President Obama listened to all of the women and men who called, e-mailed and wrote to the White House to express their support for family planning decisions staying in the hands of women. In so doing, he remained true to the original vision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and refused to bend the knee to intense lobbying from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Catholic healthcare industry and other special interests who wanted him to expand a refusal clause that would have denied millions of women access to affordable family planning.
The president of Catholics for Choice, Jon O’Brien, said, “The bishops pulled out all the stops in their campaign against women’s access to contraception. The Obama administration stood with those who support religious liberty and believe in giving women the freedom of conscience to make their own reproductive health decisions.
“While the refusal clause that is contained in the legislation is still too expansive, denying many women, as it does, affordable access to contraception, we are relieved by this announcement. Catholics for Choice and our colleagues in the reproductive rights movement expended a huge amount of energy and resources mobilizing the public to take action on this pivotal issue. In the final analysis, this was a victory for common sense and scientific advice in the interests of the common good.
“The battle over this issue is a warning about what is to come, especially as the bishops are playing the victim card in their pleas for special treatment and their false assertions about alleged attacks on religious freedom. The president and Congress will need to get real about what is going on, and remember that this coming November the electorate will not be listening to the bishops, so neither should they.”
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Catholics for Choice shapes and advances sexual and reproductive ethics that are based on justice, reflect a commitment to women’s well-being and respect and affirm the capacity of women and men to make moral decisions about their lives.
[This blog post appeared here. We think the message is simple and direct. Thank you to Laura Kendellen for such a well written response.]
Dear Laura,
Thank you for contacting me regarding right to life and the issue of abortion.
I fully understand the controversy and diverse opinions surrounding this issue. My own views have been forged over a lifetime of raising a family and following the national debate. In all sincerity, and with due respect to the beliefs of others, I believe that life begins at conception.
Our founding documents establish that we have an unalienable right to life endowed by our creator. Because the abortion debate concerns more than one life, there is not a national consensus as to when life begins or when the life of an unborn child should be protected.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court in Roe v Wade imposed a judicial dictate that did not end a debate that would be better resolved through the legislative process. As a result, the controversy over abortion has raged for over 3 decades, and there will continue to be attempts to come to a better resolution of the issue legislatively.
I have cosponsored two current bills in the Senate that help define and resolve the issue. I support S. 91 that defines life as beginning at conception, and S. 906 that prohibits the use of taxpayer funds for procedures that so many Americans strongly believe are morally wrong.
Thank you again for taking the time to share your thoughts. It is important for me to hear the views and concerns of the people I serve. Since taking office, I have received over 300,000 pieces of correspondence and have had over 150,000 people participate in live forums and telephone town hall meetings. Please feel free to contact me in the future if I can further assist you or your family. It is an honor representing you and the good people of Wisconsin in the U.S. Senate.
Sincerely,
Ron Johnson
United States Senator
________________________________
I received the above email this morning. I immediately posted it on Facebook and the comments keep coming.
I’m not sure which email Sen. Johnson is replying to here, but I am so appalled by his use of religious language in official correspondence that I have to share it.
I’m referring specifically to Sen. Johnson’s candid mention of “our creator.” As if everyone believes whatever Sen. Johnson believes. As if imposing his religious beliefs on his constituents is part of his job as a U.S. senator.
Regardless of “our founding documents,” I am a strong proponent of separation of church and state. Everyone is entitled to their own religious beliefs or having no religious beliefs, but religion should have no place in government- in theory and practice.
Unfortunately, that’s not the reality. After all, organizations like NARAL wouldn’t have to exist if it weren’t for the religion-politics crossover.
Although the majority of Americans identify as Christians, 3.9-5.5% identify as non-Christian, and 15% don’t identify with any religion at all.
Furthermore…
A recent Gallup poll shows that those who believe that abortion should be illegal in all cases are the minority;
A Guttmacher report shows 78% of women who have abortions have a religious affiliation;
And the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, for example, is made up of about 40 national religious and religiously affiliated organizations from 15 denominations and faith traditions
Clearly, religion and anti-choice sentiments don’t always go hand in hand.
I expected Sen. Johnson’s response to be anti-choice, but I did not expect such a blatant disregard for religious freedom and separation of church and state. Like many politicians, he is using “the issue of abortion” as a platform to promote his personal religious beliefs rather than to simply state his position.
Sen. Johnson’s response illustrates that he is both out of touch and out of line.
Arriving at the National Women’s Law Center three months ago, I never anticipated just how sustained and systemic the efforts to dismantle women’s health and reproductive rights had become. Sure, I had paid attention to the Planned Parenthood defunding fight (which included the “trade” for a ban on DC funding of abortion services and the “this is not meant to be a factual statement” debacle) and had heard about HR 3and the disgusting “forcible rape” debate. Indeed, it was those events that informed my decision to work on reproductive rights issues full time. But even though I was aware of what was going on, it was only when I became involved with the issues on a daily basis where I gained a whole new perspective on just how far those who oppose reproductive rights are going in order to completely unravel women’s rights. And it got me thinking, if so many bad things can happen in just my three months here, what will 2012 look like?
So in order to be prepared for this year, I decided to give a quick review of my first three months – a recap of the numerous anti-choice measures that cropped up in just the final months of 2011. Because when you lay it all out, you can’t ignore how serious these efforts really are.
In my very first week, the House of Representatives voted on HR 358, which literally would allow women to die at hospitals instead of getting the emergency care they need if it included abortion care. Seriously? Ok, next? How about the Rehberg Draft, the House’s version of the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations bill, which was never reviewed, debated, or marked up in subcommittee before the subcommittee chair posted it online (meaning circumventing the typical process for getting bills through). The draft included defunding Title X (the family planning program), ensuring Planned Parenthood gets no federal funds whatsoever (once again), expanding refusal rights, and taking away funding for implementing the Affordable Care Act. So basically everything that would hurt women’s and their families’ health. Thankfully, these provisions did not make it into the final appropriations bill (although there was a cut in Title X funding), so take a momentary sigh of relief. But with this sigh of relief there is also one of frustration when considering the 2012 appropriations didn’t include provisions providing coverage of abortion in case of rape, incest, or life endangerment for Peace Corps volunteers or permanently banning the global gag rule. Oh, and don’t forget, the bill prevents DC from using its own funds to cover abortion services. Sigh.
Ok, next up we have the debate of the National Defense Authorization Act, where Senator Shaheen was trying to include an amendment in the bill that would correct a very serious gap in coverage for women who rely on the military for insurance. Does it make sense that military women who fight and sacrifice for our country are left without any health insurance coverage for abortion services when they find themselves pregnant after surviving sexual violence? Does it make any more sense that civilian federal employees and those on Medicaid get such coverage and women in the military do not? Despite it making no sense for not providing this coverage to military women, the amendment was blocked from coming to a vote.
Now back to the House again, where there was a hearing in the Subcommittee on Health of the Energy & Commerce Committee on whether the groundbreaking HHS rule guaranteeing no cost sharing coverage of contraception should have an even bigger exemption for more religious entities, like hospitals and universities. Even though the rule in no way forces someone to take contraception, several witnesses at the hearing said that the rule still impinges on hospitals’ and universities’ consciences. Contraception is widely accepted, widely used, and used to be non-controversial. So it makes you think, are we really debating this? Is this where we are now, that even contraception is now up for negotiation? Ugh.
Just weeks after the HHS rule hearing, there was another House hearing, “HHS and the Catholic Church: Examining the Politicization of Grants” where HHS officials were questioned why a grant to help survivors of trafficking (including sex trafficking) wasn’t given to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Although claims were made of an administration bias against the Catholic Church, the issue boiled down to the fact that the Bishops would not provide or refer for all services that were required to get the grant. This includes providing or referring for the full range of gynecological care (remember what we are talking about here – providing care to sextrafficking survivors). The Bishops weren’t going to provide what the grant required, so they didn’t get the grant. Simple enough.
Next, we move on to a real roller coaster of a week. First, the House held a hearing on the Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act of 2011, a bill that would criminalize race and sex selective abortions. The hearing was unbelievably depressing as members of the House advanced the extremely anti-choice, anti-woman bill in the name of civil rights, even quoting famous civil rights leaders, all the while ignoring the very big elephant in the room – i.e. the fact that those touting this “civil rights” law voted against every other civil rights legislation in the past several years. This one requires a big sigh…
Ok, but no time to dwell on a bill that would basically require doctors to racial profile patients, because now we are at one of the most stunning decisions of the year – i.e. Secretary Sebelius’s alarming decision to overrule the FDA’s conclusion that Plan B should be given over the counter status. Ouch, this one really hurt. And just to add salt to the wound, the next day President Obama said he agreed with the decision,because he didn’t want his daughters to be able to get Plan B between the bubble gum and batteries.Thud, my head has officially hit the table. There are so many problems with this decision (including ignoring the difficulty women can face in obtaining Plan B at a pharmacy) and the subsequent commentary, but, at its core, the decision to deny women over the counter access to contraception is a huge loss for this country.The decision has done great damage to the message about the benefits of access to contraception, women’s ownership of their reproductive health decisions, and elevating science over an incorrect political calculation (yeah sometimes I really want to think global warming isn’t happening, but then I look at the science…). Oh, and did you know that Obama’s daughters could get a lot more dangerous medicines at the pharmacy next to the bubble gum that is a lot cheaper than the $50 needed to buy Plan B… But that’s beside the point, right?
And so, with that great disappointment, 2011 is over, and with it the end of my first three months at the Law Center. Oh, and just as an fyi, this is just what happened on the national level, I did not even step into theNINETY-TWO anti-abortion restrictions passed in the states, which would make this blog even more depressing than it is and, not to mention, as long as the dictionary. But just as a reference - this total is almost THREE times higher the last highest number of state anti-abortion restrictions, which was 34 in 2005.
All of these attacks on women’s reproductive health, what is it about? Is it about controlling women’s decisions? Is it about nervousness about people having sex? Or is it just about scoring political points, and getting reelected?
Whatever it is or isn’t, it is madly saddening. Not only because women’s bodies are being used as political points, but because the conversation that happens in Washington about women’s bodies is completely ignorant of the conversation that is happening in the rest of America. That conversation is that there is an America that is struggling to make it. That there is a stubborn high unemployment rate (which, if the proponents of sex and race selection abortion were really concerned about discrimination and civil rights issues, they would work on legislation to help with the fact that black women in America have been particularly hit by job loss during the recovery). That the income gap is growing, people’s houses are underwater, extreme poverty is rising. These are all serious issues that are affecting Americans. But instead of dealing with these real issues, Washington is focused on women’s reproductive organs and figuring out new and unique ways to restrict, deny, and control them.
?One night late last year, Jason Melbourne walked into a CVS pharmacy in Mesquite, hoping against hope to walk out with an emergency contraceptive, or “the morning-after pill.” It wasn’t the morning after. He and his wife had their “accident” a few days before, and the 72-hour window in which EC is most effective was closing fast. The first four pharmacies he visited had told him they were out of stock.
He was finally referred to a CVS in Mesquite, some 15 miles away. They told him they had just one box left. But when he finally got there, the overnight pharmacist, Minni Matthew, told Melbourne she wasn’t going to sell it to him.
In order for him to buy the meds, the pharmacist said, she’d need to talk to and see the ID of his wife, who was at home with their two young children. He asked why, and she pointed to the fine print on the medication’s box, which says it can only be sold to someone age 17 or older. Melbourne pointed out that he was well over 17.
“I’ve bought this plenty of times in my life, and it’s never been a problem,” he said. “Are you telling me every other place I’ve bought it from has been wrong?”
Didn’t matter, Matthew said, since the medicine obviously wasn’t for him.
“Why don’t you show me the law that says you can’t sell this to a man?” Melbourne replied.
Things devolved from there. Melbourne Googled emergency contraception on his phone and confirmed that there was no law against selling the product to a man. He tried to show his phone to the pharmacist, he says, “but she didn’t want to see it.”
“You’re the only person who has it in the city, and I’ve driven 15 miles to get here,” Melbourne recalls telling her. “My wife is home with our 4-year-old and newborn son. She’s breastfeeding. She can’t drag my infant child out of the house and down here just to satisfy you.”
At that point, Melbourne says, Matthew retreated behind the counter. He shouted after her, “You got a pillow, Minni? Because I’ll be here all night. I’m not going anywhere until you show me a law against selling this to men.”
A pharmacy technician, who gave his name only as “Robert,” jumped in. He let Melbourne know that they don’t sell emergency contraception to men because they might be giving it to “rape victims.”
By then, Melbourne says, he was starting to “freak out.”
“I’m standing in line trying to get something that’s already a little controversial, a little embarrassing,” he says. “It’s for my wife. There are three customers behind me when the guy says that, so it looks like I’m a piece of shit now.”
Matthew then tried to tell Melbourne that the real reason he couldn’t buy the drug was because it was Plan B, the brand name, and that previously he’d always bought the generic version of the drug.
“What does this have to do with anything? It’s the same drug,” Melbourne, a full-time student who happens to be entering nursing school in the fall, shot back. He called his wife and put her on the phone with the pharmacist, but that wasn’t enough. Melbourne then asked for Matthew to call her supervisor, but the supervisor said no, too. At that point, Melbourne’s wife called a nearby Walgreen’s, who agreed to sell him the medicine. Melbourne went there, bought it, then promptly filed a complaint with the ACLU for gender discrimination.
Lisa Graybill, the legal director at ACLU of Texas, says that while denying emergency contraception to a man isn’t technically illegal, “it’s my understanding it’s contrary to the FDA guidelines. They say the medication is available to people over the ages of 17.”
Graybill says that refusing to sell EC to men on the grounds they may give it to minors is “misguided,” as she put it after a polite, diplomatic pause. “I’m not aware of a single case of a man reportedly buying it to push on his underage pedophile victim,” she says. She’s also not aware of men buying EC to force on people they’ve just raped.
“I don’t know where these ideas comes from,” she says. “I’m not telling you there’s never a case that that’s happened, but I’m not aware of any. That’s a sensational story that would get coverage if someone was criminally accused of doing that.”
The ACLU’s been down this road before. They received reports in July of 2010 that Walgreens stores in Texas, Mississippi and Oklahoma were refusing to sell EC to men. The ACLU called Walgreens out publicly, which seemed to solve the problem.
In an email, CVS spokesman Mike DeAngelis insisted to Unfair Park that they’ve already responded to the incident and appropriately briefed their stores on official company policy.
“CVS/pharmacy’s policy is to follow FDA regulations for the sale of emergency contraception, which allows this product to be sold without a prescription to customers who are at least 17 years old, regardless of gender,” he wrote. “It is our pharmacists’ responsibility to ensure that all customer needs are promptly and completely satisfied. As such, there is no company policy that prevents the sale of emergency contraception to a male customer.”
But DeAngelis was referring to a similar incident in Houston, which he called “isolated.” We told him that actually we were talking about incident in Mesquite. We also informed DeAngelis that we’d spoken with Angela Soto, the store manager of that particular Mesquite CVS. Though she wasn’t specifically aware of the incident with Melbourne, she confirmed to us that as she understood it, it’s “store policy” not to sell EC to men, “because we have to prove that whoever we sell it to is not any minor person.”
We pointed out that Melbourne was over 17. “Well, that’s the issue,” she replied. “We don’t know who he’s going to give it to.” She said she had also heard that “other stores” won’t sell EC to men on the grounds they may give it to women they’ve just raped.
“Those statements are contrary to our company policy,” DeAngelis said when we relayed the manager’s response. He said the company would look into it.
“I’m outraged,” Melbourne says. “I chased this thing all over town, then I get accused of using this for rape, even after they’ve talked to my wife on the phone. It makes me feel like a piece of crap.”
Graybill says that she “won’t contest” that the store’s policy, however logically shaky, may come from “a place of genuine concern” about underage girls. But ultimately, she says, “I think there’s just a gap in communication from corporate to the people on the line.”
“I really want them to be educated,” Melbourne says. “I’m tired of having to tell a pharmacist who’s in charge of a lot more drugs than that one what she can sell. They need to get it right. They need to do some follow up training. I don’t want this crap happening to me again, or to someone else.”
Today (Friday, January 6th), the President’s Council on Science and
Technology will hold its bi-monthly meeting, and 5 representatives from
different sectors of the reproductive health community will address the
Council during the public comment period at 1:30. The speakers will be:
* Dr. Francesca Grifo, Program Director of the Union of
Concerned Scientists Scientific Integrity Program
* Dr. Susan Wood, Associate Professor at the Jacobs Institute of
Women’s Health, George Washington University School of Public Health and
Health Service
* Mr. Wayne Shields, President and CEO of the Association of
Reproductive Health Professionals
* Dr. Doug Laube, MD, Obstetrician and Gynecologist; Board Chair
of the Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health
* Ms. Kelly Cleland, MPA, MPH, Executive Director of the
American Society for Emergency Contraception; Research Staff at the
Office of Population Research at Princeton University
If you’re interested in watching a webcast of the meeting tomorrow,
click here. Each
speaker only has 2 minutes, so hopefully we will succeed in getting the
attention of the Council (and the President) in that brief amount of
time.
The never-ending efforts of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to force US law to comply with the bishops’ interpretation of Catholic teachings continue. The USCCB has rounded up its colleagues in the Catholic healthcare industry and allies in Catholic education, social services, NGOs and religious orders and placed a full-page ad in today’s Washington Post calling for an expansive refusal clause that will ensure that millions of women and men are denied no-cost family planning coverage.
Jon O’Brien, president of Catholics for Choice, issued the following statement today about the bishops’ lobbying efforts.
“The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops isn’t satisfied with its privileged status in US policymaking. Having held healthcare reform hostage over insurance coverage for family planning and abortion services, it is now demanding that Catholic institutions be given unprecedented conscience rights over the people to whom they provide health insurance coverage. This is unacceptable.
“The bishops’ conference is focused like a laser on politics. It wants to increase its role in policymaking so that the bishops can impose their own narrow religious views about sexuality—views that are only shared by a tiny minority of Catholics—on the entire nation, all the while keeping the billions of dollars they receive from state and federal budgets.
“Just weeks ago, the USCCB launched its Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty. The committee isn’t designed to focus on religious beliefs, or worship, or catechesis, as one might expect a committee of Catholic bishops would. The committee’s mandate is to work in six areas, with five of those related to sex issues and the other seeking allowances to discriminate in the employment arena.
“The committee is a major lobbying initiative that seeks to give the bishops a free pass—allowing them to get taxpayer dollars for their social service charities without having to adhere to the standards that apply to others working in the same field or competing for the same contracts. Just look at what the bishops have spent the last few months working on: an all-out assault on the Obama administration and allies in Congress demanding the right to block workers at Catholic institutions from gaining access to contraception through their insurance without a copayment.
“The USCCB wants to take taxpayer money while refusing to provide condoms as part of HIV outreach; to ban employees and their dependents from getting the benefit of contraceptive coverage that other Americans enjoy; and to opt out of providing emergency contraception to victims of sexual violence who come to Catholic hospitals.
“Catholic teachings tell us that we each have a responsibility to listen to our own consciences in matters of moral decision making and to respect other people’s right to do the same. Our tradition also tells us to care for the most vulnerable. The bishops need to remember this when they are making decisions about where to expend their political energies.
“Rather than playing politics to impose their beliefs on people in need, the bishops should focus on their own flock, the people they have yet to convince to follow their lead on key issues related to conscience and religious freedom. I trust that President Obama will listen to the electorate and not the US bishops and their allies when making decisions about healthcare delivery.”
In an unprecedented decision that has prompted outrage by women’s health providers and advocates, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, overruled recommendations of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research that would have made Plan B One Step ™ available to all as an over-the-counter product. Plan B One Step ™ has been available without a prescription to women 17 and older, but a prescription has been required for younger women; the proof-of-age restriction has kept the product behind the counter. The sooner Plan B is taken after unprotected sex, the more effectively it reduces the risk of pregnancy.
Family Planning Health Services (FPHS) administers a statewide emergency contraception (EC) hotline which provides Plan B One Step ™ to women in need. Lon Newman, FPHS executive director, commented on the decision: “I am surprised by this administration’s willingness to divorce drug policy from medical evidence, but my response, is grim determination. I am not angry and I am not discouraged.”
Newman explained that the statewide hotline (866-EC-FIRST or 866-323-4778) makes Plan B One Step ™ easily accessible by giving women access to prescribing clinicians and helping them find the fastest and the best no-cost or low-cost delivery in their area. “It is important that people are aware of access to Plan B One Step ™ provided in Wisconsin with the Hotline,” explained Newman. “We want people to have swift access to this medication to help prevent unintended pregnancies. Mistakes can happen. We want people to know they have safe and sound options to help prevent an unintended pregnancy.” National publicity has focused on the policy and controversy, and that may leave women ill-informed or misinformed. Newman gave examples of important points that Wisconsin women of reproductive age should know:
Plan B – One Step ™ is available and accessible to all women at risk of unintended pregnancy through the statewide network of family planning providers, all of which
provide EC at low or no cost. The EC Hotline 866-EC-FIRST is able to connect people quickly to medication and resources in their area. Plan B One Step ™ remains available to women ages 17 and older over-the-counter.
There is no medical evidence to support the claim that Plan B One Step ™ prevents implantation of a fertilized egg and it does not disrupt an existing pregnancy.(Source: Contraception Volume 84, Issue 5 , Pages 486-492, November 2011)
There is a great deal of misinformation about this – often from otherwise reliable sources – and this mistaken belief is the reason many women of religious faith are uncertain about whether they should take Plan B One Step ™.
Newman said that there has been a reduction in the unintended pregnancy rate among FPHS patients over the past six years. “Birth control methods have improved over the past few years and our ability to provide them has improved, but the major difference in our protocols has been the provision of EC in advance of need to our patients. I believe that EC has prevented almost 200 unintended pregnancies and more than 75 abortions every year since 2006.”
Newman, when asked about the broader repercussions of Secretary Sebelius’ decision, said that he fears it may foreshadow a separation between the Women’s Health preventive services recommendations of the Institute of Medicine and the Obama administration’s policy for the Affordable Care Act (which makes contraception available through insurance without co-pays or deductibles). “This administration has pledged to base policy on best medical evidence. The public must tell them that it’s time to prove it.”
In this podcast we talk to Cynthia Peason of the NWHN. Cyndi tells me the reaction of the NWHN to the historic decision regarding Plan B Emergency Contraception.
