My Interview with Congressman Tim Ryan, Part 1 of 2
I spoke with Congressman Tim Ryan, D-OH, after his press conference announcing the Ryan DeLauro bill, Preventing Unintended Pregnancies, Reducing the Need for Abortion and Supporting Parents Act. Congressman Ryan is rarity in Congress, a pro-lifer who is pro-contraception. However, he is far more representative of the American pro-life public, 80% of whom support contraception. He spoke about the difficulty he has had convincing pro-life groups and individuals to support the proven effective approaches to reducing unintended pregnancy and the need or abortion.
CP: You and Congresswoman DeLauro have spent several years working on legislation that both pro-life and pro-choice people can agree on. Can you tell us the purpose of the Reducing the Need for Abortion and Supporting Parents Act?
Congressman Ryan: We can all be in agreement to reduce the need for abortion by preventing unintended pregnancies. Four in ten unintended pregnancies end up in abortion and 57% of abortions are with women who live within 200% of poverty. Both sides are in agreement that by focusing on prevention, focusing on family planning, women’s health issues, that we can put a significant dent into the number that we have and not put women in the difficult situation that many find themselves in. There is an agreement there. We can still have fights about other things and that’s perfectly okay, but when you agree on something I feel that we have a responsibility as elected officials and different members of leading groups to try to solve those problems. Today we took a big step in doing that.
CP: Polls show that the vast majority of pro-life Americans support contraception. 98% of Americans use contraception at some point in their lives, including Catholics who favor and use artificial contraception at the same rate as the general public. Yet you are one of the only pro-life leaders who is pro-contraception. Why is the pro-life establishment so adamantly opposed to contraception while its constituents are fine with it?
Congressman Ryan: I think the pro-life groups are finding themselves further and further removed from the mainstream. I think they are finding themselves on the fringe of this debate. When you hear their comments they clearly are seeing themselves as being marginalized on this issue and on the fringe. I think there are number of pro-life democrats who support contraception, support stem cell research, support a lot of different things. But in the abortion debate the fault line, quite frankly, is within the pro-life community: Are you pro-life and support contraception or are you pro-life and you somehow think that contraception increasing the number of abortions, which is where National Right to Life and the Ohio Right to Life and other pro-life groups that aren’t part of this solution find themselves. The new fault line, after this press conference today and the agreements that we struck today, is not pro-life/pro-choice. It’s within the pro-life community—are you pro-life and pro-contraception therefore trying to reduce the need for abortions or are you pro-life and against contraception and you hope that people’s lives improve just by hoping it, wishing it so.
CP: As a result of championing contraception and other policies proven to the reduce the need for abortion you were recently, as you say, “booted” from the advisory board of the group, Democrats for Life of America. What was it like struggling internally to convince a pro-life group to support prevention?
Congressman Ryan: To me, it became very frustrating because it seemed so obvious. I guess we all think our ideas are obviously the right ones. So, you gotta take a deep breath and go out and persuade but after a while you find yourself running into a brick wall and then you say let’s work with groups that are for contraception and are for women’s health and work that way to try to address both of these issues. It was really frustrating to try to convince people that just really didn’t want to hear it. I went to the Democrats for Life of America national board meeting that they had in DC a few years back and there were 50 board members or so and I gave them my pitch: 'If you’re really for reducing abortions you’ve gotta be for contraception.' I gave them all the statistics on unintended pregnancy and 200% of poverty and all this stuff and it just didn’t resonate with them at all and so we had this stark disagreement and I got the boot.
CP: You and Congresswoman DeLauro have spent several years working on legislation that both pro-life and pro-choice people can agree on. Can you tell us the purpose of the Reducing the Need for Abortion and Supporting Parents Act?
Congressman Ryan: We can all be in agreement to reduce the need for abortion by preventing unintended pregnancies. Four in ten unintended pregnancies end up in abortion and 57% of abortions are with women who live within 200% of poverty. Both sides are in agreement that by focusing on prevention, focusing on family planning, women’s health issues, that we can put a significant dent into the number that we have and not put women in the difficult situation that many find themselves in. There is an agreement there. We can still have fights about other things and that’s perfectly okay, but when you agree on something I feel that we have a responsibility as elected officials and different members of leading groups to try to solve those problems. Today we took a big step in doing that.
CP: Polls show that the vast majority of pro-life Americans support contraception. 98% of Americans use contraception at some point in their lives, including Catholics who favor and use artificial contraception at the same rate as the general public. Yet you are one of the only pro-life leaders who is pro-contraception. Why is the pro-life establishment so adamantly opposed to contraception while its constituents are fine with it?
Congressman Ryan: I think the pro-life groups are finding themselves further and further removed from the mainstream. I think they are finding themselves on the fringe of this debate. When you hear their comments they clearly are seeing themselves as being marginalized on this issue and on the fringe. I think there are number of pro-life democrats who support contraception, support stem cell research, support a lot of different things. But in the abortion debate the fault line, quite frankly, is within the pro-life community: Are you pro-life and support contraception or are you pro-life and you somehow think that contraception increasing the number of abortions, which is where National Right to Life and the Ohio Right to Life and other pro-life groups that aren’t part of this solution find themselves. The new fault line, after this press conference today and the agreements that we struck today, is not pro-life/pro-choice. It’s within the pro-life community—are you pro-life and pro-contraception therefore trying to reduce the need for abortions or are you pro-life and against contraception and you hope that people’s lives improve just by hoping it, wishing it so.
CP: As a result of championing contraception and other policies proven to the reduce the need for abortion you were recently, as you say, “booted” from the advisory board of the group, Democrats for Life of America. What was it like struggling internally to convince a pro-life group to support prevention?
Congressman Ryan: To me, it became very frustrating because it seemed so obvious. I guess we all think our ideas are obviously the right ones. So, you gotta take a deep breath and go out and persuade but after a while you find yourself running into a brick wall and then you say let’s work with groups that are for contraception and are for women’s health and work that way to try to address both of these issues. It was really frustrating to try to convince people that just really didn’t want to hear it. I went to the Democrats for Life of America national board meeting that they had in DC a few years back and there were 50 board members or so and I gave them my pitch: 'If you’re really for reducing abortions you’ve gotta be for contraception.' I gave them all the statistics on unintended pregnancy and 200% of poverty and all this stuff and it just didn’t resonate with them at all and so we had this stark disagreement and I got the boot.
About this post: posted by Cristina Page at
7/29/2009 06:19:00 PM
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The contraceptive pill, Yaz, has been linked to life-threatening side effects such as strokes, blood clots, and heart attacks. Since 2004, at least 50 deaths have been reported in women taking Yaz and birth control pills containing similar ingredients. There’s more information on this disturbing problem at http://www.yaz-may-cause-strokes.com/
There are risks associated with having sex and most birth control options. The important point is that women A. have a choice and B. understand the risks associated with their selection. Unintended pregnancies are at epidemic levels and are mostly preventable. There are lots of choices out there for birth control.
Birth control medication, Yaz, linked to strokes, heart attacks, and other life-threatening and dangerous adverse events. Here is some valuable information: http://www.yaz-may-cause-strokes.com/
Bears repeating: The birth control pill, Yaz, has been linked to a number of adverse reactions, including strokes and lawsuits are growing over these issues. Here is some good information: http://www.yaz-may-cause-strokes.com/
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Not sure if either side will ever be happy concerning this debate. There just does not seem to be much middle ground.
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