Is Contraception Murder?

By Hunter Stuart, associate producer, reporter, and videographer for RHrealitycheck.org

As the 40 Days For Life anti-abortion campaign kicks off its fall tour - it's largest yet, spread across 200 cities in 45 states - I find myself thinking harder about the arguments of the anti-choice movement. I recently went to Wisconsin, where anti-abortion protests have lately gathered strength. I wanted to hear their argument from their own lips.

I got the usual comments about God and conception and murder, and even found myself at one point involved in a discussion about my own hypothetical murder (see the accompanying video). But it was the inherent irony of their opposition to contraception which I found most baffling.

Is Contraception Murder? from Stuart Productions on Vimeo.

There are two family planning clinics in central Wisconsin - one in Wausau, one in Stevens Point - that have been picketed by typical religious right-wing anti-choicers over the past two years. What's not typical is that these clinics do not provide abortions. Nor do they provide referrals or even medical counseling for abortions, because their federal grant restrictions explicitly prohibit them from doing so. The people of Wisconsin know this. The protesters know this. So what's the big deal?

The big deal is that this family planning clinic dispenses contraception - condoms, birth control pills, and emergency contraception. The protesters I spoke with in Wisconsin believe that "the morning-after pill" is the equivalent of murder. They even believe that the birth control pill is a form of murder. (Since in some cases it prevents the fertilized egg - which they would call "the embryonic person" - from implanting in the uterine wall.)

And condoms? One protester told me that condoms encourage men to use women "for sex without repercussions." But isn't it the woman who has to deal with the real "repercussions" of a pregnancy? You would think an anti-abortion activist, of all people, would see the use of condoms.

But no. "If you want to have sex," he told me, waving his finger in the air, "make sure you can deal with the consequences. Which are children."

It's this kind of idealism that stands in the way of reducing unplanned pregnancy and reducing abortion in America. If these people got what they wanted, and birth control were made illegal, the number of unplanned pregnancies would skyrocket. So would the number of abortions - including late-term abortions, which are the most controversial of all, even for radical pro-choicers.

Does a fertilized egg feel pain? Does it feel stress, anxiety, hope, love and fear? Does it have friends, neighbors, and lovers? Does it have dreams and ambitions or plans for the future? Does it worry about hurting the feelings of the people it loves? Is a fertilized egg afraid of dying?

To answer yes to any of these questions would require a leap of faith that rational argument could not support. To force women under penalty of law to carry every pregnancy to term is another way of keeping them downtrodden and subservient in a male-dominated society. Moreover, it's not the job of government to legislate on a woman's body. But that's beside the point.

The point is, nobody likes the idea of an abortion. Contraception helps women reduce unintended pregnancy, which will reduce abortion. Surely that's something we can all agree on.

Originally published on rhrealitycheck.org

Comments

[maori]

Unbelievable.

These people just want women punished, for sex on their own terms.

[dfranz]

Think about the number of fetal alchohol children there are in the US and how many potential sociopaths are being raised by people who did not want the child and do not raise them with love and then listen to the innane arguments made by the pro lifers. Condems and birth control save many potential childern from a miserable childhood and keep them from becoming a drag on society.

Why is it that these people feel it is their right to enforce their views on the rest of us?

[LiberalDem]

The inability and/or refusal of the anti-choice side to support birth control never ceases to amaze and disappoint me. The best way to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies and abortions is prevention. It really is that simple.

Having said that, I'm well aware that the anti-choicers included a sizable and vocal contingent who really do want to control womens' lives by denying women the right to decided for themselves if and when they become mothers.

[FilthyHarry]

Lets follow this extremist logic to where it leads: The child you have will someday die. Having kids is murder.

[Rogan]

I ALWAYS point that out, and I'm frankly surprised that I've never run into someone else, who's come to the same conclusion.

If you bring a child into the world, you're directly responsible for all of that person's suffering: including death. Which makes you a murderer.

This logic is sort of irreducible: but what it reveals, is not that the idea or statement itself - parenthood is murder - is true; what it reveals, is that a lot of our thinking about issues surrounding birth and death, is very confused and largely wrong, because we don't understand death, and treat death as an intrinsically awful thing on every and all occasion(s) despite that lack of understanding, regardless of the fact that death is SO natural, it comes to us all.

"Extremist logic" is exactly right. When your ideology starts to lead you to believe in absolutes that take you way outside the mainstream, you ought to carefully consider drawing a line in the sand for yourself, if you're a thinking person... that is to say, having come to the conclusion that all parents are murderers, I do not follow through by TREATING all the parents I know, including my own, like they're criminals. That would be silly. Like fighting "birth control" as a generality. That's silly.

[GrainOSand]

What is known is that a life unplanned, unwanted, and unprepared for, is a life more likely to face certain obstacles and known perils. What is also known (clear from the current health care debate) is that individuals are left to their own devices in society, and individuals should not look for recourse in government concerning individual fate, future, or fortune. That being true, the concern -- that to proceed with an unplanned pregnancy places a potential life in plausible peril, is a pragmatic consideration -- even to a man. If government has no role after the individual enters society, it has no role before; thus all responsibility for the decision to parent is left with prospective parents -- having no recourse in government.

Perhaps that first woman who became pregnant while aware of the uninviting aspects of whatever current living environment...while mindful of the weight of a given now on the prospects of a fertilized egg, expected to become a functioning and well human in the future, perhaps that first woman who said, “I am not ready”, began this debate.

Yet, no one knows the future.

However, managing the process of life creation is taking responsibility for family before beginning a family. Use of contraceptives is a private expression of acknowledgement (in function) of ones unprepared status for parenthood. It is a statement of non-readiness to meet the inherent requirements of successfully shepherdin­g/supporti­ng a life through an always hoped for -- long and prosperous journey.

[GrainOSand]

What is known is that a life unplanned, unwanted, and unprepared for, is a life more likely to face certain obstacles and known perils. What is also known (clear from the current health care debate) is that individuals are left to their own devices in society, and individuals should not look for recourse in government concerning individual fate, future, or fortune. That being true, the concern -- that to proceed with an unplanned pregnancy places a potential life in plausible peril, is a pragmatic consideration -- even to a man. If government has no role after the individual enters society, it has no role before; thus all responsibility for the decision to parent is left with prospective parents -- having no recourse in government.

Perhaps that first woman who became pregnant while aware of the uninviting aspects of whatever current living environment...while mindful of the weight of a given now on the prospects of a fertilized egg, expected to become a functioning and well human in the future, perhaps that first woman who said, “I am not ready”, began this debate.

Yet, no one knows the future.

However, managing the process of life creation is taking responsibility for family before beginning a family. Use of contraceptives is a private expression of acknowledgement (in function) of one’s unprepared status for parenthood. It is a statement of non-readiness to meet the inherent requirements of successfully shepherdin­g/supporti­ng a life through an always hoped for -- long and prosperous journey.

[seawolf77]

When does life begin. At birth. At conception.First trimester. the truth is nobody knows and nobody is ever going to know. So why are we fighting over it. It is a unifying political principle that's why. These poeple feel guilty sqwashing a cockroach . Let them. these people want to play God,. I got a feeling God don;t like that. And speaking of abortion read Frealonomics. Abortion is the real reason crime dropped in the 1990's and he proves it statistically. Now I know Republicans start with a story and anything that comes along to discredit or dispute it they demonize. This allows them to continue to live in fairytale land. They call these priniciples which they have in copious qunatities becasue they are white and old. . Everyone else has theories.

[Alethea]

So I've been taking the pill since I was 15. I took it every single day for 12 years. Finally my husband and I both agreed that now was a great time in our lives to have a kid so I went off the pill and got pregnant.

I'm currently 5 months pregnant and couldn't be happier. Why? Because it was MY choice (and my husband's) to control our own lives and do as we pleased.

What's wrong with that? Why do Pro-Lifers want to prevent me and my husband from doing what's best for ourselves and actually planning a pregnancy? Why do they want to intervene in our sex life? What do they get out of it?

Are they suggesting that I sacrafice my family's happiness just so that someone I don't even know can feel validated by their convictions?

Yeah, ummmmmm. Watch me continue to do whatever the he// I want.

[Dosadi]

If religions knew about life they would realize that the egg is alive long before it is fertilized, same as the sperm. Women create about 10,000 eggs, men create billions of sperm. Every time a man masturbates he kills billions of sperm, is this murder? Every time a woman says no to a man's sexual advances, she runs the risk of wasting (killing) an egg, is this murder? Every time a person decides to not have sex, sperm and eggs end up dying, is this murder? So if it is only after the egg is fertilized that life begins what do you call the state the egg and sperm were in before fertilization, zygote limbo?

[joyf1]

Not every religion believes that life begins at conception. For some it is "the breath of life". Do we impose Christian laws then on non-Christians?

[Gidster]

That is most definitely their agenda.
The ultimate goal being a Christian Theocracy.....

[Nolana]

I remember reading someplace a few years ago a statement by some nutcase anti-choice activist - "a woman's period is her womb weeping for its lost child." So.... by this "logic" one must assume that this person wants every female constantly pregnant from the time of her first possible pregnancy until her de.ath - which would probably be before her 16th or 17th birthday. This person would probably say it serves her right for having been born a woman anyway.

[caterpol]

The young man in the video contends that birth control is strictly for the benefit and pleasure of the man. This alone is a warped, patriarchal view of humanity.

The woman in the car argues that birth control leads to severe health consequences for the woman, as if pregnancy is risk free. I guess she must not believe in pre-natal care either as that would entail science intervening with a natural process.

Hard to argue with people who think that sex should be illegal except for purposes of procreation. It's like trying to explain gravity to a caveman.

I'm happy that they're out there though. Extreme views like these are helpful to those of us who believe in choice and support medical science for the difference it has made in our lives.

[Gidster]

Remember where the term "Hysteria" came from.

Originally defined in the early 1600's as a neurotic condition peculiar to women and thought to be caused by a dysfunction of the uterus.

So misogyny has been church sanctioned, and government approved for centuries....

[ladyfractal]

When feminists, particularly feminists like myself who have have a Darwinian view of our species, comment that some portion of the anti-choice movement (I'm pro-life, you're pro-life, everyone is pro-life--those opposed to birth control and legal abortion are anti-choice) is driven by the need of male primates to control the reproduction of female primates, one need look no further than the statement If you want to have sex," he told me, waving his finger in the air, "make sure you can deal with the consequences. Which are children." This is not to say that ALL of it is driven by this very old, very buried psychological bias in our brains but one cannot look at people opposed to *birth control* as doing anything other than trying to exercise control over women's sexuality.

For years now, some of us in the feminist movement(s) have been saying that for the anti-choice crowd, abortion was just the beginning and that birth control was also in their sights for the same reasons that abortion is in their sights.

Cheers
LF

[Fabienne]

Do they believe war is murder? If war isn't murder en masse, I don't know what is.

[Rogan]

You've put your finger right on an important point. Because of the way their religion works, "murder" is not the real concern for these folks, when they're protesting birth control. The real issue is, they have these religious ideas they really believe in, but even so they're not really sure when the "soul" enters the body, and they're not really sure what a person has to do to "get into heaven," so they're really, really scared, for all the li'l unborn children.

You'd think they'd realize this conundrum just blows holes in the theological stuff they already believe in. But it doesn't seem to... like, say, the issue about whether our beloved cats and dogs have souls too (Christianity says they certainly don't), most of these radical Christians just try to ignore and get past such glaring inconsistencies, though I do believe facing such inconsistencies constantly, explains, in large part, the ferocious anger these people gin up for their causes.

[lafon5891]

I thought these people wanted a smaller government and for that small government to stay out of their lives. Why then do they advocate for outlawing abortion and gay marriage and the like. Doesn't this inherently cause a larger government role in our everyday lives? Do they not realize that this is all a slippery slope? We are setting a dangerous precedent for government intrusion into our lives thanks to this group of people and it seems like nobody cares.