulings could not be an option in finding the obvious guilt of the defendant, Thomas Shulick, who admitted to killing by a knife.
With a jury near deadlock, the coerced final opinion was of guilty of second degree murder, since the only options decreed were first degree murder or not guilty.
Now we will likely see a retrial on the basis of the judge‘s faulty prejudice of not allowing the manslaugher charge, either voluntary or involuntary. The difference between second degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in prison terms is relevent in time spent.
That the murder did take place is not in question. That the judge placed restrictions upon the jury is highly questionable. A little too much power here, we might extrapolate.
This weakens the jury system while strengthening the appeal system. now all must go through the stressful motions one more time due to the autocratic hubris of one judge. Where the prosecutorial crew fits in here we do not know, no media appraisal being given other than the mutual bereavement of all concerened.
The railroad job here is what remains as the gist of courtroom procedure. The man is guilty, sure, but of exactly what? A judge is not a jury, though in this case presumes a foreman‘s chair on such board.
This is how changes in judicial presentiment come about. By decreeing a limited outcome of a trial, the presumption of innocence clause is further eroded. Thus, another trial will likely be forthcoming, with all the attendant costs, both monetary and emotional.

Mitchell Jon MacKay • East Jordan

Ditch the two party syndrome

If Ralph Nader was president today, things could be different! Robert Downes‘ article, “Dirty Politics Means Dirty Power,“ was right on; as stated in the last sentence: “Most of all, we need new ideas, free of the parasitic influence of special interest groups in the dirty power industry.“
Here are my two new ideas!
First, we, the voting public, need to quit the “two party syndrome“ and start voting for third party candidates (such as the Green or Libertarian Party) on the local, state and federal level. Take a lesson from Minnesota and Gov. Jesse Ventura.
Second, we need to get marijuana decriminalized now so that our farmers can start growing hemp again and labs can start researching its many uses. Quit believing the lies and find out for yourselves just how harmless this plant is. It is not some God-awful drug that makes people go crazy.
Wake up, America!! If we don‘t do this, then we must like dirty politics and dirty power, or else we have lost so many of our constitutional rights that we just don‘t think that we can make a difference anymore. It is up to each one of us to make a change for the better and save our world. Let‘s roll!

Rev. Steven B. Thompson • Director Benzie County NORML