Think the Bush regime and its theocratic supporters will stop at outlawing
abortion (which would be bad enough)? Think again. The
anti-abortion movement, with support all the way up into the White House, is
now pushing to limit and even outright ban contraception.
An article in this weekend’s New York Times Magazine gave the
chilling details. As the moves towards
outlawing abortion have gone further ahead in the last year alone, with 52
state laws passed restricting abortion and South Dakota’s recent outright ban,
the theocrats inside and outside of government responsible for this now have
their sights set on even more reactionary ends.
Their most infamous action in this respect was when Bush-appointed FDA
officials prevented ‘morning-after’ contraception from being sold over the
counter, despite the recommendation of their own scientists that the
contraception is completely safe. But
their campaign against contraception goes much further, with misinformation
being promoted about condoms and birth control pills by government agencies and
Christian fundamentalist organizations alike, claiming condoms don’t actually
prevent STD’s and equating birth control with abortion. They claim sex education and available
contraception encourage teenage promiscuity, despite the fact that all
scientific studies have proven the opposite.
The same rationale has been used to prevent a vaccine for HPV (a common
STD which often leads to cervical cancer) from being widely accessible. They have also been fighting for the legal
right of pharmacists not to fulfill birth control prescriptions. Some express open concern that the widespread
use of contraception and family planning in Europe and North
America will lead to a smaller white population, revealing the racist
overtones of their ‘traditional morality’.
Bush himself has refused to directly answer whether he
supports the right to contraception. Every single anti-abortion organization
opposes contraception. Mohler, the
president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary put it squarely: ‘I
cannot imagine any development in human history, after the Fall, that has had a
greater impact on human beings than the pill. . .Prior to it, every time a
couple had sex, there was a good chance of pregnancy. Once that is removed, the entire horizon of
the sexual act changes.’ To these
theocrats inside and outside government, women are meant to be breeders, and
the notion of women having control over their own bodies is the worst evil
imaginable.
Can you imagine what society will be like if they get their
way? The reality is, they have already
packed the judiciary, including the Supreme Court, as well as other government
agencies like the FDA, setting dangerous new policies and legal
precedents. Far-right groups like Focus
on the Family have significant influence and common goals with the White House
and the Republican leadership in Congress.
The fact that opposition to contraception is no longer a lunatic fringe
position is problematic enough. If starting
right now, millions of people don’t become awake to and organized to stop these
vicious moves to ban abortion and birth control and the regime behind them, the
future for women and for society as a whole will be bleak and brutal.
The World Can’t Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime!
(Source: ‘Contra-Contraception’ by Russell Shorto, New York
Times Magazine, 5/7/06; How the
Pro-Choice Movement Saved America
by Cristina Page, Basic Books, 2006)