2006_10_01_archive

How A Bill To Reduce Abortion Lost Pregnancy Prevention Initatives

William Saletan authored an interesting piece in Sunday's Washington

Post, "Where the Rubber Meets the Roe," which addresses how the

proposal that became the Pregnant Women Support Act lost the aspects

that might have helped prevent unwanted pregnancies, despite the

backers' goal of reducing abortions by 95% over the next 10 years. A

few excerpts (keep in mind that I have not yet fact-checked Saletan's

numbers):

Meanwhile, Democrats for Life of America , which has eight members

of Congress on its advisory board and works with 30 others, has

devised a plan to reduce the abortion rate by 95 percent " by

helping and supporting pregnant women ." Rep. Timothy J. Ryan

(D-Ohio) was set to lead the charge. Then Ryan looked at the data

and realized that to get anywhere near that target, he and his

colleagues would have to provide more birth control. That's when

the squirming began.

Some of Ryan's antiabortion allies worried that "morning-after"

pills might prevent embryos from implanting, so he omitted such

pills from his bill. They opposed requiring private insurers to

cover contraception, so he took that out, too. They complained that

other pregnancy-prevention bills hadn't emphasized abortion

reduction, so he put abortion reduction in the title. They wanted

sex education programs to emphasize abstinence; they got it. The

only troublesome thing left in the bill was birth control.

It broke the deal. Democrats for Life abandoned Ryan and began a

contraceptive-free alternative.

...

The objectors make several arguments. They point out that birth

control pills, like morning-after pills, can block implantation of

an embryo. But there's no evidence that this has ever happened. The

chance is theoretical, and breastfeeding poses the same chance, so

you'd have to stamp that out, too. Critics also note that many

birth control methods can fail. That's true, but it's an argument

for using two methods, not zero.

Third, they protest that federal family planning money supports

Planned Parenthood, which performs abortions. But only 14 percent

of this money goes to the organization, and fewer than 9 percent of

Planned Parenthood clients go there to have an abortion.

...

Does the increased risk from more sex outweigh the decreased risk

from more protection? Do the math. On average, contraception lowers

the odds of pregnancy by a factor of seven. If you're capable of

having seven times as much sex, congratulations. The rest of us

will get pregnant less often, not more.

[Note: if you have trouble accessing the article, try BugMeNot, or the

condensed piece in Slate.]

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