Richard Doerflinger, speaking for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, responded to a Wall Street Journal article about Wisconsin’s Medicaid Family Planning expansion saying: “It reflects a view of women which is extremely dismissive . . .” Mr. Doerflinger goes on to recommend that the expansion be rejected because family planning advocates are only interested in a woman’s reproductive function and making sure it isn’t used.
Family Planning Health Services, Inc. and the Wisconsin Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association are very proud to release this engaging video interview with Jon O’Brien, president of Catholics for Choice. Mr. O’Brien explores themes of political power and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. He establishes a clear three-question structure within which legislators and the public can evaluate lobbying efforts and policy recommendations like Mr. Doerflinger’s:
Is it factually correct?
Who does the speaker represent?
What are the consequences to ordinary working people?
Mr. O’Brien says that good Catholics can support contraception. He describes the history of the Vatican’s Birth Control Commission which was: “far less than divine inspiration. It was a matter of stacking the deck!” Even though the outcome was pre-determined to oppose use of the birth control pill, according to O’Brien, education and dialogue . . . “changed the hearts and minds of the bishops” on the Commission. “Can you imagine how many lives could have been saved,” O’Brien asks, “if the Pope had enough faith in Catholics to accept the Commission’s recommendations?”
Mr. O’Brien’s emphasis throughout the interview is that the bishops and legislators must “Listen to the lives of ordinary Catholics. He says: “We are the ones who go to the ballot box.” On reproductive health issues, according to O’Brien, “The bishops have failed to convince Catholics not to use contraception. So what do they do? They go off to Capitol Hill or to your state assembly and behind the doors they try to pressure legislators into not allowing access to family planning.” With no equivocation he says: “There’s something that’s downright wrong and un-American about that!
O’Brien states that the information that the hierarchy gives on contraception and condoms is inaccurate and that the bishops do not speak for Catholic voters. But to make his most important point on testing the validity of lobbying by the bishops against family planning, Mr. O’Brien praises the courage and example of Bishop Kevin Dowling from South Africa. Paraphrasing Bishop Dowling, who has differed with Church teachings on the use of condoms to prevent HIV/Aids, O’Brien says: “Using condoms to prevent AIDs is not about preventing the transmission of life. It is about preventing the transmission of death.
If we apply the test to Mr. Doerflinger’s statement regarding Medicaid family planning, it is factually incorrect, it represents the view of some (but not all) of the 350 U.S. Catholic Bishops, and the consequence would be to reduce access to health care for thousands of American women.
After James Wagoner’s call for a ‘radical pragmatism’ to end the myth that sexual health care and education encourage risky behavior, we spoke with Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-WI).
Congresswoman Gwen Moore explains that the consequences of ignorance about sexual health are too severe to permit ideological debate. Our next interview with Sarah Audelo of Advocates for Youth, says the age of sexual misinformation must end.
Sarah Audelo, of Advocates for Youth, says the high rates of sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies among our young people compel us to teach them how to protect themselves. Our next interview, with Clare Coleman of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association discusses that there are economic as well as health reasons to expand access to care.
Clare Coleman discussed patient care, standards of reproductive health care, and evolving health care delivery models. If the question is: “How can family planning clinics and programs put the pieces together in a patient-centered way,” her answer is that; “The source of funding has to be less important than the standard of care. She is leading a lively discussion about innovations and integration of family planning services in the primary preventive health care system. Congresswoman Lois Capps (D-CA) emphasizes that federal support for family planning services is key to our economic recovery.
After Congresswoman Capps talked about the immediate opportunity to receive federal support for expanded family planning services, Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) celebrates the end of ‘gender as a pre-existing condition’ in health care and what the health care insurance reform victory means for women’s health.
Congresswoman Baldwin (D-WI) summarizes the new opportunity and we wrap up this introductory video with a call to action. Look for expanded interviews as well as more interviews on this topic in the near future.
A Place Where “Family Planning is far Different from Western Norms”
Sue Kettner
In 2008, Family Planning Health Services and the Adams County Health Department presented
a combined educational program for medical professionals visiting the US from Uzbekistan.
The group consisted of doctors, nurses and administrators of health programs. They were well
educated, caring individuals who wanted to understand how public health departments and non-
profit family planning agencies were run in the US. They cared very much about their citizens
and providing quality health care to their people. They expressed that they had lived a long time
under Russian rule and they now saw their independence as an opportunity to improve their
health care delivery systems.
We read with dismay the recent article in the Canadian Press attached below. It would appear
those very motivated health providers are now caught in a government supported program to
sterilize poor women…even against their knowledge and will.
Long ago someone asked us if teen girls shouldn’t be forced to have a Norplant Implant
contraceptive inserted in their arm at age 13. Norplant provided contraception for 5 years
by preventing ovulation. The questioner thought this would be a good way to prevent teen
pregnancy…at least until the girl graduated from high school. I was shocked by the question
and replied that I don’t believe in involuntary birth control. I believe in voluntary birth control and
family planning services. This is a nation founded on freedom of the individual and I could never
condone forcing someone to contracept just like I could never see forcing someone to conceive.
Too many of our ancestors fought and died to see that we have freedom in this country.
Freedom to make our own choices. Many, many of our ancestors came to the USA seeking
just those freedoms for themselves and their children. Forced contraception, whether
temporary or permanent, is un-American1 and should be outlawed anywhere in the world.
________________
1 un-A?mer?i?can
–adjective
not American; not characteristic of or proper to the U.S.; foreign or opposed to the
characters, values, standards, goals, etc., of the U.S.
In 2008, Family Planning Health Services and the Adams County Health Department presented a combined educational program for medical professionals visiting the US from Uzbekistan.
The group consisted of doctors, nurses and administrators of health programs. They were well educated, caring individuals who wanted to understand how public health departments and non-profit family planning agencies were run in the US. They cared very
much about their citizens and providing quality health care to their people. They expressed that they had lived a long time under Russian rule and they now saw their independence as an opportunity to improve their health care delivery systems.
Investments in health. The morality of supporting BP and opposing reproductive health services…I am wondering if my United States of America is so poisoned by fumes and political pollution that women, their children and their families don’t count with these people attacking reproductive health care providers.
