July 17, 2013 (STOPP) – Planned Parenthood recently released a “white paper,” appropriately entitled Taking Control, as it prepares to take control of even more government money to push its agenda and escalate its work of ripping away religious freedom—fighting tooth and nail the right of employers to not participate in insurance exchanges that pay for birth control and sterilization.
The paper deceptively alludes to a “small but vocal minority of extremists in Congress and many states who are doing everything they can to reduce the availability of birth control,” and says that the “majority of Americans (70 percent) believe insurance companies should cover the full cost of birth control.”
emiBut the truth is opposing the mandate does not make one an extremist. The birth control mandate strips religious freedom from employers who object to paying for abortifacient birth control and sterilization. Removing the mandate would not deprive anyone of birth control. It is readily available outside the mandate for anyone who cannot afford to pay for it.
As for the alleged “small but vocal minority,” a May 22, 2012, Knights of Columbus-Marist Poll found that nearly three in four Americans, 74 to 26 percent, say that freedom of religion should be protected, even if it conflicts with other laws. Most Americans would also protect the 1st Amendment conscience rights of hospitals, healthcare workers, and insurers, according to a Catholic News Agency report.
While claiming that only a small vocal minority wants the mandate repealed, Planned Parenthood’s paper admits that the U.S. House of Representatives has voted at least 37 times to appeal the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, which contains the birth control mandate.
The paper also intentionally misleads the public about the number of women who use contraception. While the paper says 99 percent of American women between the ages of 15 and 44 who are sexually active have used birth control at some point, the USCCB has countered by pointing out that “the more relevant statistic is that the drugs and devices subject to this mandate (sterilization, hormonal prescription contraceptives, and IUDs) are used by 69% of those women who are ‘sexually active’ and ‘do not want to become pregnant.’”
Click “like” if you are PRO-LIFE!
The paper is a full-blown propaganda piece that lauds birth control and the contraceptive mandate, using deceptive arguments to make its point, as it celebrates the 48th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Griswold decision that decriminalized contraception use at the behest of Planned Parenthood in Connecticut.
The paper touts the usual contrived and tilted statistics in an effort to prove that birth control has improved the lives and health of women and children, overlooking the overwhelmingly negative impact of the pill on women, children, and our society, and overlooking the fact that the health of women and children has improved dramatically since 1965 because healthcare has improved by leaps and bounds since then. Our Pill Kills website and Facebook page enumerate a lengthy litany of health and social problems caused by the widespread societal acceptance and use of birth control.
It is only in the last section of its paper that Planned Parenthood sums up the purpose of the paper and lets down its guard, admitting fear:
The availability of birth control is continuing to change the world and transform women’s lives. That’s why Planned Parenthood, and women across the country, won’t let up for one minute in our fight to protect the birth control benefit and women’s health. There is still a very real danger of its being derailed through a multitude of legal attacks, as well as through ongoing efforts by conservative lawmakers in Congress and in the states to limit the scope of the law as it affects women and their families.
With the point that there is a very real danger that the birth control mandate could be derailed, we wholeheartedly agree.
Contact your senators and representatives today, and insist that they work to eliminate the birth control mandate, and the entire Affordable Care Act, that snatches healthcare from the hands of healthcare professionals and patients and places it squarely in the purview of government and entities like Planned Parenthood.
Reprinted with permssion from STOPP