Why are House Republicans waging “war on contraception”? I’ve lately seen the question asked, not for the first — or the last — time. Truth be told, Republicans are not waging such a war — but the phrase gets close to a battle that is worth fighting.
The House held an unprecedented vote in February to end federal taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood. It’s not a permanent or final vote; it was on a short-term Continuing Resolution to keep the government funded. The debate in Congress was given momentum by the Live Action investigatory videos, which have raised significant questions about Planned Parenthood’s mission and practices; but the rest of us need to discuss why we’ve let Planned Parenthood step in as a mainstream band-aid, applying contraception and even abortion to problems that require much more fundamental solutions.
Advertisement
It’s a conversation that’s healthy — and necessary — to have.
Upon retirement, the late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D., N.Y.) was asked what was the biggest change he had observed in his four-decade career. He answered: “The biggest change, in my judgment, is that the family structure has come apart all over the North Atlantic world.” While women may still want love and marriage, they don’t expect it. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote in the Planned Parenthood v. Casey opinion that women had “organized intimate relationships, and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail.” And why wouldn’t they? Who, nowadays, encourages them to want more? When Taylor Swift sings a love song today, it’s about how surprised she is when a fight doesn’t lead the man she loves to walk out of her life. “Braced myself for the goodbye, ’cause that’s all I’ve ever known. Then, you took me by surprise. You said, ‘I’ll never leave you alone.’”
We’ve come to expect less for and from ourselves, for and from one another. In part, it’s the poisoned fruit of the contraceptive pill. A cover feature in New York magazine recently observed: “The Pill is so ingrained in our culture today that girls go on it in college, even high school, and stay on it for five, ten, fifteen, even twenty years. It’s not at all out of the ordinary for a woman to be on the Pill from ages 18 to 35, her prime childbearing years. While it is remarkably safe, almost like taking a vitamin, that’s a long time to turn one’s body into an efficient little non-procreative machine.” That, of course, has had all kinds of fallout. It gives a false sense of freedom, of security. Even more important, it has ravaged women’s fertility, as it seeks to mute exactly what women’s reproductive power is all about.
Moreover, as to Planned Parenthood, we ought to consider Abby Johnson, formerly the director of a Planned Parenthood clinic, whose testimony (presented in her recent book, Unplanned) highlights what doesn’t work: a mentality that claims that protecting women’s health and preventing abortion are best achieved by ready access to birth control. As Johnson points out, she herself, among the best educated on so-called safe sex, availed herself of the birth-control culture — and she had two abortions.
How many versions of this column has K-LO written over the years? I think I read one every calendar quarter. And yet, as the novelty 80's song said, people are still having sex. The children of divorce are moving away from the marriage paradigm, focusing instead on serial monogamous relationships. Accordingly, women need access to contraceptives and later in life fertility care. These are life choices that will only continue to grow.
Thank you once again, Kathryn. You make an incredibly important point about the modern woman and family in a way that is elegant and kind. My hope is that femininity will find her way back.
Thank you for consistently speaking about these issues. So many in the conservative movement either do not care or disagree with your arguments. Discussing contraception is at the heart of preventing abortion, but not in the way PP would have one believe. You are right on target: contraception dehumanizes women (and men). Its the contraceptive mentality that leads to abortion rather than preventing it.
Promiscuity is not a recent phenomenon. You make it sounds like any woman who is on the Pill today is walking around legs wide open shopping for men. Adam ate the fruit, the world isn't perfect. People will continue to have sex even if you take the Pill away.
Can YoungMom (or anybody) please explain to me how contraception "leads to abortion rather than preventing it"?
I'm not being snarky- I really, honestly just want someone to explain it, because for all the times I've heard similar statements, I have yet to hear anybody actually elaborate on that point.
Candyb - I think the dotted line used is pretty simple. Contraception leads to a false sense of security in promiscuity. No contraceptive is infallible and frankly unbeknownst to many women the pill can be far less effective than 99%. The more you try, the more chances to fail followed by an unplanned pregnancy and then an abortion. I think the line of reasoning would also posit that the sense of security in promiscuity leads to a lot of "accidents".
On a personal level, I wish my stepdaughter was not on the pill. She went on due to bad advice from her father. I believe she regrets it and frankly at college she is turned off by the number of men only looking for sex and encouraged by prevalent contraception. Take it or leave it as a cultural issue but, which would you prefer for your daughters? Chastity and meaningful relationships or the "hook up" culture. Contraception leads to the idea that it's okay, that's why they sell it as "safe sex" and I think Ms. Lopez rightly believes it isn't as safe as it sounds.
The present day sexual "freedom" is in reality no freedom at all. It is a lie. It enslaves people to mere impulse and desire rather then elevating them with commitment and purpose. It leaves us with a vacancy in our soul and makes us into a mere animal; pursuing pleasurable indulgence and avoiding painful denial. Ask any sex addict that has lost his/her family if they are really free.
Even though we say we resist standards we really crave them. It is one of the main reasons the morally promiscuous western culture is on the decline and the eastern cultures with clear standards are on the rise. Either we rid ourselves of secularism and restrain ourselves and find the true freedom that comes from self control or we will be enslaved by those whose religion seeks to bring us into submission.
Ms. Lopez seems to have completely forgotten the legions of married women out there who continue to take hormonal birth control because (heaven forfend!) they aren't ready to have children but still want to have sex with their husbands. Even if you truly believe that single women having sex without fear of pregnancy is responsible for the death of the American family (and despite the author's suggestion that we're substituting sex for love, I have never met a woman for whom having a pre-marital sex life was an impediment to getting hitched and having a family), taking away contraception doesn't just mean you're sticking it to these promiscuous straw ladies; you're taking it away from everyone.
Ms. Lopez means well, but any attempt to enforce a rigid anti-birth control policy will lead to permanent destruction of the conservative movement. Most Americans are not fanatical Catholics, and 90%+ of even devoutly religious married couples of child-bearing years use contraception.
Good grief - we don't live in a Farm Economy anymore. Couples don't need to reproduce 12 kids in hopes that four will survive to adulthood. And even many very conservative Christian churches explicitly encourage their married couples to have active sex lives to prevent infidelity and to keep couples committed to each other. How many women will agree to regular sex with their husbands if that means being constantly pregnant and being overwhelmed by the financial and child care burdens of too-large families?
Even most Catholics know that the anti-contraceptive mentality is just man-made (Pope-made) law that has no Biblical basis.
havana, "the pill" (if used properly) is 100% effective at preventing conception. They say "99%" because the makers of "the pill" know that not all women on "the pill" are using it properly. It requires responsibility to take the pill every day, at the exact same moment of the day. Do that, you will not get pregnant. KLO, please stop with this crusade. If you don't want to use "the pill" you don't have to, no one forces you. But please, stop saying women are hurting themselves by using it and then supporting your position by giving us an abundance of meaningless rhetoric. Conservatives are tired of it.
I would be against the Pill for health reasons alone. Just a few of the health problems from people I know, or are family and friends: mini-strokes at age 24; blood clot - can be life threatening; high blood pressure at 26 when you are a work-out queen and super healthy but have been on Pill for YEARS; migraines (2 people); not "feeling myself"; feeling bloated. Then add on top of it - the Pill masks serious diseases; gives you a false sense of security which may lead to a promiscuous lifestyle where you are just "used" and then finally doesn't always prevent conception (mini-pill only prevents ovulation 60% of time) but does prevent the baby from implanting. I do NFP and have planned every single pregnancy and also have caught some potentially serious health issues in the process that would have been masked by Pill. Thanks for letting me add my 2 cents to the discussion.
Contrary to what pop songs and fashion magazines tell you, women like sex. They like it better if they don't have to worry about getting pregnant.
In reality, the so called "hook up" culture is doing what it's always done: it's the way we test potential partners. Sexual intimacy is not mystical - you find out if you work that way together by practice, trial and error.
Birth control is simply taking responsibility for your actions. I don't want to shock you or anything, but men use it too.
The idea of going back to the days of multiple unwanted children and fearful sex is what is REALLY demeaning to humans. Put down the Harliquin Romances and take responsibility for your life. Isn't that a conservative talking point? Personal responsibility? Or does that just apply to people who work for a living?
I saw the summary posted on Slate and came here to get the full fill. So, I understand Ms. Lopez's point of view and I can understand how the idea of contraception can lead to dehumanization of sex, love, marriage, etc. However, we all have sex drives. How on earth are we married folk supposed to fulfill our love with our spouses, if we're not allowed to have contraceptives? Without contraceptives, I don't dare have sex with my wife, because I might get her pregnant, and I can't afford to. How do you balance the need of a loving, mature, and responsible sexual relationship between a man & woman in a marriage, vs the implied dehumanization? We have to have them, as far as I can see it.
Contraception is not the only method of avoiding conception among married couples who wish to space births or limit the number of children. Natural Family Planning is a completely natural and very effective method which works with a woman's natural fertility cycle. There is no cost and no side effects, just a little bit of tracking and some communication between spouses - I would suggest no more challenging than remembering to take a pill every day.
I didn't hear KLO suggesting that every couple have 12 kids, only that we respect our fertility and one another. Thanks for the article!
The trend away from untrammelled fecundity is very deep and very old. American fertility declined by 50% from 1800 to 1900, long before "Planned Parenthood" or PLAYBOY or Cosmo. (Well, Cosmopolitan first appeared in 1886, but today's "Cosmo" only dates to 1965.)
Fertility is below replacement in Europe, east Asia, Brazil, much of the Moslem world. Even where fertility remains above replacement, it has declined substantially.
Just between 1995 and 2006, 35 of the 70 most populous countries had fertility declines of over 20%. Of the remaining 35, 15 were already near or below replacement, and 13 others had declines of over 10%.
People - especially women - want to control their fertility, and given the choice nearly always choose to have fewer children.
Yes, contraception tends to enable sexual license. So did the invention of effective treatments for syphilis and gonorrhea (and some moralists complained about it at the time).
Contraception is not going away, any more than penicillin.
The battle for sexual restraint must be fought and won on its own merits. Relying on the danger of pregnancy (or STDs) to deter promiscuity merely ensures that contraception (and cures for STDs) will be regarded as a license for sex.
Right on KJ. The responses on this forum form proof positive of the need to repeat the message.
One of the ironic and humorous points to be derived from the subject is that the very people who will spend outlandish amounts to buy pure and organic food, drink, sheets, make up etc. are full of scorn for those who have found and share with others the simplicity, surety and ONLY natural form of child spacing, NFP.
One of the reasons for the level of vitriol that lib women have for pro-life folk is the inability to accept what they have most probably done themselves. To intentionally kill one's own child is in direct opposition to the Natural Law. Some will brag but deep in the psyche they know they have committed atrocious acts. But the truth is not allowed to rise to the surface where it can be dealt with. Instead it is repressed or denied and the dissonance of what is against their purported beliefs needs to be relieved somehow. It comes in the form of mouth foaming anger at those who are constant reminders of the truth.
A similar theory holds for people who vilify those pointing out the truth of human sexuality. God said, “Go out and multiply” not, “Go out and seek what feels good.” People using artificial birth control are much more likely to defend it, sometimes with staunch righteousness. Statistics, rhetoric, and examples are all pulled out to defend their choice, and she who speaks truth, with no rancor, is called names.
I do not expect the vast majority of twenty-first century people to accept the truths of life in the area of sexual activity. But that is no reason for others to not continue to illuminate it, regardless of the scorn and name calling. Keep ‘er up KJ.
The choice a woman has is between having meaning in her life or a life of narcissism.
A generation of Western women have chosen frivolousness, and then there is this looming feeling of emptiness. But it's too late. The eggs are gone and so is all their surface beauty.
You just wish more of them would be honest with young women, the way that Ms. Lopez has.
Conservatives insist that individuals take personal responsibility for their lives and for the consequences of their decisions. Conservatives wail "Nanny State!" in the face of actions as benign as the First Lady suggesting that parents add some healthy food to their kids' fast-food diets.
Conservatives therefore seem to have a deep faith in the ability of average Americans to live their lives with a minimum of interference by Big Government.
So, why do conservatives such as Kathryn trip over each other rushing to embrace a Nanny State when the issue has to do with sex?
"or popping the Pill in pursuit of something that masks itself as happiness but is really just a bad substitute, oftentimes making true happiness all the more illusory."
This is so clearly written by someone who has never experienced or appriecated the natural joy of sex. No offence Kathryn.
Follow
