Next Target: Birth Control
Miner, Barbara
By Barbara Miner Illustration by Katherine Streeter Next Target: Birth Control The basement office in the Milwaukee suburb of Brookfield could be mistaken for an H&R Block franchise. But it is...
...Brown says efforts are under way to developamore unified position among anti-abortion forces on contraception...
...The crusade's aggressive stance has been unpopular with many Catholics, including many Catholic bishops...
...In the meantime, grassroots activists such as Judie Brown and Matt Sande continue their work, comforted by a belief in their moral superiority...
...Founded in 1971 by the Catholic bishops as an arm of their Family Life office, it spun off two years later as a single issue, nonsectarian, and secular organization...
...Barbara Miner is a Milwaukee-based journalist specializing in social issues...
...We are not, how can I say this, it is not one of our big issues, not like some of these other people," says Michelle Combs, a spokesperson for the group...
...At our pro-life meetings, there's not much of a discussion on contraception, except as they are abortifacients," Scheidler said in an interview...
...It has about 500,000 supporters and describes itself as "the nation's largest public policy women's organization...
...Brown's American Life League also founded the Crusade for the Defense of Our Catholic Church, which gained notoriety during the 2004 elections with its calls for U.S...
...NRLC takes no position on the prevention of the uniting of sperm and egg...
...For its part, the Christian Coalition-founded in 1989 by Pat Robertson and describing itself as "America's leading grassroots organization defending our Godly her-itage"-does not have articles on its website discussing emergency contraception or birth control...
...Thus, in their religiously based view, birth control would be acting as an "abortifacient...
...Bush's silence led to a letter last October 24 from thirty-two members of the House asking him to clarify his position...
...According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, 98 percent of American women between fifteen and forty-four who have had sexual intercourse have used contraceptives...
...And we must talk about it, point it out, and teach others the truth...
...Described by Pat Buchanan as the Green Beret of the anti-abortion movement, Scheidler is perhaps most well known for his role in the 1980s in promoting disruptive demonstrations outside medical clinics providing abortion...
...Scheidler, who plans to have another meeting of anti-abortion forces in the early months of 2006, believes the efforts are a watershed and will push more groups to directly take on birth control...
...We approach the problem . . . as one of women's health and safety," she says...
...This opposition to the "contraceptive mentality" comes through in the recent effort by social conservatives to undermine the use of condoms on the grounds that they promote promiscuity and bad health practices...
...Condoms are used by about 20 percent of those practicing contraception, according to the Guttmacher Institute, and they have been a powerful tool in the fight against sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS...
...Under pressure from social conservatives, the FDA recently proposed new warning labels for condoms, saying they "greatly reduce, but do not eliminate" the risk of some sexually transmitted diseases...
...Its mission statement explicitly notes that it does not take a position on contraception...
...James Dobson distinguishes between various types of birth control pills, outlining which are acceptable and which are not...
...The statement then notes that after two years of extended deliberation and prayer, the group "has not been able to reach a consensus" on whether the most commonly prescribed birth control pills are abortifacients...
...Then, as now, it was the most well known of the groups opposing a woman's right to choose...
...Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life...
...Scheidler notes that the Pro-Life Action League itself has not yet formally taken a position against birth control...
...On a recent afternoon, Pro-Life Wisconsin's Legislative Director Matt Sande talked for several hours, meticulously explaining the group's views...
...Brown, when asked which other groups are most willing to take on birth control, mentions the Virginia-based Human Life International, a Catholic group, and the Catholic bishops...
...Pro-lifers must see the connection between contraception and abortion," Brown argues...
...In a 2001 appearance on The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News, Brauer admitted she lied to the patient and told her the pharmacy did not have the medicine on hand...
...bishops to refuse communion to politicians supporting the right to abortion...
...We have a female president, and we're not going to come out and tell women they cannot use birth control...
...Many health advocates fear the new warnings will confuse people and cause them to stop using them-a potentially ominous development...
...We are a Christian organization, and we are trying to spread the truth with a capital T," says Sande...
...The American Medical Association defines pregnancy as beginning with the fertilized egg's implantation in the womb, not with the union of an egg and sperm...
...That's pure folly," says Sande, a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, the father of three young children, and part of that young breed of hard-core conservatives who came of age under Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich...
...Perhaps realizing she had said too much, Combs then put any further comment off the record...
...She was appointed by the late Pope John Paul II seven years ago...
...It's the first time we have actually approached the subject, all of us, sitting down together at the table," Brown says...
...She is one of four Americans participating in the Pontifical Academy for Life, an international group dealing with ethical questions...
...A key, unanswered question is whether more moderate conservatives will challenge extremist positions on birth control...
...The Eagle Forum, founded in 1972 by Phyllis Schlafly, is likewise cautious about attacking birth control...
...It is clear, however, that the group finds itself in a quandary over oral contraceptives in general...
...And they are nudging that movement-and the Republican Party-even further to the right, opposing "the contraceptive mentality," as their leaders put it...
...It is our charge to spread the truth on these issues...
...The issue has become so touchy that President Bush refuses to say whether he supports birth control...
...There are some in the pro-life community who will say we can oppose abortion but we don't need to take a position on birth control...
...The meeting was organized by Joe Scheidler of the Chicago-based ProLife Action League...
...Back in 1976, Brown was a staff member at the National Right to Life Committee...
...Birth control pills generally work by preventing ovulation, and emergency contraception is little more than highly concentrated doses of the pill...
...At the same time, the church actively opposes legislation mandating increased access to emergency contraception in hospital emergency rooms and requiring that health insurance plans cover contraceptives...
...One of the most influential is Pharmacists for Life International, which is spearheading efforts to exempt pharmacists from dispensing birth control prescriptions...
...In 1979, Brown lefttohelp found the American Life League...
...Until we get this thing settled among other groups, we don't want to get out ahead," he explains...
...They argue that hormonal birth control might, in rare instances, act on a fertilized egg to prevent implantation in the womb...
...Not many of the other leading anti-abortion groups want to get out ahead, either...
...Karen Brauer, who was fired by a Kmart pharmacy in Ohio in 1996 for refusing to fill a birth control prescription, leads this web-based group, which says it has 1,600 members...
...Focus on the Family-considered the largest international religious-right group in the United States, with a multimedia empire that includes its own campus and zip code in Colorado Springs-has also prominently opposed emergency contraception because it says it acts as an "abortifacient...
...And what of the National Right to Life Committee with over 3,000 chapters in all fifty states...
...It's truly amazing that in the twenty-first century, the leader of the free world will not affirm his support for birth control," says Representative Carolyn Maloney, Democrat of New York, who organized the letter...
...She says Concerned Women for America and Focus on the Family have been very active in opposing emergency contraception but that "they don't have a position on the pill...
...John Schlafly, Phyllis's son and an Eagle Forum spokesperson, said: "We have not had anything to say, except we have spoken out about making that product [emergency contraception] an over-the-counter item because it is dangerous to young teenage girls," he said...
...It has 300,000 families and more than sixty associated groups nationwide that share its uncompromising views...
...I don't see us doing that...
...This would include not just emergency contraception but the pill, the IUD, the patch, and the shot...
...For hardliners like Sande and Brown, this is the next battle of the anti-abortion movement...
...Wendy Wright, executive vice president of the group, says it does not oppose birth control or emergency contraception per se...
...The organization refused to respond to almost a dozen e-mails and phone calls other than to send a brief statement noting, in part: "The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) is opposed to abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, and assisted suicide...
...For now, it's difficult to know how the attack on birth control will play out...
...Pro-Life Wisconsin is one of several dozen groups affiliated with the Virginia-based American Life League, which is in the forefront of the fight against birth control...
...Many Catholics are unaware that church teaching considers all contraception "intrinsically evil," and many bishops downplay the church's stance against birth control...
...The anti-abortion American Association of Pro Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists says it is impossible to argue definitively that oral contraceptives are "abortifacients" that prevent implantation, and it calls upon its members to "agree to disagree...
...A lengthy statement from founder Dr...
...But it is actually the headquarters of Pro-Life Wisconsin, which proclaims that birth control is murder...
...And every day we have people coming over to our side...
...Embracing "the embryonic person" and denouncing "chemical abortion," he wants to ban all hormonal birth control...
...He wouldn't outlaw condoms and barrier methods, but he is uncomfortable with the attitudes they promote...
...And we all agree on that pretty much...
...Heading up the American Life League is Judie Brown...
...But over the years, Brown became increasingly uncomfortable with the group's refusal to oppose birth control and with its acceptance of abortion in cases of rape and saving the life of the mother...
...As a Catholic, I just couldn't stay there," Brown says...
...But we're going beyond that to the whole concept of the contraceptive mentality...
...Last spring, for instance, about thirty anti-abortion activists met informally inChicago todiscuss their public stance-which groups would openly oppose contraception, which wouldn't, and why...
...Wright argues, though, that emergency contraception is an "abortifacient," and information on the group's website reflects a similar view...
...Concerned Women for America was founded in 1979 by Beverly LaHaye, wife of Tim LaHaye, best-selling author and co-founder of the Moral Majority...
...Dobson ends by calling on the anti-abortion movement to respect that groups may hold "differing opinions" on the use of oral contraceptives...
...Of the 272 Catholic bishops in the United States, the league lists only thirteen who would deny communion to Catholic public figures who support the right to choose...
...While Brown's statements might seem to put her on the fringe, the Vatican has rewarded her loyalty...
...But the American Life League doesn't go along with that...
...Focused on lobbying and legislative work, the group is most active on abortion, stem cell, and end-of-life issues...
Vol. 70 • January 2006 • No. 1
