Glenden BrownConservative Lies: Contraception is Abortion
The anti-abortion crowd has been, for a very long time, very quietly anti-contraception. Arguments against contraception range from the ludicrous (use of contraception leads to abortion) to the medically inaccurate (chemical contraception is actually a form of chemical abortion). Since 98% of American women will use contraception during their lives, arguing against it seems like an act of an insanity, so the wingnut brigade has chosen a different tactic: redefining contraception as something other than what it is, with of course the help of the lunatics in the Bush administration.
So smiley Mikey Leavitt proposed new regulations declaring the contraception is abortion and protecting the “right” of anti-abortion doctors, nurses and pharmacists to not do their jobs and not get fired.
Dr. Anne Davis writes:
But the Bush administration wants my clinic and healthcare facilities around the country “not to discriminate” against doctors or any other staff who would withhold contraception from women who rely on it to continue working, going to school, and raising the children they already have. In essence, the Department of Health and Human Services finds it both healthy and humane to hire people who don’t believe in women’s healthcare to provide women’s healthcare. As a July 30 article in the Washington Post noted, patients’ health should come first in the medical world, not religion or politics.
The letter from Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health to Leavitt and the HHS reads in part:
The oral contraceptive pill is the most common contraceptive method in the country, and 82% of women have relied on oral contraceptives at some time in their lives. Oral contraceptives, when taken consistently and correctly, are extremely effective at preventing ovulation. Yet the proposed regulation would threaten the state laws that improve access to contraception. Moreover, the regulation specifically defines as problematic state laws that require employers who offer drug benefits to cover contraception, require hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape survivors and require pharmacies to fill valid prescriptions. Loss of these protections compromises women’s access to medical services and safe and effective birth control.
The proposed regulation would redefine abortion as “any of the various procedures - including the prescription, dispensing, and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action - that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation.” This definition is contrary to major medical authorities, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Medical Association, and the British Medical Association, which define an established pregnancy as occurring after a fertilized egg is implanted in the lining of the uterus.
I’m not surprised that the Bush administration would try to get something like through. It’s blatantly wrong, it’s based on ideology not science and it’s bad for people.
Contraception is a descriptive term - it prevents unplanned pregnancies. Used consistently and correctly, oral contraceptives are one of the best means a woman has of effectively managing her fertility (for men, at this time, unfortunately, the only option remains the condom). Katha Pollitt describes it best:
Another dangerous feature of the proposed rules is that they redefine contraception as abortion. Standard medical authorities define abortion as something that takes place after you become pregnant, that is, after a fertilized egg implants in your womb and sets off a cascade of physical changes in your body. The HHS draft changes all that. It defines abortion as “any procedures, including prescription drugs, that result in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation.’” According to these rules, you can have an “abortion” without even being pregnant. (The Pill, emergency contraception, and the IUD mostly work by preventing ovulation and fertilization, but anti-choice advocates argue that they prevent implantation, and it is not yet possible to say with 100 percent certainty that this never, ever happens.) These are the knots we get tied up in when religious ideology replaces sound science.
The history of contraception is ancient. Humans have long attempted to figure out how to prevent unplanned pregnancies. It’s only been in the last century or so that we humans have figured it out. U.N. studies demonstrate that the best way to help a society is to help it’s women - economically, educationally, and in terms of reproductive health.
As a matter of public policy, we should seek to help each person become a sexually healthy adult who has self respect, who makes responsible choices, who is free of STIs and who engages in physically and emotionally healthy sexual relationships and who is empowered to live out his/her sexuality in life enhancing ways. The stealth war on contraception being waged by conservatives does nothing to advance that goal and needs to be called what it is: a desperate pre-modern story being told in an attempt to undo a medical advance that has benefitted countless millions.
