Holmes, but not Sherlock #1

The firestorm of abortifacts and contraception in health care continues against all possible odds. All of these medications are available with more ease than any other medication I can think of and yet these arcane arguments continue to burst from various cloisters to plague our public lives. While the symbolism of the religious groups is understandable, the intensity and persistence of their opponents is less so. It almost has the reciprocal religious fervor.

It strikes a familiar note. A number of years ago a battle over forced sterilization developed. This was in America. Forced sterilization. It went to the Supreme Court and was overturned but Oliver Wendell Holmes, one of the Progressive's leading thinkers, wrote for the minority in favor of forced sterilization. His argument went along the lines that the society can ask the sacrifice of a life or limb from a soldier, sacrifice of reproductive capacity for the betterment of the State is no worse. This is an argument of a highly regarded man.

Fine-tuning people's lives for the betterment of the State using the perceptions of self-proclaimed experts and wise-men is the hallmark of the Progressive. They are never embarrassed or ashamed. They have become the modern equivalent of the excesses of Medieval religion, clearly crazy but somehow protected by the aegis of deeply held faith.