Elizabeth Borg: The fight that won us the right to birth control

[question everything]

startribune.com

Elizabeth Borg: The fight that won us the right to birth control

Published June 7, 2005

In 1961 Estelle Griswold, the wife of an Episcopal minister, and Dr. Lee Buxton, a licensed physician and a professor at Yale Medical School, were arrested, tried and convicted as accessories in crime. Their offense? Providing information, instruction and medical advice on contraception to married couples. Their conviction stood until June 7, 1965 -- 40 years ago today -- when the Supreme Court ruled in Griswold vs. Connecticut that laws prohibiting people from using contraception or counseling others about it violate the constitutional right to privacy.

(snip)

In the 40 years since this groundbreaking decision, birth control has become the most commonly used drug among American women in their childbearing years. And our right to birth control is something nearly everyone takes for granted.

(snip)

But, sadly, Americans' right to birth control is increasingly threatened. Some ideologues have long wanted to deny women this important tool and bring America back to the days when Estelle Griswold was arrested. Sen. Rick Santorum and Rep. Tom DeLay have both recently suggested that Americans have no real right to privacy. Indeed, Santorum said that he thought states should have the power to outlaw birth control. And he's the third highest-ranking member of the U.S. Senate. The radical right is doing everything in its power to block access to family planning. The average American woman, who spends 30 years of her life trying to prevent unwanted pregnancy, has to contend with serious obstacles:

• The Food and Drug Administration is stalling on the second application for over-the-counter access for the emergency contraceptive Plan B...
• The cost of contraception prevents many women from fulfilling their family planning needs. Even if a woman has health insurance, her plan may not cover birth control...
• At the urging of right-wing political leadership, a growing number of pharmacists around the country are now refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control...
• Fewer young people are now learning about contraception at school.

(snip)

http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/5442769.html

Elizabeth Borg, a Minnesota native who graduated from William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, is director of membership at Population Connection in Washington, D.C.

[Placebo]

1. Hopefully she's seen the latest polls on Santorum...

"In the race for U.S. Senate, Franklin and Marshall College pollsters found 44 percent of those surveyed would vote for Bob Casey Jr. Of those polled, 37 percent chose incumbent Rick Santorum and 19 percent were undecided."

http://www.thewgalchannel.com/politics/4585811/detail.html?rss=lan&psp=news

Hopefully he'll be gone soon enough! :party:

[question everything]

2. I am curious of whether Santorum and DeLay are married

and whether they have children and how many and what kind of birth control they use..

[bettyellen]

3. google santourum and find out about the poor miscarried baby

he brought home for the rest of his kids to meet.
yeah, he's a mega-breeder.

[question everything]

6. Oh god. What a sicko

Still wonder whether his only sexual activities is to procreate.

[FreedomAngel82]

14. That was disgusting

And apparently DeLay has a grown young adult daughter who goes with him on his "business trips" and gets in hot tubs with men who pours champaign all down her body.

[Iris]

4. DeLay has 1 child.

A daughter, who is on his payroll.

I think she has a child but am not sure if she is married.

[question everything]

7. You mean, he had sex only once? n/t

[Iris]

9. Yes. I believe it was in a hot tub. Er. . .

maybe that wasn't actually sex. Maybe the little buggers swam home to mama.

[question everything]

11. LOL I hate to even imagine this

[rabid_nerd]

5. One way to present it, from a Pro-Life Democrat

How to sell contraceptive coverage to the masses as a way to lower the abortion rate, using pro-life as opposed to pro-choice language:

Mandatory Contraceptive Equity in Employer Healthcare Coverage reduces the number of unwanted pregnancies and therefore abortions, which many healthcare plans cover anyways.


On edit: Don't argue with me on the "many .. plans cover" if it's not actually a majority of plans.. Many/Some are subjective terms used in spin points

[question everything]

12. Except that they are so rabid

Was a story on CBS news earlier today about the fight to demand or prohibit hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape victims. And it is not the RU... something the abortion pill. And one comment was that this is a way to prevent an abortion later on. But then, of course, expecting rational thinking from that crowd is hopeless. After all, some of them would rather young girls die from illegal abortion than allowing a legal one.

[Spectral]

16. This is true

And logical.

[donsu]

8. kick

nt

[Spectral]

10. Wow. They used to arrest people for contraception?

I didn't know this.

[question everything]

13. Yes, one of the landmark decision of the Supreme Court

which today, even for most conservatives, would be unacceptable.

[Spectral]

15. Unbelievable!

They really DO want to go backwards, don't they,