Palin and "Feminists for Life" - Do Birth Control Pills = Abortion? Are They An Abortifacient?

[Median Democrat]

I have read some mainstream news stories about Sarah Palin being a member of the right to life, but pro-contraception, group Feminists for Life. However, I have yet to find any stories demonstrating how Feminists for Life are pro-contraception. For example, does Feminists for Life support the birth control pill? Well, it turns out that it is hard to get a straign answer:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050829/pollitt

/snip

I got similarly evasive answers when I asked why FFL didn't promote birth control, and when I asked if FFL considered the pill an "abortifacient." She did tell me that "birth control doesn't work" for swing-shift nurses because they lose track of their body clock--interesting, if true--or for teenagers, which I know to be false. "We just want to focus on meeting the everyday needs of women," she told me. But when I asked how the everyday needs of women with unwanted pregnancies would be served by encouraging them to bear children and place them for adoption, Foster didn't answer. Instead, she extolled the benefits of open adoption.

In the FFL view, women have abortions because they are victims--of shamed parents, abusive boyfriends, prochoice propaganda and a society hostile to motherhood. Only a "few percent" of women who have abortions have what they need to choose childbirth instead--the rest are like prostitutes, Foster told me, coerced women falsely said to be making a free choice. The FFL vision is that women should embrace motherhood whenever a wayward sperm meets an egg, and that this is what women really want to do, and would do if given support. When I pointed out that Scandinavia provides a raft of benefits for mothers and children, yet many women there still seek abortions for about a million reasons, Foster conceded the point and moved right along.
/snip

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?articleId=12133

/snip

Now, perhaps, as the Feminists for Life literature says, it is possible to oppose all forms of legal abortion -- even those that would save the life of the pregnant woman -- and still be a feminist. But if one were to take such a stance and consider oneself a feminist, one would certainly believe that women should have access to contraception, right? Apparently not if one is a member of Feminists for Life, an organization that refuses to take a stand on whether or not contraception should be legal. (Note that few, if any, Protestant denominations take issue with the use of any kind of contraception, although some religious-right anti-abortion organizations regard the morning-after pill as an abortifacient.) When Feminists for Life has chosen to address the issue of contraception, it has invariably been to point out the health hazards posed in particular forms of birth control.

/snip

[Median Democrat]

1. C'mon, I Try To Have A Post That Is Relevant To The Issues

and we still obsess about Palin's baby's baby? Sheeshh.

[votetastic]

2. It would be nice

if they could get Sarah Palin on the record about her stance on birth control. But that would require interviewing her, and that's a no-no.


Edited to add: FFL is probably courting both pro-birth control and anti-birth control members, hence their unwillingness to have a position on BC.