Legally defining birth control as abortion - Outrage
I posted recently on MWK about a draft regulation that would blur the legal definition of abortion to include contraception. That would be bad. When I posted then, it was a draft of a thing that might maybe... anyway, I just posted there again, because it's now in the process of becoming law.
Last time I posted, I said I wasn’t advocating panic or uproar. Now it's entered into public comment period in advance of becoming law, so I might be, just a little.
This is important. I love having access to birth control. Those of you without uteruses may not realize how expensive the stuff is - it's great when insurance covers it - or how much of a pain in the ass it already is to get when you're uninsured. There do not need to be more obstacles. I have needed emergency contraception, and let me tell you, it is already hard enough to get.
I didn't say this on MWK, because I try to keep things a little less emotional there, but it just outrages me beyond description that one of the most likely impacts of this regualtion, being touted as an effort for conscience and decency, is to invalidate the laws that require hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape victims. I generally think rape victims are a red herring in discussions about abortion, but in this that is actually the issue. Most of the other effects of this law would be legal ramifications that will effect the strength of the provisions of blah blah blah... and that stuff is important, it matters, but it's all arguable and nuanced and... this is different:
This is people actively trying to make it harder for a woman who has been raped to prevent becoming pregnant from it. No argument about the potential theoretical chance of an abortion makes that not despicable. It just doesn’t.
The address for public comments is consciencecomment@hhs.gov. I’m writing.
Last time I posted, I said I wasn’t advocating panic or uproar. Now it's entered into public comment period in advance of becoming law, so I might be, just a little.
This is important. I love having access to birth control. Those of you without uteruses may not realize how expensive the stuff is - it's great when insurance covers it - or how much of a pain in the ass it already is to get when you're uninsured. There do not need to be more obstacles. I have needed emergency contraception, and let me tell you, it is already hard enough to get.
I didn't say this on MWK, because I try to keep things a little less emotional there, but it just outrages me beyond description that one of the most likely impacts of this regualtion, being touted as an effort for conscience and decency, is to invalidate the laws that require hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape victims. I generally think rape victims are a red herring in discussions about abortion, but in this that is actually the issue. Most of the other effects of this law would be legal ramifications that will effect the strength of the provisions of blah blah blah... and that stuff is important, it matters, but it's all arguable and nuanced and... this is different:
This is people actively trying to make it harder for a woman who has been raped to prevent becoming pregnant from it. No argument about the potential theoretical chance of an abortion makes that not despicable. It just doesn’t.
The address for public comments is consciencecomment@hhs.gov. I’m writing.