The morning-after pill is not an abortion pill.
It always comes down to control. Rape. Civil Rights. Women’s Rights.
Margaret Sanger coined the phrase “birth control” in the early 1900’s. Sanger was a nurse who worked with the poor on the lower east side of New York and was well acquainted with the effects unplanned pregnancies had on women’s health. Sanger’s own mother bore 11 children (out of 18 pregnancies) and died at age 40. Margaret Sanger’s life mission became sexual health education, so she founded the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 1929—less than a decade after women were given the right to vote.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled (5-4) in favor of Hobby Lobby in the birth control mandate case. The five justices who ruled in favor were all men (Alito, Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas); and 3 of the 4 justices who ruled against were female (Ginsberg, Sotomayor, Kagan).
You have to wonder what the result would have been if one more female Justice had cast a vote.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito wrote in his court opinion, “Protecting the free-exercise rights of corporations like Hobby Lobby, Conestoga and Mardel protects the religious liberty of the humans who own and control those companies.”
In other words, if you work for one of the above-named companies, or thousands like them, your access to birth control is under the control of your employer; that is, access in the form of financial resources to pay for services not covered by your insurance provider. Do you know how much it costs for one month of birth control pills that are not covered by insurance? I do. I paid $86.21 to be exact.
When mandatory coverage went into effect, then-Secretary of Health & Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius stated, “Surveys showed that more than half the women in this country delayed or avoided preventive care because of its cost.”
Here’s another survey result: Half of all pregnancies are unplanned.
And another survey: Three out of 10 women will become pregnant before age 20. In fact, 46% of all high school students have had sex. That number rises to 62% for high school seniors.
How many women in the above categories can afford $86.21 per month for the pill? Can you?
Company owners such as those who own Hobby Lobby (David and Barbara Green) object to emergency contraceptive methods such as the morning-after pill because they view it as an equivalent to abortion.
However, the science says, “Emergency contraception pills work by delaying the release of an egg from a woman’s ovaries. Pregnancy cannot happen if there is no egg for the sperm to meet. The morning-after pill is not an abortion pill. Emergency contraception is birth control, not abortion.”
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, The National Campaign Against Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, and Planned Parenthood list birth control and abortion under separate categories. Scientifically speaking, birth control is separate from abortion.
However, it appears that Hobby Lobby and five Supreme Court justices have disregarded science as well as women’s voices. Once again, control over women’s lives has been exerted.
Aspiring first-time author, Holmes has experienced motherhood, divorce, single motherhood, re-marriage, stepfamily, low income, middle income. Her coming book is based on solid research, vast interviews, and personal experience. Her inspiration: her teenage daughter; and all females who struggle with assumptions others hold about their lives.
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