The following comes from a Sept. 9 story on TheFederalist.com.
Byron York has a comprehensive piece on the welcome Republican effort to end the birth control wars, a push for access begun by Bobby Jindal and now embraced by an increasing number of Senate candidates advocating for over the counter availability of the pill.
The idea is to make the birth control pill available over the counter, to all, 24/7, without a prescription. It’s becoming a trend among Republican candidates in Senate races around the country. In North Carolina, GOP candidate Thom Tillis recently embraced it. So has Ed Gillespie in Virginia, Mike McFadden in Minnesota, Cory Gardner in Colorado. And one of the leading proponents of the move is a potential 2016 GOP presidential candidate, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. The most intense debate over the idea has taken place in Colorado, where Gardner unveiled a birth control TV commercial last week…
Gardner first rolled out the proposal in a Denver Post op-ed in June. The birth control pill has safely been in use since it was first approved 44 years ago, Gardner argued. “When other drugs have that kind of track record, we approve them for purchase without a prescription,” he wrote. “Name-brand drugs like Advil, Pepcid, Claritin, Prilosec and many others were once sold by prescription only, but moved to over-the-counter sale once they’d been proven safe and unlikely to be abused.” Democrats reacted with an almost sputtering rage. How dare a Republican try to move in on their issue!
Particularly in a way which sides with the majority of a 60-33 split when the idea is polled. But interestingly enough, Planned Parenthood is pushing back on over-the-counter contraception.
Why is this? Why would Planned Parenthood want to decrease the availability of contraception, and require women to see a doctor in order to get it? That seems awfully paternalistic of them. But according to Planned Parenthood, it’s about the fact that this over-the-counter push just amounts to access to the widest used forms of oral contraception instead of other forms, and that if put into place, it will force women to have to pay for it, just like they do for Advil or Pepcid or Claritin, instead of having their employer paying their insurer and then having the insurer pay for it, as the laws of nature intended.
That makes sense, of course. It’s also certainly a total coincidence that birth control is a major lead generator for Planned Parenthood, to the degree that they can’t afford to lose their existing purpose as a source of prescribed contraception without it hurting their status as an institution. Pages 16 and 17 of this report [see graphic above] break out what percentage of Planned Parenthood’s “services” are related to contraception – it’s over a third of their activity, and the breakdown on page 16 shows that it’s overwhelmingly oral contraception (and less than 5 percent of their business is IUDs).
Now you can understand why they wouldn’t want potential customers to be free to go to CVS or Walgreens or Rite Aid instead of heading to Planned Parenthood – providing those and other services is worth a lot of taxpayer money, $540 million in FY 2012 alone. And if you don’t provide those services, you can’t bill the taxpayers for them.
Planned Parenthood’s hypocrisy here is borne out of their interest in survival as an institution, an impetus for rent-seeking over access. The existing and arbitrary government barrier to over-the-counter oral contraception is a major path to how they get customers in the door, and they know it. That’s why they want to keep the government’s ban on over-the-counter birth control intact.
To read the original story, click here.
This is very interesting. Long story short artificial hormones ARE a health hazard to women, whether they are used for contraception or for hormone replacement therapy. They can be deadly, or cause health problems in her offspring. In addition contraception is deadly to a woman’s soul, to marriages and ultimately to families. Pray that Bishops and priest open their hearts and minds to this truth and start to speak out against this scourge on humanity.
Let everyone pay for their own sins $.
Don’t involve all of us.
Of course if they do not repent, eventually they will also pay later – HELL.
Failed contraception = abortions for Planned Parenthood. $$$$$
This is why they do not want ABSTINENCE taught,
even though CDC clearly states that abstinence is the best way to avoid sexually transmitted diseases – which is at epidemic levels in the USA – approx. 20 million new cases each year.
Sex has become a religion in the USA (and possibly the world).
In fact sex has become idolatry.
Adultery, fornication, homosexuality, pornography, masturbation, pedophilia, beastiallity, polygamy.
Peter Kreeft in his book, “How to Win the Culture War” says we can’t win, “unless we win the sex war, because sex is the effective religion of our culture, and religion is the strongest force in the world, the strongest motivation there is.”
I thought that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, was an enthusiastic, devout Catholic convert! I thought I saw him tell his big conversion story, on EWTN! Or maybe I am wrong– maybe I have him mixed-up, with someone else! Well, what a shame!
I think that Jindal is for individuals making decisions not the government.
Our Catholic Church ban on “non natural” means of contraception has seriously damaged our Church, drove tens of millions of followers outside, and become one of those “wink and a nudge” moments when the subject comes up and Catholics roll their eyes and giggle in polite disbelief that this unwise teaching is still on the books.
Pope Francis can begin the process of healing the scars amongst the laity from the stress of adhering to this unwise regulation by allowing Catholics to use suitable and appropriate means of birth control to regulate the size of their families for health, economic, or family cohesive reasons. This decision should be a no brainer for the Holy Father.
To be a true Christian, requires unusual maturity, virtue, self-control— and a deep, faithful trust and commitment, to Christ! Only God makes babies, the way He see fit. God creates all LIFE!! We do not! He does not see His world, nor plan things, the way little human beings see the world, and try to plan their lives! God has His own plans, far beyond ours! What is the purpose of human procreation? Some people ignorantly view it as nothing but mere selfish “entertainment.” But procreation is a gift of God, and He has very serious plans, in regards to human procreation! God creates babies, for His own Divine purposes! So, we must pray, and ask God what His plans are, for our married lives! Not our own selfish, stupid, “worldly” ideas! As baptized Catholics, we belong to God, body and soul– not to the world! And Christian Marriage is a holy Sacrament!
The ones who are not giggling are the ones who died from breast and other female cancers that the estrogen in the birth control pill exacerbated.
Anonymous writes, “Our Catholic Church ban on “non natural” means of contraception has seriously damaged our Church, drove tens of millions of followers outside, and become one of those “wink and a nudge” moments when the subject comes up and Catholics roll their eyes and giggle in polite disbelief that this unwise teaching is still on the books.” = No wonder you are hiding in the tall green grass. Pull in that hissing tongue. Contra = Against ….Conception = Conceiving Life
Contraception = Against God the Author of Life
I am for anything such as this suggestion, to put Planned Parenthood which is a name (Parenthood) that should never be on the same page as Planned Parenthood which is more like Planned Murder, out of business!
What do you think of drugstores like Walgreen’s, selling birth control pills– which are against Church teaching, and also can cause ABORTIONS? It is scary, also, to think of the great numbers of ignorant kids, who might all run down to Walgreen’s, and other drugstores, to buy cheap birth control pills, which also are abortifacients– without having to pay for a doctor’s visit, for a prescription! Lots of ignorant, immoral doctors might not like the loss of money! Lots of SIN! Plus, babies killed! What a SELFISH, “me-centered,” pleasure-seeking-only, immature and immoral society!
I guess because this is a Republican initiative, we haven’t heard anything from the Bishops opposing over-the-counter birth control.
In my post above, I was speaking of procreation, in the holy Sacrament of Christian Marriage, to which many of us Catholics are called. However, not all of us Catholics are called to live out our lives, as married Christians! Our life on earth is a preparation for Heaven. Some of us are called to live a chaste, single life, and it is a great and blessed gift, too! A very good way to prepare for Heaven! If we are not called by God, to Christian Marriage and children– and if we are called, with His blessing, to the single, chaste life– we still can work with children, even as volunteers, and unselfishly bring much love and joy, into a needy child’s life! We can also bring little children to Christ! God has great plans, for each one of us, if only we would ignore the “fallen” world, pray, and listen to Him!
For those who are not going to be called by God to Christian Marriage, and are suffering with Same-Sex Attraction– could they not give their lives to God, in a commitment of Chastity, and also serve God, by helping others, in a way that is also going to protect their commitment to Chastity?? One does not necessarily need to have direct human involvement, to do volunteer work, to help improve the world! Yet, one’s contributions could be enormous! A life of Chastity, that includes helping suffering people in the world, would be a very worthwhile endeavor, and a great gift, to Christ! I just read– again– all about the great heroes of 9/11. You never know, what God is calling you to do!