Pro-lifers have evovled into taking on a new challenge in protecting the unborn baby. Now they are sending WOMEN a clear message to go F yourself when it comes to reproductive rights. Will women stand for their rights being taken away?
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The state Department of Regulation and Licensing is currently investigating a claim by a Milwaukee mother of six who claims she had to resort to an abortion after a Walgreen's pharmacist refused to fill her prescription for emergency contraceptive. The woman also claims the pharmacist berated her as a baby-killer.
So now women are being told they are baby killers. More from the same article.
"They've taken the discussion to a different place because there wasn't much happening on the abortion debate," says Severa Austin, who was the director of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin from 1986 to 1996.
Judith Hartig-Osanka, state chair of Republicans for Choice, says anti-abortion groups are backing proposals that incrementally restrict access to birth control, much the same way they did with abortion.
"The strategy of anti-choice groups for many years was to chip away at abortion rights because they couldn't overrule Roe v. Wade," says Hartig-Osanka.
Now college women will have to suffer at the hands of pro-lifers.
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College campuses have emerged as the latest battlefield in the nation's war on women's reproductive rights. Wisconsin has passed a bill entitled UW Birth Control Ban-AB 343. This bill prohibits University of Wisconsin campuses from prescribing, dispensing and advertising all forms of birth control and emergency contraceptives. Wisconsin State Rep. Dan LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, introduced this bill based on the belief that "dispensing birth control and emergency contraceptives leads to promiscuity." In reality, full access to all birth control options -- including emergency contraceptives -- has no effect on the level of women's promiscuity. Instead, birth control and emergency contraceptives help prevent more than 35,000 unintended births and 800,000 abortions each year.
The bill denies thousands of women essential health-care services and reproductive choices and affects their lives and futures in many ways. With this bill, rape victims will no longer be able to turn to campus health services to obtain emergency contraceptives to prevent an unwanted pregnancy, or receive postrape counseling and education -- adding even more stress to a traumatic event. Students who want birth-control prescriptions, emergency contraceptives or even information about preventive birth control are forced to seek out these services at off-campus clinics. This poses a problem not only for students who attend rural Wisconsin university campuses and might not have a clinic nearby but also for many students who attend urban campuses but do not have access to transportation, money, insurance or time to travel to an off-campus clinic. By removing the convenience of having these services on campus, students are less likely to seek out preventive birth control, which could lead to more unintended pregnancies and abortions. Emergency contraceptives are especially vulnerable to this bill because they must be taken within 72 hours to effectively prevent pregnancy, thus, adding even more pressure for students to find a way off-campus to receive the prescription.
Any rollback of women's reproductive rights is inexcusable, but the bill is especially disturbing because it is directed at college campuses and targets a population in which there tends to be a high concurrency of sexual assaults and unplanned sexual encounters. During a time in their lives when they need full access to all birth control options the most, this bill denies women access to any options at all. College is also a time when students are transforming into young adults and are taking control of their lives and futures. Denying women full reproductive services and choices sends the message that women cannot be trusted to make decisions that affect their bodies, their lives and their futures.
In passing this bill, Wisconsin has the distinct honor of becoming the first state in the nation to limit college students' access to full birth control options. Minnesotans should be concerned about what this bill means for their future. Not only does the bill affect the 13,000 Minnesotans who attend college in Wisconsin, but it also sets a dangerous precedent for similar bills to be introduced on college campuses across the nation in the future. Currently, University of Minnesota students have access to full reproductive services at their on-campus clinics, including emergency contraceptives, pregnancy counseling, access to birth-control prescriptions and more. However, Minnesota, as Wisconsin's nearest neighbor, might be the next stop in the introduction of college campus birth-control-ban bills.
So are there any bra burners still out there with the courage to stand up for the rights of all women? I believe in all of you and I believe women are fighters when it comes to their rights. They have faught for the right to vote, the right to work, and the right of life. Now it's time to show the religous right that women of the 21 century are still fighters and will defend their rights as women. So take off those bra's ladies and set the camp fire because if you give up now you will all be back home. After all we know what old Rickie boy has in store for women.
Birth Control Harms Women
Yep. He said it Thursday night. Birth control is harmful to women and society and it's "not a healthy thing for our country." See for yourself:
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UPDATE and this was predicted apparently.
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Pro-choice groups now call it a significant and growing trend. Lisa Boyce of Planned Parenthood in Wisconsin says it is a conscious extension of the abortion debate.
"They've done so much with outlawing and restricting access to abortion that they've set their sights on birth control because there's nothing else really they can do to further restrict abortion here in Wisconsin," Ms Boyce says.
"Which is counter-intuitive because if you're against abortion in the least you'd think you would see the value in enhancing access birth control, the very means women look to preventing pregnancy and the need for abortion."
