This can apply to men as well as women. Whether choosing something as controversial as an abortion, "morning after" pill or the like, or a fairly benign procedure like implants for erectile dysfunction for men, etc. (or a Viagra prescription) the point is, PRIVACY. Medical decisions are a personal matter between a person and his or her doctor. I am infuriated that, as one doctor put it to me, "My ability to perform a procedure is now being dictated by an insurance clerk in [a Midwestern town] flipping through a looseleaf notebook."

The outrageous and egregious intrusion of health insurance companies in now not just paying for medical costs (their job, and purported mission), but interfering with (often sophisticated) medical choices themselves, which are appropriately left to doctors -- and patients!!! -- is a total outrage, fanned by the flames of an uninformed and frankly, ignorant and uneducated segment of the population who need to get a life.

Whether one is debating whether to have an abortion (using the cruder phraseology on purpose in lieu of the euphemism, "terminate" an unwanted pregnancy) use birth control, or make other choices these matters are, regardless of societal currents of opinion, PRIVATE and no one else's business -- certainly not that of some whackjob with nothing better to do than parade around with a sign, spouting moralistic obscenities and holding up inflammatory and inaccurate graphic images. For the millionth time, where are these people when these childen, whose mothers can't afford to raise them (or are not emotionally or otherwise equipped to do so) need HELP? By and large they are nowhere to be found; the moralistic jerks who invade our bedrooms are not providing daycare, job training, food stamps -- in fact these same people want to TAKE AWAY these programs - even including sex education for young people, and fighting tooth and nail against distributing condoms (and yes, free clean needles) to prevent AIDS!!

The erosion of our privacy is the single most infuriating, inappropriate and yes dangerous fallout of the massive concessions made to "big insurance" and "big healthcare"; eagerly embraced by the "I'm ignorant and proud of it" stance of the moralistic, uneducated segment of our population who embrace authority (what's now becoming corporate fascism) for authority's sake, and judgment (about other's private lives) as an alternative to compassion and (duh) THINKING.

As just one example in my lifetime, what were formerly "charity" hospitals are now owned by giant corporations whose priority is the bottom line, not patient care (much less charity). And patient care is doled out (if you'e lucky) based on ability to pay -- insurance premiums -- no matter what the official (often still even legal) imperative that decent medical care is "open to all." Does anyone believe a patient gets the same care at a county hospital as in Beverly Hills? Nothing against the devoted medical people who work in either facility.

Anyway -- whether about family planning, or any other medical procedure, gay health issues, STDs, drug problems, whatever -- again MEDICAL (not insurance) workers (that is, doctors) should be making suggestions, and PATIENTS should be choosing procedures and treatments based on informed advice (from doctors); and the INSURANCE people (making -- speaking of obscene -- profits into the stratosphere while providing minimal and often inadequate care, and charging ever-increasingly onerous "premiums" and "copays") -- should be (with all this money) PAYING for those procedures. Period.

So I would propose rather than saying, "Pro Choice" we are "PRO PRIVACY." This should apply to medical options and frankly, financial and other areas of our lives as well. Thanks for listening. Obviously a hot topic on all sides.