With a constitutional right to abortion abolished by the Supreme Court, a group of Republican extremists is busy opening the next front in their war on reproductive freedom: Attacking birth control. Last week, all but two Republican Senators voted to defeat the Right to Contraception Act, which would have created a federal right to access birth control. After the vote, Republicans protested that the vote was a meaningless “scare tactic,” because contraception is legal, but increasingly, anti-contraceptive rhetoric is being voiced in the mainstream, Trump has indicated he’s open to laws restricting or banning contraception, and since 2022, Republican leaders in 17 states have blocked Democratic legislation that would have assured access to birth control. So how will they do it?
Even in the face of this evidence, it seems incredible that such a basic and necessary aspect of reproductive healthcare could come under attack, yet far-right activists are building momentum to ban emergency contraception, IUDs, and even birth control pills, often by spreading lies and misinformation about how these technologies work. One such lie is that these contraceptive methods are “abortifacients,” that is, that they induce or cause an abortion. This was the tack taken to defeat birth control access bills in Missouri and Louisiana, The national abortion abolition group, Students for Life, lists all usual birth control methods (except condoms) as abortifacients, and says that they “end the lives” of a “preborn child” and “conceived person.” Reminder: The medical consensus is that pregnancy begins with the implantation of the fertilized egg into the uterine wall. A medication or device that prevents this from happening is NOT ending a pregnancy, it is preventing a pregnancy. If the Republicans follow the pattern they adhered to in overturning Roe, the next step in the campaign would be to pass a test law. Right now, the Supreme Court decision Griswold v. Connecticut ensures that access to contraception is a Constitutional right based on the right to privacy. In his Dobbs opinion, however, Clarence Thomas opined that the Court “should reconsider” its precedents rooted in privacy, basically issuing an open invitation to activists to want to assail contraception, same-sex, and interracial marriage. The next step in the extremist gameplan would be to pass a law banning some aspect of contraception, perhaps Plan-B emergency contraception, and have it considered by the Supreme Court. We’ve seen with other wedge issues that even fraudulent cases can make their way to the highest court, as when the Court upheld a website designer’s right to not create a website for a same-sex wedding (a request that, it turns out, was never made of her). Far-right activist groups recruit plaintiffs to serve in these sham legal proceedings, and will shop districts and jurisdictions to find a favorable hearing. This Supreme Court’s most conservative members, who all lied in their confirmation hearings about Roe v. Wade being settled precedent, have shown that they are willing to overturn established law if it appeals to them to do so, and the precedent protecting contraception could be next. Following the vote to block the Right to Contraception Act last week, Republican leadership urged their caucus to speak in support of birth control, and a few Senators dismissed the vote as liberal hysteria and scare tactics, with Katie Britt calling it a “campaign of fearmongering,” while then immediately making the fantastical claim that the Act would have required elementary schoolers to be given condoms. The Republican protestations that birth control is safe aside, this is a situation where we need to ignore what they say, and watch what they do. Senate Republicans have sent a clear message that they won’t lift a finger to protect your access to contraception. So what can you do?
As to why the far right is attempting to shift public perception on the issue of contraception, trying to read their minds leads to some dark places. But the effect, as with the overturning of Roe, would be to further diminish the power and choices of women, restricting their rights to their own bodies, plans, and destinies, and effectively making them second class citizens. In Georgia, we are already facing some of the highest maternal and infant mortality in the country. A lack of access to contraception would mean more delayed care and more bad health outcomes for women. This is what is on the ballot in November. Comments are closed.
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October 2024
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