I don't know for certain whether Sarah Palin is opposed to contraceptive devices, including condoms, for married couples.But it would not be surprising. Joe Sudbay at Americablog tells us that Roe v. Wade was based upon another case, Griswold v. Connecticut. McCain and Palin are committed to overturning Roe v. Wade. Sudbay says that "If Roe goes, Griswold is on the chopping block."
In 1965, in the great state of Connecticut, it was illegal for married couples to use contraceptives. Griswold overturned that law. 1965!!!! Did the Roman Church run Connecticut in 1965?
Certainly, as Sudbay points out, McCain and Palin should be asked the question: "Do you oppose the use of contraceptives in our country?"
It's an important question because more and more Christian right-wing extremists are defining contraception as abortion, including the theocrat, Mike Huckabee. Huckabee has said the "pill" is equivalent to abortion!
But he's one of many. Congresswoman Diana DeGette has a new book out, "Sex, Science and Stem Cells." She discusses this very issue, and when asked whether people like Rep. Chris Smith and his colleagues are desirous of banning access to contraception, DeGette said:
"There are many examples in my book where far-right members [of Congress] have tried to deny access to birth control. For many years, we gave international HIV/AIDS prevention money to religious organizations which would not provide information about condoms [or] about AIDS prevention. Rep. Smith tried to exclude certain types of birth control methods [from being] covered in federal employee insurance plans and exclude birth control pills, IUD's, the patch, and others."
DeGette goes on to suggest that many powerful politicians in and out of Congress "want to ban birth control altogether and think we should have some sort of Christian nation (according to their views) where people should be abstinent until marriage, and then only have sex for procreation."
Cristina Page raises this same issue in an article at RH Reality Check. She notes, first of all, "that between 1990 and 2004, abortion rates plummeted by 50 percent in the U.S. The researchers suggest one common-sense policy approach is most responsible: access to contraception."
She fears that in the abortion discussion in this country, the issue of reproductive rights may be shoved aside because "the issue many candidates don't want voters to think about is not abortion, but contraception..." They want to do their nasty work behind closed doors.
Page notes that "Across the U.S., anti-abortion organizations have added anti-contraception activities to their agenda ...
"North Kentucky Right to Life, for instance, will not endorse a candidate unless he or she states that the standard birth control pill is an abortion method ... Pro-Life Wisconsin asked legislators to ban emergency contraception from state university campuses and opposed efforts to provide rape victims with pregancy prevention ...
"Missouri Right to Life convinced its allies in the state Legislature to completely discontinue the state's family planning program. Georgia Right to Life organized its favorite legislators to support a bill that would reclassify all hormonal methods of birth control as abortion. ...
Has our country gone totally crazy? Who are these fruitcakes and how in hell did they get so much power?
You have to wonder about people who whine that abortion is killing babies and the most terrible sin in the world while at the same time strive to make illegal the information and the means by which to avoid unwanted pregnancies.
It's religion run amok. It's Roman Catholic and fundamentalist Christianity taken to its most extreme and its insane!
Read all of Ms. Page's article here.
1 comment:
Why this unhealthy preoccupation with sex? People will have sex and a certain percentage will create a pregnancy unless some form of birth control is used or practiced. NOT ALL SEX IS PLANNED NOR IS IT FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROCREATION!. That is a fact of life for all people regardless of religion, country of origin etc. Unless we are ready to use chastity belts, we will have a difficult time checking out people about to have sex as to what they are wearing or using or if they are trying to procreate. (Will there be a master key, so wandering clergy can stop women and check them out?) Will all males have to wear a condom so they cannot inadvertently spew semen that could be wasted? What would that do to males that have to urinate? Who will check all this out? Where will it be done? What is next, public intercourse to check for any hint of birth control? Will priests be required to oversee sexual relations? Will people have to prove they are capable of conceiving before being allowed to have sex? If you know your sperm is not capable, must you get a vasectomy? If a woman cannot conceive, must she forever abstain and would it be grounds for divorce or annulment? It’s bad enough some want to get into our bedrooms; must they get into our pants too? I can understand celibate men being obsessed with sex. They cannot always control involuntary thoughts or even urges. Should we indulge them though or are we entitled to make our own decisions about having sex on unscheduled days or nights? Do you want the government checking your child’s ability to conceive or would you prefer a member of the clergy? It raises so many thoughts, I am afraid I will be thinking of sex for the rest of Labor Day. I think Labor Day suggests child birth anyway and I am not ready for any more children at my age. I am exhausted thinking so much about sex. I hope some priest will take over for me.
Bob Poris
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