New HHS Definition Equates Birth Control With Abortion!
By anniepa
@anniepa (27955)
United States
July 15, 2008 6:49pm CST
I've known for quite some time that some right-wing extremists were not only opposed to abortion no matter when or for what reason but that they were also opposed to any form of birth control because they actually consider birth control to be a form of abortion. I remember years ago I was watching the old Geraldo Riviera show on CNBC and the guest star was a very visible and vocal anti-choice advocate of that time whose name escapes me right now. Anyway, Geraldo kept hammering at this guy, asking him over and over if he did not believe that any type of birth control was in fact a form of abortion and did he not think birth control should be outlawed for that reason. It took awhile but Geraldo finally got his answer - YES, birth control was a kind of abortion so YES, it should become illegal because it was murder.
Here's the definition of abortion under the new Bush Administration proposal: "any of the various procedures — including the prescription, dispensing and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action — that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation."
Read the whole article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/washington/15rule.html
I know there are many myLot members here who are pro-life, or anti-choice as I prefer to call it for various reasons; are there any of you who agree with this new "definition"? Anyone is certainly welcome to weigh in on this. No matter what your view on the choice issue is, do you consider birth control and abortion to actually be one and the same and why?
Annie
4 people like this
6 responses
@foxyfire33 (10005)
• United States
16 Jul 08
Wow...that's pretty shocking. Most hormonal birth controls don't always prevent conception but act to prevent implantation..so under that wording birth control would definitely be considered abortion and that would put it at risk of becoming illegal....I knew I didn't like the guy.
I don't consider them to be the same. Abortion is a willful act which knowingly kills an unborn baby. Birth control attempts to prevent the pregnancy from occurring with a back-up method if the sperm does get through. The "abortion" happens without the woman knowing she's pregnant (technically she isn't pregnant since pregnancy for the woman starts after implantation-medically speaking).
2 people like this
@cynddvs (2948)
• United States
16 Jul 08
Maybe this explains why some insurance companies have maternity coverage but do not cover birth control prescriptions. Unfortunately I have insurance like this right now. So I am having to pay nearly $40 a month for my birth control. I just never could wrap my head around why my insurance company would pay for me to have a baby and not pay for me to prevent having a baby. So obviously I'm on the side of the fence that I don't believe birth control is the same as abortion at all. As a matter of fact I don't think the morning after pill is the same as abortion either.
Do these people not realize that by making birth control illegal there would be more cases of abused and unwanted children?
2 people like this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
16 Jul 08
Abortion is not a good form of birth control. I have not forgiven the women in the 1970s who went for abortions for vanity reasons and made it hard for me and my husband and others who would have made wonderful parents, yes better then me who could not make anything fancy and have two thumbs to adopt. We applied soon after our marriage when I found I could not get pregnant, and there were no babies available. Why even the mentally and physically disabled were being adopted. Do you know, the babies that you expected would have been aborted, not the healthy ones that were. We moved to
Saskatoon and adopted there but the babies were three months old, not a week or so as I had hoped. I missed out on the mothering of newborns.
So when it is necessary for an abortion? If the woman has an ectopic pregnancy, then she should have an abortion, because it endangers her life and she will die if she does not have one. But I call pro choice people, anti=life. I do think that you cannot discriminate against health professionals that are anti-life. There are help for women who have unwanted pregnancies, there are crisis pregnancy centers where you can donate clothes, food, cribs, anything for the little ones.
OH and birth control and abortion are different. It is the form of birth control that matters. I know that Roman Catholics prefer the rhythm method or the do not sleep with the guy method, and there are uterine devices.
Some birth controls work by not allowing the unborn to implant in the uterus, and that would be considered abortion. But there are others that prevent the egg and the sperm from joining and that would not be considered abortion.
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
16 Jul 08
I'm confused, does this mean you agree with the change of definition? Am I also to take you to mean that the very instant the sperm and egg meet, before it's implanted in the uterus, you'd call that microscopic speck "the unborn"?
My reason for disagreeing with the "pro-life" phrase for some who are anti-choice or anti-abortion, which ever you prefer to use, is because SOME of these people, though not all, are very concerned with the unborn fetuses, will do anything to prevent perfect strangers from having an abortion no matter what their personal reason is (and I think it IS personal is should be respected as such) but once a BABY is born and no one can dispute that it is indeed a baby, when it is indeed able to sustain life outside the womb, then these "pro-lifers" as they call themselves want nothing to do with helping to make sure these BABIES have a quality of life, instead they like to attack the mothers, especially if it happens to be an unmarried mother, and they're against giving them any kind of government services to help them provide these BABIES with food, shelter, health, child care so the mother can work and help in educating them so they don't end up one day needing these services themselves. Also, no offense to anyone who is unable to have their own children, my heart goes out to them, however I find it very sad that some of these people want to have a child or children to love so desperately yet they want no part of adopting any of the millions of older children that are considered "unadoptable" and end up living out their childhoods in foster homes or institutions. Gee, I guess we both got off-topic here!
Annie
1 person likes this
@sarahruthbeth22 (43143)
• United States
16 Jul 08
I really don't care what people who will never get an abortion call it, as long as abortions remain safe and legal.They can try to make abortions illegal but they won't succeed.If the outlawed abortions today, the practice would only go underground.
2 people like this
@Latrivia (2878)
• United States
16 Jul 08
I guess we can say bye-bye to the morning after pill for pre-teens who made a bad choice. How typical of the anti-choicers to want to force an ultimatum on everyone. Funny, though, you hardly ever see them doing anything to help out the children who get put in the foster care system. I guess their pro-life, but not pro-healthy life, when it comes to other people's offspring.
Birth control is never the same as abortion, nor does conception automatically mean life. A newly conceived zygote has practically no qualities of a living human being, and therefore should not be considered one.
2 people like this
@irishidid (8687)
• United States
16 Jul 08
Birth control is certainly not abortion unless you consider the IUD (or whatever they are calling it these days) that works by preventing the fertilized egg from attaching to the wall of the uterus.
1 person likes this
