Tag Archives: Topic: Contraception

Raquel Welch writing at CNN: “Margaret Sanger opened the first American family-planning clinic in 1916, and nothing would be the same again. Since then the growing proliferation of birth control methods has had an awesome effect on both sexes and led to a sea change in moral values . . . I’m ashamed to admit that I myself have been married four times, and yet I still feel that it is the cornerstone of civilization, an essential institution that stabilizes society, provides a sanctuary for children and saves us from anarchy . . . In stark contrast, a lack of sexual inhibitions, or as some call it, ‘sexual freedom,’ has taken the caution and discernment out of choosing a sexual partner, which used to be the equivalent of choosing a life partner.”

Drug Watch: “On May 6, 2010, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Natazia (estradiol valerate/dienogest), a new type of combination birth control pill marketed by Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of Yasmin and Yaz. Natazia has been marketed as Qlaira in Europe since May 2009, and the U.S. version of the oral contraceptive will be available by summer 2010.”

CNA: “Couples who use natural family planning almost never divorce,” she pointed out. “The divorce rate at tops, we think is around 4%.”

ADF attorney Steve Aiden appeared on Freedom’s Ring with Alan J. Reinach to discuss healthcare rights of conscience. | MP3 audio – 13:22 mins

NPR: “Male porn stars have been known to don all sorts of interesting attire — but one thing you’ll seldom see them wear is a condom. For years, a group called the AIDS Healthcare Foundation has been lobbying to make condom use mandatory. The companies that make erotic films have long resisted that step, but now there are signs that change is coming.”

Naomi R. Cahn and June Carbone, Family Classes: Rethinking Contraceptive Choice (2010). University of Florida Journal of Law and Public Policy; GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 504; GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 504. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1598361

“The result of the tensions between these family ideals has been a moral backlash. In this Article, we highlight the tensions between the two family models, focusing on contraception, and critique the class-based nature of the results. We argue that the politicization of family issues has produced its own ‘vicious cycle’ of moral concern, draconian changes that disproportionately affect the poorest and most vulnerable Americans, and a new round of moral panic justifying further punitive measures, as the initial restrictions (such as closing abortion clinics and slashing family planning funds) make matters worse. We conclude that the ‘culture wars’ are very much about class, and yet they are framed as a fight between two relatively privileged groups, in which class implications of the struggle disappear from sight. This Article argues that only by making these class implications visible – for low income, middle class, and wealthy individuals – can we design more effective interventions that can break the cycle.”

Catholic News Agency: “The National Association for the Defense of the Right to Conscientious Objection (ANDOC) has criticized Health Secretary Jose Martinez Olmos for calling the sale of the morning-after pill in pharmacies a triumph. The organization explained that by increasing the availability of the pill, ideological criteria has prevailed over scientific and health care concerns.”

The Christian Institute: “The condoms were distributed by workers from Cornerhouse, a Hull-based sexual health charity, which is largely funded by public money. But local mum Samantha Fuller was left fuming after she discovered that her 13-year-old daughter was given the condoms, and that her 8-year-old nephew was also offered them.”

Michael Gerson writing in the Washington Post: “The culture war is breaking out in American foreign policy. And the main culture warrior is not a ranting televangelist but America’s secretary of state.”

KLFY (AP): “The bill by Democratic Rep. Patricia Smith, of Baton Rouge, would require the courses from grades four through 12 beginning with the 2011-12 school year. It would include teaching about abstinence, contraceptives and sexually transmitted diseases.”

Jaclyn Schiff writes at NPR: “Although Canada came out recently against abortion funding, Oda’s comments suggest the door is open for other G8 countries to follow their own course on aid for maternal and child health, including supporting abortion. As for the U.S., the G8′s apparent flexibility on maternal and child health aid doesn’t mean America will be paying for abortions abroad anytime soon, despite the current administration’s support . . . ”

“An early sign of health care reform’s impact is Planned Parenthood’s decision to open a new Oakland County clinic within the next 18 months, adding to 15 locations, including Detroit, Warren and Livonia. Unlike other Detroit area centers, the new location is likely to include abortion services.” . . .

LifeSiteNews: “One of the access points that the document directs displacement site managers to is ‘the PROMESS warehouse in Port au Prince.’ LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) had reported shortly after the earthquake that, according to an inside source in Haiti, an enormous supply of condoms was taking up as much as 70% of the floor space in that warehouse and was preventing medical supplies from being unloaded, sorted, and distributed . . . ”

Wall Street Journal: “Yet despite all these options, the rates of unplanned pregnancies remain high: Almost half of all pregnancies in the U.S.—some 3.1 million a year—are unintended, according to the most recent government survey, from 2001. One out of every two American women aged 15 to 44 has at least one unplanned pregnancy in her lifetime. Among unmarried women in their 20s, seven out of 10 pregnancies are unplanned.
An updated version of those numbers from the 2006 National Survey of Family Growth is expected to be released next month. But population experts don’t anticipate much change; the rate of unplanned pregnancy was the same in 1994, and smaller studies have found that even newer birth-control methods haven’t made much of a dent . . .” (The article contains several charts)

U. of Dallas News: “In [Jennifer Roeback] Morse’s opinion, the legalization of no-fault divorce is the most destructive redefinition of marriage. ‘No-fault divorce takes away the permanence feature of marriage,’ Morse said. ‘Legally speaking, you do not have a binding contract.’ People now approach marriage with a different mentality, knowing that it is not necessarily permanent. Through the spread of contraceptive technology, marriage has been redefined in a second way. ‘We have removed the idea of childbearing being central to marriage,’ said Morse. ‘It has turned sexual activity into a sterile recreational activity.’”

Janet E. Smith writing in Our Sunday Visitor: “The disturbing amount of duplicity and falsehood surrounding contraception continues to this day. Neither pharmaceutical companies nor physicians have been honest about the medical dangers of chemical contraceptives. The pill launched a whole set of chemical contraceptives, including Depo Provera, Ortho Evra, also known as the Patch, and Norplant. More and more studies (see the April 2009 study by Jessica Dolle of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center) are linking contraception with increased incidences of some forms of cancer.”

Economist Timothy Reichert writing at First Things: “With this essay, using the language and tools of modern social science, I will articulate the position that contraception is socially damaging. I will also demonstrate that contraception is in fact a sexist practice. Using straightforward microeconomic reasoning, I will unpack the behaviors engendered by artificial contraception. I will show that the contraceptive revolution has resulted in a massive redistribution of wealth and power from women and children to men.”

The Christian Institute: “The number of NHS trusts planning to or already offering early term abortions in GP surgeries has tripled in the past year, and pro-lifers fear this will fuel a surge in abortions. A publication for doctors, GP magazine, has revealed that 17 health trusts are either offering or are planning to offer abortions for women up to nine weeks pregnant.”

Spero News: “Catholic obstetricians of the NGO MaterCare International (MCI) have called for greater emphasis on prenatal care and more qualified medical assistance to developing countries, instead of increasing reproductive health programs that include birth control through the use of condoms, and so-called ‘safe’ abortions.”

LifeSiteNews: “The University of Detroit Mercy, a Jesuit Catholic institution, has come under fire for failing to remove links to pro-abortion groups on its website, as well as for keeping a renowned pro-abortion, pro-same-sex “marriage” nun on its Board of Trustees.”

Maryland’s Conscience Clause: Leaving a Woman’s Right to a Health Care Provider’s Choice
Maria Cirincione, 13 J. Health Care L. & Pol’y 171 (2010)

“Part I of this Comment begins with a brief history of federal and state conscience legislation in the United States and continues with a discussion of patient and provider rights in the context of relevant constitutional interpretations and physician responsibilities grounded in principles of medical ethics and Maryland case law. Part II provides a summary of general scholarly discourse on the conflict between patient and provider rights. Part III argues that Maryland’s conscience legislation must be amended in three fundamental ways in order to prevent health care providers from being able to deny care to women in need of emergency contraception. Specifically, the Maryland legislature should (1) replace the phrase termination of pregnancy with abortion, (2) include a requirement that providers inform patients about emergency contraception as a treatment option if it is medically indicated, and (3) require a treating provider to either administer emergency contraception or to refer the patient to another provider who is willing to provide emergency contraception within the medically indicated time limit.”

H.B. 189: Teaching Contraception in Utah’s Abstinence-Only Public Schools
Ian Atzet, 12 J. L. & Fam. Stud. 273 (2010)

“Voting against H.R. 189 would likely result from the Utah Legislature mistakenly prioritizing the inculcation of community values above education that would reverse STD infection trends. To support this assertion, this paper analyzes the changes proposed by H.R. 189 and their potential impact. Section II outlines the current statute, § 53A-13-101 of the Utah Code, and the resulting curriculum; Section III presents potential problems with sex education curricula; Section IV discusses the changes H.R. 189 will statutorily impose; and Section V presents arguments in favor of enacting H.R. 189.”

The Body: “Metro Nashville Public Schools may consider disciplinary action against a teacher following a parent’s complaint about a sex education presentation . . . Rodrick Glover said his daughter, a senior at Hillsboro High School, recapped a presentation given to the class. He was shocked as she described sexual techniques that the speakers allegedly demonstrated using models of male and female genitalia. Glover said students were also offered HIV testing without parental consent.”

Michael J. New writes at Public Discourse: “According to Koppelman, the hostility in red states to both contraception and comprehensive sex education leads to a greater incidence of abortion. Conversely, even though blue states are more tolerant of premarital sex, their support for comprehensive sex education and contraception actually lowers abortion rates. Koppelman spends much of the rest of the essay criticizing the religious right for their opposition to both sex education and government funding of contraception. Unfortunately, Koppelman’s claims are based on rhetorical sleights of hand and a faulty analysis of data. What is unique about this essay is that all three of Koppelman’s arguments are incorrect. First, there is little evidence that more federal funding for contraceptives will reduce abortion rates. Second, there is some evidence that abstinence-only sex education is effective at reducing sexual activity among minors. Finally, red states actually have lower abortion rates, in part because they have placed more legal restrictions on abortion . . . ”

GMA News: “Only parents should teach children about sex and reproductive health because the 1987 Constitution says so. This was claimed on Monday by Jo Aurea Imbong, a senatorial candidate of the Ang Kapatiran Party, who has been vocal about her opposition to the controversial reproductive health bill which allows sex education in schools starting Grade 5.”

University of Chicago Medical Center: “Nearly one in ten primary care physicians in the United States has experienced a conflict with a religiously-affiliated hospital or practice over religious policies for patient care, researchers from the University of Chicago report in a paper published early online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.”

Washington Post: “Southworth warned that teaching a student how to properly use contraceptives would be contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a misdemeanor punishable by up to nine months behind bars and a $10,000 fine. He said it would be promoting sex among minors, who are not legally allowed to have sex in Wisconsin . . . ”

Telegraph: “David Cameron has pledged to review Britain’s abortion laws and stop assisted suicide in moves designed to place religious issues at the forefront of the Conservative election campaign. The Conservative leader said that he would personally favour reducing the abortion limit from 24 weeks to 20 or 22 weeks. Under a package of reforms backed by Mr Cameron, faith schools would also be able to teach sex education as they wished. . . .”

Guardian: “Teachers’ leaders had mixed feelings on hearing that huge sections of an education bill were dropped today in the rush to pass legislation ahead of the dissolution of parliament . . . Schools would have had to teach about contraception and the importance of stable relationships, including marriage and civil partnerships. Faith schools would have been free, as now, to express the views of their faith, but would not have been allowed to suggest that their views are the only ones.”

Wisconsin State Journal: “A Wisconsin prosecutor is warning that teachers who teach the state’s new sex education curriculum could be arrested and charged with contributing to the delinquency of children. Juneau County District Attorney Scott Southworth told the Wisconsin State Journal that the state’s sex education law, which was signed by Gov. Jim Doyle in February, is a ‘sick and shameful piece of legislation’ that encourages illegal sex among minors.”

Euro News: “In Italy, a row has broken out over the availability of the abortion drug, known as RU 486. Two newly elected conservative regional officials say they’re going to stop the distribution of the so-called abortion pill.”

LifeNews: “Idaho Governor Butch Otter allowed a bill to become law that will create statutory protections for health care professionals in specific areas of medical practice. The measure makes it so pro-life health care workers don’t have to fear for their jobs if they decide they don’t want to dispense drugs that could be used to cause abortions or kill patients at the end of their life.” | SB1353 | Idaho Chooses Life

LifeNews: “Harper was initially reluctant to include contraception in the centerpiece plan Canada is advocating, but he has ruled out including abortion. That met with opposition from Clinton, a longtime abortion advocate and the top international official in the administration of pro-abortion President Barack Obama . . . ”

Toronto Sun: “Any global plan to enhance maternal health must include strategies to boost access to birth control, says U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.”

Aciprensa: “The March for Life organized by the Center for Family Promotion and Birth Control (CEPROFARENA) [gathered] more than 30 thousand people in Lima (Peru) . . . while In Arequipa Corso for Life brought together more than 18 thousand. Both demonstrations rejected abortion [and] the illegal decision of Health Minister Oscar Ugarte, to distribute the morning-after pill contrary to the Constitutional Court and the provisions of the Constitution.” [modified Google translation]

The Catholic Review: “The Archdiocese of Baltimore is suing Baltimore City to overturn a controversial new law that requires the city’s pro-life pregnancy centers to post signs saying they do not provide abortion or birth-control.”

Telegraph: “The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), the new industry regulator, has clarified guidelines in the revised code, which states that staff can opt out of handing out the pill or the morning after pill. The so-called ‘conscience clause’ has been criticised and The National Secular Society had been campaigning to get it scrapped.”

ADF Attorney Matt Bowman writing in The Washington Examiner: “Cathy DeCarlo of Brooklyn and her family followed the health reform debate more closely than some others might have. Cathy is Catholic and a nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Less than a year ago, the federally-funded hospital forced her to assist in a 22-week dismemberment abortion, despite her tearful pleas that she be spared the horror. President Obama’s health reform executive order on abortion claims to protect the conscience rights of pro-life health providers like Cathy. But on closer reading, the order proves to be yet another presidential action that makes every pro-life health care provider a potential ‘next Cathy DeCarlo.’”

Christian Today: “The General Pharmaceutical Council has decided to uphold the right of pharmacists in the UK to refuse to dispense treatments that conflict with their religious beliefs. The new pharmacy regulator said it would retain an existing code of ethics when it replaces the Royal Pharmaceutical Society as the regulator of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians later this year.”

Catholic News Agency: “The Peruvian bishops’ Committee on the Family, Childhood and Life criticized the government’s stubbornness in pushing the distribution of the morning-after pill, despite the fact that the country’s Constitutional Court ruled last year that the pill cannot be sold or distributed due to its abortifacient potential.”

LifeSiteNews: “During a nail-biting session in Canadian parliament Tuesday, the Liberal motion which sought to force Prime Minister Stephen Harper to include abortion in the Canadian plan to address maternal and child health at the G8 summit was defeated in a narrow 144-138 vote.” | For background information see the ADF Alliance Alert compound tag: http://www.alliancealert.org/wordpress/tag/country-canada+global-sanctity-of-life/

ACLU: “On Monday, a federal district court in Massachusetts ruled that an ACLU challenge to the government’s use of taxpayer dollars to impose religious doctrine on victims of human trafficking may go forward. The decision is a victory for women’s health and for the basic constitutional principle that federal dollars cannot be used to favor one religious perspective over all others . . . USCCB prohibits, based on its religious beliefs, grantees from using any of the federal funds to provide or refer for contraceptive or abortion services, We brought a lawsuit . . . ”

LifeSiteNews: “‘The existing programs of family planning are imposing Western views on people who have a different view of life and very different desires for family size,’ he said. The approach taken by such groups as UNFPA and Planned Parenthood is ‘contraceptive imperialism,’ according to Mosher, ‘exporting the mentality of Manhattan … or Hollywood to relatively innocent, untouched corners of the world.’”

The Globe and Mail: “Stephen Harper’s office is not calling it a flip-flop but today in Question Period the Prime Minister clearly opened the door to allowing contraception to be part of his G8 initiative on maternal health. Yesterday, it appeared to be excluded from his signature plan to help mothers and children in developing countries.”

Naomi Cahn and June Carbone write at the Christian Science Monitor: “But moral panic won’t help lower divorce rates and teen pregnancy in conservative states; education will . . . In the United States, states that emphasize abstinence-only education, limit public subsidies of contraception, restrict access to abortion – and, yes, oppose gay marriage – have higher teen birth and divorce rates.”

Yorkshire Post: “An investigation has been launched after a pharmacist refused to supply the contraceptive pill to a South Yorkshire woman, saying it was ‘against her religion’. Janine Deeley was turned away by the female chemist at Lloyds pharmacy in Duke Street, Sheffield, when she went to pick up her prescription.”

AP: “A Rome high school has decided to install vending machines selling condoms for its students, sparking angry reaction from the Catholic Church which claims the move will only encourage youths to have sex.”

Living in Peru: “Peru’s Health Minister Oscar Ugarte announced that public hospitals will resume distributing the morning-after pill, since international research requested by his department concludes that the pill is not a method of abortion.”

Washington Post: “On Valentine’s Day, Philippine government health workers hit the streets of Manila to hand out roses and condoms to passers-by. The message was clear in a country with a relatively small but rapidly growing HIV-positive population: Avoid unprotected sex. It didn’t get far. Within days, leaders of the powerful Roman Catholic Church began urging the faithful to reject condoms, reigniting a long-running battle over contraception in the overwhelmingly Catholic nation . . . ”

The Unwelcome Cohort: When the Sentencing Judge Invades Your Bedroom
Elizabeth M. Bux, 85 Notre Dame L. Rev. 745 (2010)

“This Note discusses the various issues of civil rights and criminal law associated with the sentence in the Talty case and those issues that might arise from similar sentences. Part I outlines the facts and history unique to the Talty case. Part II discusses the privacy issues at play in a sentence dealing with procreation and sexuality. This Part explains the procreative rights involved in cases of sterilization, birth control, and abortion, and fleshes out the issues of privacy involved in cases of nonprocreative sexuality. In addition, this Part illustrates the various limits on privacy inherent in a criminal conviction, along with the ramifications that such limits have on the constitutionality of governmental restrictions on behavior.”

Religion Link: “Do sex education programs that emphasize abstinence really work? The issue is on the boil thanks to rising teen pregnancy rates and the high profile of Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol, herself an unwed teenage mother. Now a pair of new studies reveals a complex answer to a flashpoint debate in the culture wars.” (compilation of links included)

Catholic News Agency: “In response to an alarming increase in sexual promiscuity among children ages 10 – 14, the Swiss government has decided to begin distributing ‘extra-small’ condoms.”

Inquirer.net: “They came bearing condoms. Members of a workers group Monday brought the condom debate to the doorstep of Catholic bishops, in a bid to convince the prelates that prophylactics protect the health of women.”

NY Daily News: “Women hit with an unplanned pregnancy could be in for a double shocker – their partners may be happier about it than they are . . . The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy surveyed thousands of young men and women, ages 18-29, about their thoughts on pregnancy . . . ”

The Study

Hat tip: Institute for Marriage and Public Policy

Times of India: “Morning-after pills should be back on air. And not just private companies but even the Union health ministry should advertise them. This is the view of a four-member expert committee set up by the Drug Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) recently to assess the pros and cons of allowing advertising of emergency pills.”

Gulf News: “‘Condom advertisements should be banned in television, radio, movies, newspapers, magazines, and public places, as they desensitise youths’ delicate consciences and weaken their moral fibre as future parents,’ [Bishop Nereo Odchimar said.”

The Daily Caller: “Some mullahs in Afghanistan are distributing condoms. Others are quoting the Quran to encourage longer breaks between births. Health experts say contraception is starting to catch on in a country where one in eight women dies during pregnancy.”

Inquirer: “Senator and presidential aspirant Richard Gordon is backing the use of condoms to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, but thinks government has gone overboard by distributing the condoms to target users.”

The State Journal-Register: “A bill backed by Planned Parenthood in the Illinois General Assembly would remove restrictions on when low-income women could receive abortions paid for by the state’s Medicaid program. House Bill 6205, sponsored by House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, is expected to be considered by a House committee later this month.”

WBAY: “The Healthy Youth Act is designed to ensure the most current sex education standards are taught in Wisconsin public schools.”

Idaho Reporter: “A Senate committee has approved the proposal extending the freedom of conscience to pharmacists and other health care workers in circumstances involving emergency contraception and end of life care.”

The Salt Lake Tribune: “After months of negotiations, a bill that would have changed sex education in Utah died with barely a whisper Monday morning after lawmakers chose not to talk about it. SB54 sought to change language in state law to clarify that Utah teachers are allowed to talk about contraception. The bill also would have directed the State Office of Education to develop materials on contraception for teachers to use and would have made those and any other materials available for parents to review.”

LifeSiteNews: “Canada will not include abortion and contraception in its maternal and child health care initiative, confirmed International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda, who oversees Canada’s international development program.”

ACLU: “The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a lawsuit against the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to obtain public documents detailing its overseas abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, which a recent Inspector General’s report says unconstitutionally promote religiously infused materials and messages . . . ”

Complaint

LifeSiteNews: “The Catholic Diocese of Baker, Oregon announced yesterday that it has severed ties with St. Charles Medical Center, in Bend, because the hospital has adopted practices that violate Catholic teaching and will not back down on them . . . the hospital has insisted on . . . performing tubal ligations, which is a form of sterilization for women and is thus in violation of Church teaching against such procedures.”

Idaho Reporter: “The Idaho Senate is considering expanding the right of conscience for health care professionals to include pharmacists, nurses, and other workers. The law currently only applies to doctors and hospitals.”

Irish Medical Times: “Over two-thirds of GPs believe that some form of legislation should be introduced to allow teenagers to consent to or refuse medical treatment, including the ‘morning-after’ pill.”

The Reporter: “Wisconsin public schools must teach birth control methods and how to use them under a bill ready to be signed by Gov. Jim Doyle.”

Robert Rector writing at National Review Online: “Consider what the New York Times had to say. According to its editorialists, the newly evaluated abstinence program succeeded because it was ‘freed from the moralistic overtones and ideological restrictions’ of prior abstinence education. … The bottom line: The sex-ed industry’s successful effort to kill federally funded abstinence education was about liberating teens from “ideological” and ‘moralistic’ messages. The dilemma for the Left is that parents overwhelmingly approve these messages and condemn the core values of the ‘comprehensive’ sex-ed programs currently pushed by Congress.”

The Charleston Gazette: “The Family Policy Council of West Virginia issued a news release Wednesday saying that policies that help adolescents access birth control would lead to more teen sex.”

Christian Post: “Conservative groups have denounced the recent decision requiring that all U.S. military bases worldwide carry the controversial contraceptive pill, Plan B . . . Though Plan B has been available at some military hospitals, the new Department of Defense policy makes it a requirement for military hospitals and health clinics to stock the ‘morning-after’ pill.”

Charleston Gazette: “A coalition of groups will push to make West Virginia health insurers cover birth control for teens covered by their parents’ insurance, saying that would cut down on unintended pregnancies and abortions.”

FOX News: “A new report by the International Planned Parenthood Federation is advocating that children as young as 10 be given extensive sex education, including an awareness of sex’s pleasures. The report, ‘Stand and Deliver,’ charges that religious groups, specifically Catholics and Muslims, deny their young access to comprehensive sexual programs and education.”

Robert Rector, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, writing at NRO: “Obviously, abstinent teens are not going to get pregnant or contract an STD. But the research shows that, in general, they also will be happier and less depressed than their permissive peers. Abstinent teens also do dramatically better in school. They are half as likely to drop out as their sexually active peers. And teens who abstain until at least age 18 are twice as likely to attend and graduate from college as those who become sexually active while in high school. The extra schooling achieved by abstaining teens will add, on average, an additional $400,000 to their lifetime earnings.”

“For the first time ever, the Pentagon is requiring military bases worldwide to offer the so-called morning-after pill.”