As found in polling by the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, and reported by
NPR today:
Eighty-eight percent of voters in the poll, including 80 percent of Republicans, said they support women's access to contraception. Eight in 10 respondents who identified themselves as "pro-life" also said women should be able to get contraceptives.
Furthermore, NARAL reports that another recent poll (May 6-9, 2005) shows a similar spread on the more exact question of whether pharmacists should be allowed to refuse filling prescriptions on moral grounds. 80% say they should not have that right, including 74% of those who identify as "pro-life."
continued...
Clearly, a huge majority of pro-life people do not want to return to the pre-Griswold era and, we would assume, do not consider blocking implantation to be equivalent to abortion. But, as you all are well aware, despite the overwhelming support for access from people in both parties and on both sides of the abortion debate, as many as
15 states are considering legislation this year that would limit access to contraception.
NARAL highlights the broadening battlefield. In addition, 5 states are considering what might be called preemptive measures to make sure access remains constant. At the federal level, we have the
Access to Legal Pharmaceuticals Act (Sen. Lautenburg (D-NJ), Rep. Maloney (D-NY), Rep Shays (R-CT)) and the
Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act (Sen. Boxer (D-CA)).
What is bringing this issue to the forefront is clearly the growing availability of emergency contraceptive options such as Plan B. But the recent spike in political resistance is somewhat puzzling, since the new drugs are functionally equivalent to the birth control pills that have been available for decades, and since a large amount of effort is going into the pharmacy battle which is likely to become moot when Bush leaves office and the drugs can get approved for OTC. My best guess is that it's the combined effectiveness and ease of use of Plan B that has the religious fundamentalists so alarmed. Additionally, they may believe they can mislead pro-life moderates into believing that Plan B is an abortifacient, more akin to RU-486. As for the pharmacies, these people may hold out the hope that Bush's successor will continue to block the drug from going OTC, which I find unlikely as the battle in the states raises the profile of the issue.
Religious zealotry in the pharmacy is nothing new - the primary group pushing it was founding in 1984. In the face of such enormous public disapproval, it's startling that these zealots are now getting so much traction in state legislatures, but it's a battle we are more than happy to join. As many have noted, the debate over "morning after" contraception, like the embryonic stem cell debate, can be a huge moral and political victory for Democrats and progressives. These issues split the Republican party by stripping off a wide swath of moderate pro-life voters who do not accept the absolutism of "life at fertilization." At the same time it unifies pro-choice and moderately pro-life Democrats behind a part of the issue that we all agree on.
~END~