Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Birth Control debate

I really don't know how I feel about this.
One of the most fervent anti-contraception crusaders is Pro-Life Wisconsin, which believes virtually all forms of birth control can cause a "chemical abortion" by preventing an already fertilized egg from implanting in the uterine wall.

The protests, under the banner of "Protest the Pill Day '08: The Pill Kills Babies!" are timed to coincide with the 43rd anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision Griswold vs. Connecticut that established the right to birth control for married couples.

A later decision extended that right to single individuals. Both decisions helped establish a recognized constitutional right to privacy, which paved the way for the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.

According to Nicole Safar, legal and policy analyst for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, 98 percent of women in the United States have used birth control at some point in their lives.

"So this whole idea that birth control is bad for women and bad for families is such an extreme view," she said.

Furthermore, she says protests over birth control actually help her organization's cause, which is to promote and provide family planning services.

"When you tell people that birth control is under attack, we are met with some skepticism," she said. "So the more they want to stand out there and say, 'We don't want you to have access to condoms and the pill to better plan your children,' really, the better for us."
Pro-Life Wisconsins isn't helping their cause with this, I don't believe. Frankly, many women are on the pill or patch for a different reason than preventing childbirth. I'm turned off completely to their argument.

Many women probably have avoided having abortions due to taking the pill. Could we celebrate that?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am strongly pro-life and I agree with you. Unfortunately, a small segment of the pro-life movement has decided to try to make birth control illegal....ALL birth control. As far as their argument that the pill causes abortions ... there is not one shred of scientific evidence that it does. There are theories postulated by this small segment of the movement but that is all it is - theories. It does a grave disservice to the vast majority of pro-life people when these theories are thrown out as "fact." Planned Parenthood and the rest of the pro-abortion movement just loves this...in fact, it is a gift to them. Concentrating on birth control allows the pro-abortion movement to avoid discussing abortion. And it allows them to paint the entire pro-life movement as a bunch of radicals. I am grateful to those pro-life organizations who are keeping the focus where it should be.