On the eve of Venus entering Aries (which occurred overnight at 1:01 am EST), Rick Santorum — perhaps the most rabidly anti-sex candidate campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination — won the the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses, as well as a nonbinding primary in Missouri. You can read earlier Planet Waves coverage of his views and natal chart to get a sense just how twisted up his beliefs on sex really are.
Part of what has become a hot campaign topic for Santorum and the other Republicans this week is a new Obama administration rule requiring health insurance plans, including those provided by Catholic-affiliated hospitals and universities, to offer free birth control methods. In fact, Republican campaigning became heavy against this health care provision this week, as though warming us up for Venus’ entrance into the revolutionary Uranus-Pluto square that has been heating up social movements for months (Venus is now conjunct Uranus).
As if we actually need more things to get riled up about regarding women’s health (although, maybe we do — since this stuff keeps happening, maybe it means we need to step up our efforts for the good of all). Not only do Republican politicians want to limit what women can do after they get pregnant, now they’re trying to limit women’s ability to prevent pregnancy.
Talk about trying to hog-tie women. Luckily, not all Catholic parishioners take the stance on birth control that the bishops of their churches take. In fact, according to Jon O’Brien, President of Catholics for Choice, a non-profit organization that represents the voice of Catholics on reproductive and sexual health, as many as 98% of Catholics in the U.S. use some form of birth control. If these same Catholics vote their reality rather than their church’s dogma, they could perhaps have some weight with their elected officials.