Why Are Conservative Christians Suing To Increase Abortions?
December 2nd, 2013 9:32 am
Jason Sattler
The Supreme Court’s decision to hear two cases about the Affordable Care Act’s
birth control mandate is likely to popularize a word many Americans have
never heard before: abortifacients.
The word has been around since the mid-19th century but recently it has
become completely politicized — as everything involving a woman’s reproductive
system has — as conservative Christians have sought to classify emergency
contraception like Plan B and the “morning after” pill as drugs that cause
abortion.
target="_blank">Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) recently told the
Values Voters Summit that the federal government is coming after
Christian organizations, “saying they have to provide abortifacients.”
The Green family, who owns two of the businesses represented in the
contraception case the nation’s highest court will hear next year, aren’t
Catholics who oppose all birth control. They are fundamentalist Christians who
believe
the mandate that all health insurance
provided by private companies must include coverage of Plan B and the
“morning after” pill violates their religious beliefs. And that belief is,
apparently, that emergency contraception is an abortifacient.
It’s a belief they hold so fervently that they were willing to risk over a million dollars
in fines to stick to it.
Like many articles of faith, this assertion has little to no science to back
it up.
“Morning-after pills do not end a pregnancy that has implanted,”
reports the Mayo Clinic. “Depending on
where you are in your menstrual cycle, morning-after pills may act by one or
more of the following actions: delaying or preventing ovulation, blocking
fertilization, or keeping a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus.”
The owners of Hobby Lobby agree with the technical assertion of what the
pills do. They’re simply arguing that preventing a fertilized egg from
becoming implanted in a woman’s womb is an act of abortion. Their argument is
that life begins at fertilization. It’s an argument backed up by medical organizations
—
that all seem to have the words “pro-life”
or “Christian” in their names.
If you make that argument, it’s not hard to make the leap that anything that
prevents fertilization is abortion —
as regular birth control does. As does
menstruation.
Princeton University’s
The Emergency Contraception Website
states categorically that fertilization and pregnancy are not the same:
Emergency contraceptive
pills work before pregnancy begins. According to leading medical
authorities – such as the
National Institutes of Health and
the
American
College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists – pregnancy begins when the
fertilized egg implants in the lining of a woman’s uterus. Implantation begins
five to seven days after sperm fertilizes the egg, and the process is completed
several days later. Emergency contraception will not work if a woman is already
pregnant.
By preventing an egg that was fertilized unintentionally from becoming a
pregnancy, emergency contraception prevents unintended pregnancies.
What Hobby Lobby is asking for is the right to deny its employees coverage
of prescription medications that would avoid abortions.
Let’s see if the media points that out.
Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr
