Is anyone else worried that birth control will soon become illegal again

[LiberalLoner]

As well as abortion?

I think we will see this happening within the next decade or so, given the current trajectory.

But maybe I am not seeing things clearly, maybe I am being overly pessimistic. How do you all see this going over the next decade or so, which direction, etc.?

[FBaggins]

1. No

Such a position would be in the extreme minority even among the right wing.

[LiberalLoner]

5. It's just that I noticed they have now redefined the pill and the IUD as abortion....

those are our two most reliable forms of birth control (reversible birth control I mean, sterilization is more reliable obviously.)

It's not hard for me to imagine that Roe vs Wade gets overturned if the pukes get more SC judges appointed.

With BC pill and IUD defined now as abortion..if abortion is made illegal...well there goes the two methods that have been what women have relied on to avoid pregnancy, most.

Condoms are not as reliable, and also depend on the male's cooperation - doesn't always work so well in domestic abuse situations or rape.

[FBaggins]

14. That really depends on who you mean by "they"

The Catholic church and a handful of others have always referred to them that way (anything that works after conception is an abortifacient by their definition)... but there hasn't been (and can't be) any change in that. It's just become more commonly known since the whole kerfuffle with insurance plans having to cover such drugs.

But even among catholics there are a significant percentage of people who will defend the Church's right to make that determination and not pay for the drugs in a healthcare plan... but who regularly use the drugs themselves and/or would never support an attempt to outlaw them.

It's not hard for me to imagine that Roe vs Wade gets overturned if the pukes get more SC judges appointed

Oh certainly... but that's a much lower bar to clear (no pun intended). I think they're two short for such a decision now, but it's at least a possibility. I didn't mean to disagree with fears for Roe... just express the virtual impossibility that anyone would try to outlaw contraception.

I'll also point out that ever overturning Roe doesn't make abortion illegal (and they wouldn't have the votes for that nationally either... let alone extending it to something that only a tiny percentage of people actually consider "abortion&quot

[kestrel91316]

20. You haven't been paying much attention.

The Dominionists now run the Republican party, and they oppose ALL birth control.

They define use of the birth control pill as abortion (medically false, BTW). They have tipped their hand.

Just ask your little friends.

[seabeyond]

24. Dominionists. a very interesting group

living where i do i saw them infilitrate this area from colorado springs. my kids were going to a private christian school. i saw the school shift to this group and started hearing what they were saying about spring of 2002. very interesting. and i agree with you

[JustAnotherGen]

2. Depends

I think this is election is extremely important. I think depending on who is appointed to leadership positions in the House and Senate - will determine which way the liberties, freedom, due process and equal protection before the law will go.

And - Big Pharma is not likely to just roll over and play dead on such a solid money maker being banned as b.c. pills.

[LiberalLoner]

3. That's reassuring, thanks! :)

[JustAnotherGen]

8. Sadly so - eh?

And it WAS the Repugs that gave them that Medicare Prescription plan.

But if we are connecting dots - we have to consider the HIGH level of influence Big Pharma has here. Many of these 'boys' that push this idiocy are bought and paid for by Big Pharma.

Perhaps a quiet calling and emailing campaign by women who use birth control pills to have Big Pharma boycott these Pols?

[ProfessionalLeftist]

4. If women (and men) don't get up and FIGHT this, yes

I don't see a whole hell of a lot of women or men getting too angry about it - but most of them today don't remember when birth control and abortion were not legal or available. I have a feeling they're going to learn - again. And have to fight the same battles their mothers did - again.

People are too complacent.

What this is all about is going back to the "good ol days" when men controlled women by their uteruses and *gasp!* vaginas. That is the last bastion of control men now have over women and some of them are HELLBENT on taking it back. And taking women and society back with it. It'll be American Taliban rule over women if this isn't stopped.

[LiberalLoner]

7. I have noticed when this issue is brought up among young women on message boards, their response

is to scoff at the idea that Roe Versus Wade could EVER be overturned, and to laugh out loud at the idea that birth control could become illegal again.

For the young women, that stuff was decided ages ago and it's like asking them if mankind is going to outlaw fire - just outlandish.

They have no idea how close we are to losing the right to safe abortions, and how the right is redefining our most commonly used contraceptives as abortion.

And they refuse to even listen to arguments about the rising religious right wing power in our nation.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

22. There you go....

....they (and the rest of us) are going to have to start back at square one with this. They are blissfully ignorant now, but they'll learn - the hard way.

[seabeyond]

25. i think so with abortion. i have had shrugged shoulders from

an 18, 19 and 24 yr old, young women

[valerief]

6. With the way we're headed, it looks like it won't be long until we're the new

Afghanistan.

Ameristan, where women can legally be 'eliminated' if they frighten you.

[Iggy]

9. NO.

BTW, these sorts of visceral, cultural issues are getting us nowhere.

Clownservative politicians have been flapping their pieholes for years about
abortion-- totally pandering to their clueless conservative base-- but doing
nothing congressionally.

Same applies to birth control.

Keep in mid there are plenty of GOP voters and independents who don't give
a crap about these issues, they care more about fiscal issues.

As far as ten years out; I don't think our nation has ten years. Fail is
coming, and it won't be because of abortion or birth control.

[LiberalLoner]

10. I agree with you about the collapse of the empire happening soon, but

this idea of abortion being outlawed, birth control being outlawed, some other assaults against women...these are not small trivial issues if you are a woman.

I am lucky to be 50 and to have had a hysterectomy, no chance of pregnancy, but I am old enough to have seen what happened to women who did not have birth control, legal abortion....or any choices or power in life.

I watched my mother live through the hell of abuse because she had no choices, and her abuser knew damn well he had the upper hand.

Birth control and abortion matter to women. They are not stupid rights that should be tossed aside and not defended.

[enough]

15. "Doing nothing congressionally," but extremely active moving legislation along on the state level,

and not just "fringe" states, but states like PA and MI for example. I wish I could be as sanguine about it as you are.

[LiberalLoner]

16. +1

[peace13]

11. It will be redefined so as to be unavailable to most women.

Also it will become too expensive for the masses. The freedom to go to the doctor and discuss family planning issues with the doc will soon be a thing of the past. If a woman does not have a medical' issue that the pill corrects she will not be able to get it. Pharmacists will not dispense because their back woods idea camp does not believe in a woman having the right to control her body, even before she conceives. Sounds radical but after listening to all of the crazy men at the top on the Conservative side I believe that American women are in for it.

[LiberalLoner]

12. Horrifying to contemplate, isn't it? I think it's already inevitable, like

being in a car that you know is going to crash, seconds before the crash, helpless to stop it.

[peace13]

30. Yep, like waking up every day realizing that * was still sitting as President.

Year after year...it never ended. I think that American women are actually going to have to stop having sex with men until the men make the calls to DC to get birth control back under the control of the doctors. Women with signs protesting what is to come just isn't effective. The press just won't capture the moment!

[Swede Atlanta]

13. Frankly not, with respect to birth control

and by that I mean more traditional means of birth control such as condoms, IUDs, and the Pill (and any new male pill). But things like the morning after pill, etc. are likely to be subject to increased regulation or ban. But I think an outright ban on, or restrictions on access to, traditional forms would be met by an outrage the likes of which we haven't seen since the civil rights era and the anti-vietnam war movement.

With respect to abortion, it is hanging by a thread. I think there is political calculation by the right that having this bubbling under the surface is good. They can trot it out every 2 or 4 years and use it and the mantra of "protecting life" as a way to get the fundie nutcase voters to the polls just as they use gay rights.

But there is a real danger that any additional shift to the right on the Court could signal death or near death of a woman's right to choose. One more vote on the court with another Catholic or extreme Evangelical could tip the scale.

That right would eventually be restored but it could take a generation or two to get it back.

[Control-Z]

33. And THAT is the reason we must maintain control of the WH.

"But there is a real danger that any additional shift to the right on the Court could signal death or near death of a woman's right to choose. One more vote on the court with another Catholic or extreme Evangelical could tip the scale."

Look at what has happened with Citizen's United. This republican court has got to go. Everyone, and I mean everyone, who thinks Obama hasn't done enough for her or him needs to understand what the Supreme Court means to the welfare of our country. For the men as well as for women.

[seabeyond]

34. the Supreme Court

i have heard people arguing say.... and you dont get to say the Supreme Court when arguing why obama should have a second term. they obviously are not in a position to lose fundamental rights, or their daughter. cause... uh uh. that alone is a reason for me to vote.

[LiberalLoner]

17. Another thing I wonder, if legal abortion is banned and the pill and IUD outlawed, will men fight?

Will men care if safe abortion is legal or not, will they stand up with us and help fight? Will they care if the only birth control available is a condom?

Some say men will always care if they are forced to support their offspring economically. But what if the cultural climate becomes such that it's all about "women getting themselves pregnant" and men get to walk away scot free, investment free?

Some men will want to be involved fathers and support their offspring. I'm sure most men on these boards are like that. But I've met a lot of men in my life who just wanted to "bang a bitch and move on" and it's her problem if she gets knocked up.

[kestrel91316]

18. It will happen in my lifetime. Americans are too clueless to see it coming

and think it can't happen here. Unless the trend toward stupidity stops, it WILL.

[seabeyond]

19. here is a rachel maddow and i think it is this one where at the end

she talks about how some states lawmakers are turning away from more of the harsher anti women. i dont remember exactly what was said.

i imagine there will be pockets here and there, but not sweeping laws denying on contraception and morning after. individual people causing problems. i dont know how far we have to go before it truly outrages. i know we need the supreme court and that is why this election is so important. a lot fo the women org cant take it too far with our supreme crt. these people have to change out sometime.

[boston bean]

21. I see a big threat with regards to choice/abortion.

I'm not so sure about contraception. But there is a vocal group of religious creeps that don't believe in it, and that's the same reason why choice is being dwindled away.

[seabeyond]

23. yes. to the abortion issue. a huge threat to that. why we need a supreme court

so the powers that be can take these state laws being implemented all the way to supreme

[Lisa D]

26. No. n/t

[CrispyQ]

27. Going after the pill will be their demise.

I think too many men realize that they are having sex without much concern about the reproductive consequences, thanks to the pill. They don't want to go back to condoms or counting days.

As for abortion & the morning after pill - they are at risk.

Although I read an article recently that stated that the morning after pill has been misunderstood & does not work the way people think it does. But damn, I cannot think of how it really works. Ok, off to Google.


on edit:

http://www.wcvb.com/health/Morning-after-pill-s-ties-to-abortion-questioned-again/-/9848730/14689018/-/j7mei0z/-/index.html

[seabeyond]

29. i would love to see them go after the pill and divorce. nt

[LiberalLoner]

28. The morning after pill works by preventing implantation of the fertilized egg or else

by preventing release of the egg, I think.

What happens is that sperm can live in a woman's reproductive tract for days, just waiting until that egg pops out, to swim to it and fertilize it.

If you can prevent the egg from popping out that month, then the sperm don't get to fertilize it.

The people who are against this are just the usual anti-woman pro-sperm people.

[seabeyond]

31. yes. it stop the sperm from meeting egg so to suggestion it is an abortion pill is wrong. nt

[One_Life_To_Give]

32. Illegal no, Mail order only probably.

I think the risk right now isn't that bc will be made illegal. But that some areas may set a pharmacists conscience above a woman's right to healthcare.

Abortion might be restricted in places but that could bring about a Bus Service run by Planned Parenthood. Atleast that would be preferable to the back alleys that existed when travel abroad was too expensive.