The Group Behind America's Biggest Anti-Abortion March Now Says Birth Control Causes Abortions

[KamaAina]

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/01/march-life-organizers-think-birth-control-same-abortion

March for Life Education and Defense Fund, the nonprofit that organizes the annual protest, identified oral birth control as a form of abortion in a lawsuit filed in July. With the suit, which is ongoing, March for Life is fighting for an exemption from the Affordable Care Act mandate that all private employers provide contraception coverage.

March for Life argues that covering drugs or medical devices that cause abortions would violate its founding principles. And it places hormonal birth control, which includes things like oral contraception and vaginal rings, squarely within that category. In its lawsuit, the group refers to these as "abortifacients," a characterization with which most physicians strongly disagree.

Polls consistently find that a majority of Americans who oppose abortion have no moral objections to birth control. Most of those planning to attend the march probably have no idea that March for Life views birth control as immoral: March for Life doesn't advertise its opinions on birth control in its promotional material for the protest, and the group's website simply bills the march as a mass demonstration against "legalized abortion on demand."

The group's lawsuit seems to have been inspired by the Supreme Court's June 2014 decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby. In that case, Hobby Lobby's owners sued to avoid covering intrauterine devices and emergency contraception pills. A 5-4 conservative majority on the high court ruled in favor of the craft chain's owners, saying that certain privately owned businesses don't have to cover emergency contraceptives if the owners object on religious grounds.

[PeaceNikki]

1. Hobby Lobby thinks so, too.

To me that was the most ridiculous part of the HL case. They claimed it is abortifacient.

[randys1]

2. I claim I am the handsomest, smartest, sexiest man alive...too

but nobody takes me seriously so I dont see why we should take them so

[atreides1]

3. Why should we take them seriously?

Because there are politicians and judges, controlled by the backers of this group of religious fanatics...and liars!

[randys1]

11. You are making the point I always make, dont call Gohmert a stupid lunatic, he is but

he has tens of millions of fans and followers (just using him as example)

About 35-40% of the adult AMERICAN population are rabidly racist, homophobic assholes.

Who dont believe in evolution, climate change or civil rights for anybody but themselves.

[SammyWinstonJack]

4. ...

[MohRokTah]

5. Griswold v CT has ALWAYS been the target of the so-called "pro-life" movement. eom

[Bluenorthwest]

6. Fans of Pope Francis must be so proud of his support for this group....

Here's his Tweet to last year's March...
"I join the March for Life in Washington with my prayers. May God help us respect all life, especially the most vulnerable."
https://twitter.com/pontifex/status/425991404578295808

I assume his boosters who defend his homophobia must at least agree with him about abortion. If it was just about economics, they'd booster Bernie Sanders.

[Hekate]

7. I keep trying to explain this to people here. What it's really about is women having dirty sex

Take a good look at the posters and picket signs these fanatics have on display. Get past the bloody photoshopped images and read the words. My favorite, because it's the most revealing of their mindset is, "The selfish woman plays/ Her unborn baby pays."

Once you see that, it opens your mind to the rest of the real message: How dare women have sex without permission? (Permission via a marriage license, permission from a husband.) How dare women have control of their own sexuality? Finally: Women be warned, your pregnancy is visible proof of your sin, and punishment for having sex.

Standing in a picket line at our local hospital, counter-protesting a slew of anti-choicers, gave me the opportunity to read all their signs at leisure. Like I say, get past the bloody photoshops, and think about the rest of the message. This was about 20 or so years ago, and it gave me a whole new understanding of these folks.

They are as serious as a heart attack. In places where they have managed to close all the clinics, they have gone on to legislatively attack nearly all forms of reliable birth control. They mean it.

They mean it, and so should we.

[Aerows]

8. Bingo!

I has *never* *ever* just been about abortion. I have always said that when these anti-choicers get abortion banned, the next target will be all forms of contraception. It will start out as contraceptives for unmarried women, and then will be for all women.

It's about control of women. The easiest way to control a woman is to keep her pregnant constantly and dependent due to having a bunch of children so that she can't work. Just like that Republican that recently said single mothers should find a man to support them. That's what this is really about.

[jwirr]

9. That is not new. Around in the 60s already. But this is important because it shows they are anti-

birth control as well.

[procon]

10. Forced pregnancy forever

Isn't that what Republicans are already doing? When they take away our reproductive rights and teach junk science and religious indoctrination in for-profit schools, sure, we fret that a woman's access to legal abortion is being frittered away, but that's only the slight of hand that hides the real goal to totally ban birth control. Factor in voter suppression, gerrymandering and the growing number of states controlled by Republicans, and their latest scheme to tip the Electoral College in their favor, and the it's well within the scope of probability.

A woman might bear 20 or more kids during her reproductive years. A pregnant woman with multiple offspring can't go off to get an education, she can't work outside the home, and she becomes totally dependant on a husband for her subsistence and the welfare of her children, and that makes her a subservient 2nd class citizen, a drudge, chattel. Amd a valuable asset popping out more compliant little Republicans.