In 2002, pharmacist Neil Noesen refused to refill Amanda Phiede’s valid prescription for birth control pills. Claiming that doing would violate his religious beliefs, Noesen also refused to transfer her prescription to be filled at another pharmacy. Amanda returned to the pharmacy the next day with local law enforcement to get her pills, to no avail. As a result, Amanda missed the first dose of her medication and was forced to use a back-up method of birth control. The state Pharmacy Examining Board subsequently disciplined Noesen for his failure to adequately inform his employer of his religious objections to filling prescriptions for contraception and for his unwillingness to transfer this prescription to another pharmacy. Noesen appealed that decision.
Yesterday, a Wisconsin appeals court upheld the state’s discipline of Noesen. According to the ACLU, the "Court of Appeals’s decision held that Noesen’s refusal to transfer the prescription violates a pharmacist’s standard of care. Requiring all pharmacists to act in a professionally competent manner protects the public health, enhances patient autonomy, and promotes women’s equality."
Since 2002, Noesen has inspired similar acts by other religious extremists operating behind the counter. Thanks to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, this way of preying on women's rights has become more difficult. Anti-contraception fundamentalists can no longer steal women's prescriptions as an act of religious freedom, but they can still give women the run around.
Baltimore's teen pregnancy rate today is three times the national average. The most effective teen pregnancy prevention programs include abstinence awareness and sex education, life-skills or negotiation training, access to contraception and case management. The Self Center program, previously active in Baltimore, included all of these components and teen pregnancy rates did decline. Baltimore's current array of school-based teen pregnancy prevention programs target adolescents of all ages and include some of the components that have proved most effective. However, most programs do not offer direct access to contraception, and Baltimore's teen pregnancy rate remains above the national average. Evidence suggests that the most promising strategy combines and aggressive teen pregnancy prevention strategy with increasing the opportunity structure for at-risk youth.
There's no better case study on what happens when local leadership rely on feelings rather than fact to guide students on important matters such as sex education. Interesting how the religious right never sticks around long enough to take credit for the results of their disasterous policies.
For anti-contraception activists in Wisconsin, it’s been a busy year. Nary a month has gone by without a fresh attack on family planning by Pro-Life Wisconsin. The most recent has taken the form of a deceitful ad campaign falsely claiming that one of the most effective pregnancy prevention methods, emergency contraception, is an abortion method. The target of the ad campaign? The population most at risk for unintended pregnancy and which has the highest abortion rate: college women. Timed to run directly before the spring break recess, the ad encourages women to not use emergency contraception if their primary birth control method fails. A Pro-Life Wisconsin press release about the campaign explains, “Emergency contraception is a powerful, high dose of steroids that tricks a woman’s body into thinking it is pregnant. These steroids can cause chemical abortions and deadly bloodclots.” The group admits it was motivated to place the ads because “Unfortunately, in the past, Wisconsin college campuses have promoted EC to students, urging them to “prepare” for spring break by stocking up on it.”
Pro-Life Wisconsin, which two years earlier had attempted to ban EC from all University of Wisconsin campuses, tried to place the ad in every college newspaper in the state. But after looking at the content of the ad, three campus newspapers, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, University of Wisconsin-Stout and Marquette University, rejected it. Peter Fox, executive director of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, told the AP that "newspapers have the right to refuse any ad deemed inappropriate. He added the decision often is based on whether the ad is factual, if it creates false impression or presents someone in an inaccurate light." Naturally, the fact-challenged folks at Pro-Life Wisconsin were incensed by the decision to not run their inaccurate ads. “I was shocked when the Tribune objected to the words ‘chemical abortion’ in the ad,” said Virginia Zignego, Communications Director for the group. Her executive director, Peggy Hamill chipped in, “This is censorship. It truly is. When newspaper editors have a problem with the medical term ‘abortion’, there is something really wrong here.”
What really is wrong here is that Pro-Life Wisconsin has spent much of its energies trying to scale back access to contraception without revealing that as their true aim. Earlier in the month, the group opposed the “Birth Control Protection Act” which would have assured women can get their prescriptions for contraception filled at any pharmacy in the state. In response to the bill, Peg Hamill, the group’s director, stated, “This bill is not about access to birth control at all. Birth control is everywhere – even the morning-after pill is now accessible over the counter for those aged 18 and over. What this bill is really about is forcing pro-life pharmacists to cast aside any moral or medical qualms about birth control and do the bidding of the birth control industry.”
In January, the group waged a campaign against providing pregnancy prevention for victims of rape. When the bill passed ensuring that rape victims, no matter which emergency room they are taken to, will be offered emergency contraception, the group threatened a lawsuit. Peg Hamill explained, “The state Assembly has shamefully ignored the fate of embryonic children by forcing Wisconsin hospitals to dispense a known abortion-causing drug to vulnerable women. In so doing, they have trampled upon the conscience rights of hospitals and hospital workers in blatant disregard of our federal and state constitutions which guarantee freedom of religious expression and liberty of conscience. This deadly legislation should never have been scheduled for floor action. That it passed the day after the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade is an added insult.”
In October, Pro-Life Wisconsin successfully opposed a bill that would have expanded the Medicaid Family Planning Demonstration Project to offer confidential sexual health services to teenage boys. Despite the fact that all studies indicate that greater access to prevention services has no impact on the degree or initiation of sexual activity, Matt Sande, of Pro-Life Wisconsin, claimed that offering birth control to teenage boys increases their likelihood of having sex, stating, “The availability of confidential ‘family planning’ services to our teens is encouraging sexual promiscuity and with it a host of social pathologies. Protecting young boys and girls from the devastating physical and emotional effects of STDs, pregnancy and abortion, as well as ensuring the rights of parents to be involved in such important issues in their children’s lives, is our moral and civic duty.”
In June, the group hosted a talk by Joseph Scheidler, organizer of the Contraception is Not the Answer Conference, lamenting the Supreme Court decision in Griswold v Connecticut granting married people the right to use contraception. A press release for the event explained, “By commemorating the Griswold decision our affiliates are raising awareness about the judicial tyranny that has been going on for over 40 years...Ever since the Griswold decision, the courts have arbitrarily protected all sorts of immorality, all under the banner of so-called ‘privacy.’ Those who are appalled about the condition of our culture should have both a moral and civic interest in exposing the fraud that began with the Griswold decision.” Along with the Scheidler event, the group marked the anniversary of the decision by holding protests outside of seven health care centers around the state that prescribe birth control.
At this point, most of the work of this supposedly anti-abortion group isn’t against abortion. It is in opposition to contraception although few Wisconsinites have discovered the clear pattern. This is a long term, dangerous shift in focus. And for the pro-life folks it not only informs most of what they do, but seems to distort their ability to even think about the subject with an open mind. A few years ago I noticed the group had indicated on its website that most birth control methods are abortifacients. It included the cervical cap and spermicides. When I called to inquire about the last two they claimed it was a mistake and removed those from the list. But that mistake is telling. It seems clear by the events and statements of the group it’s after all forms of contraception, and science, fact and reason won’t stand in their way.
To lay all doubt to rest, here is their official admission of that fact:
Sometimes even our friends need a nudge to remind them about something we care about that they can do something about. The same is true of our allies in Congress. The following are members who could use a call from us to remind them to restore affordable access to birth control since it was taken away by the Federal Deficit Reduction Act. Below are Congressmembers who just need a nudge along with others who need a little more convincing. Call your representative on the list (contact information available by following the links.)
Cramer (D-AL-05) Berry (D-AR-01) Ross (D-AR-04) Bono (R-CA-45) Lewis (R-CA-41) Hill (D-IN-09) Melancon (D-LA-03) Upton (R-MI-06) Hobson (R-OH-07) Kaptur (D-OH-09) Walden (R-OR-02) Doyle (D-PA-14) Murtha (D-PA-12) Granger (R-TX-12)
Here's some Could-be Friends Congressmembers whose floor vote we need. They need a little more convincing about access to contraception..so be your most persuasive...
The original schedule for the day the Spitzer scandal broke was emblematic of the Spitzer family commitment to women’s reproductive choice. That day, the Governor was expected to speak at a family planning conference. That night, his wife, Silda Wall, was to be a featured guest at the Women’s Campaign Forum fundraiser—a group committed to getting pro-choice women elected to office. The loss of Governor Eliot Spitzer, who resigned this week, is a powerful blow to the New York choice community.
Spitzer resigned following a sex scandal. He appears to have been snagged in an undercover investigation of a high-priced prostitution ring. There were ironies – and tragedies – galore. As attorney general, Spitzer had prosecuted at least one high-priced prostitution ring. Some hoped that he might survive the scandal. But Spitzer himself seemed to be among the first to realize that he couldn’t. He had long been a combination of righteous and self-righteous, and for a time a crusader we trusted. He’d been swept into office with a 70 percent majority, and the full and enthusiastic backing of the pro-choice community. His involvement in what was an illegal act tipped the scales. He no longer seemed the person he said he was.
While we have high hopes that his successor, David Paterson, will continue the work of ensuring New York women will always have access to family planning, such commitment was innate to Spitzer. He was raised by a leader in the reproductive rights world. His mother Anne Spitzer, a board member of New York Naral, clearly inculcated in her children that reproductive rights are essential to the freedom of women (and by extension, the freedom of men.)
I, like all of Spitzer’s fans, am deeply saddened that we will not witness the many victories he, and his wife, Silda, would win for women. He has paid dearly for his mistake. But the loss is ours too.
Anti-contraception crusaders were delivered a blow by the US District Court of the District of Columbia this week which ruled against their suit attempting to overturn over-the-counter access to emergency contraception for women over age 18. According to the Daily Women's Health Policy Report, the suit brought by the Unplanned Family Research Council and Disturbed Women for America:
"alleged that FDA had no authority to approve the same drug and labeling for simultaneous nonprescription sales and prescription-only distribution. The lawsuit also claimed that the agency could not treat the drug differently based on the age of the buyer because "FDA lacks the authority to enforce Plan B's age limitations." It also alleged that the decision to approve Barr Laboratories' application was made under "improper political pressure" from Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.)"
Talk about calling the kettle black. In their attempts to get the FDA to reject the science and rule according to their ideology, these groups applied the most political pressure the FDA had ever before experienced. To name just a few of the political tactics employed, they got Bush to appoint anti-contraception ideologues, Drs. Hager and Crockett, to the FDA panel considering contraception issues and had 49 members of Congress urge the White House to pressure the FDA to rule against the Plan B application. The political heavy-hand in the decision-making process originally resulted in the FDA rejection of the panel's and its own scientists' recommendations and the denial of EC OTC status. At the time, one panel member, Dr. Charles Lockwood, wrote in an editorial, "We find it offensive that religious ideology and partisan politics have been introduced into the decision-making process regarding a public health issue." Another panel member explained, "It's the first time I know of the [FDA] making a decision in which no one has produced any scientific basis for the decision." (Importantly, no one on the FDA panel ever accused supporters of the Plan B application of "improper political pressure.")
Considering the application a second time, the FDA compromised and ruled that only adult women would be able to access EC without a prescription but teenagers would be denied more immediately access to the pregnancy prevention method. Yet, granting adult women easy access to pregnancy prevention was enough to provoke the anti-family planning movement to file a lawsuit against the FDA.
This week, finally, a little justice has prevailed. The court ruled that because the plaintiffs failed "to identify a single individual who has been harmed by Plan B's [over-the-counter] availability" they have "failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted." And with that the anti-contraception fanatics have been shown the door. Surely, they will not be missed by folks at the FDA who prefer the science of medicine to the fictions of faith.
Last week, Governor Chet Culver made Iowa the 17th state to abstain from federal funds for abstinence-until-marriage programs. Following the advice of local teen pregnancy experts, including the group Futurenet, Culver rejected $320,000 of Title V funding offered annually. This brings to an end such memorable Iowan abstinence campaigns as "Wait for the Bling" which, in the hope of getting teens to hold off on sex until marriage, advised girls to hold out for jewelry (or why not just cash?) before they put out. And while the abstinence-only leaders in the state may believe all teenage girls are just future "Flavor of Love" contestants, they now have a few hundred thousand less to work with a year. So it appears it's now their turn to wait for the bling.
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