Illinois action blog

Thursday, August 21, 2008

325,000 Voices, One Message: Birth Control is Not Abortion

The Planned Parenthood Action Fund and MoveOn.org Political Action hand delivered more than 325,000 signatures to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Michael Leavitt on Wednesday in Washington D.C. sending a clear message that birth control is not abortion. Signers of an emergency petition, circulated by both groups, demanded that the Bush administration table its draft regulation change that would redefine abortion to include birth control and severely limit women’s access to basic health care. An administrative regulation change would require no congressional approval.

“The Bush administration's draft regulation change would allow health care providers to withhold critical information from their patients,” said Ellen Golombek, vice president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. “This politically motivated regulatory change deliberately confuses contraception — that is, birth control — with abortion, putting political agendas ahead of patients’ needs and jeopardizing American women's access to contraception. Let’s be clear: birth control is not abortion.”

The American Medical Association and the American College of Gynecologists and Obstetricians publicly oppose this draft regulation. Fifty-seven medical, public health, religious, advocacy, and research groups, including Planned Parenthood, sent a letter to Secretary Leavitt strongly opposing the draft regulation change. In addition, nearly 150 members of Congress from both sides of the aisle have signed letters urging the Bush administration to reject this draft HHS regulation change.

"For the Bush administration to quietly try to redefine 'abortion' to include birth control, and use that change to threaten laws protecting women and rape survivors, shows how completely out-of-touch Republican leadership has become," said Ilyse Hogue, spokesperson for MoveOn.org Political Action. "Over 325,000 Americans are standing strong to make clear: birth control is NOT abortion."

Read the ABC News article here.

Technorati tags: tagname, MoveOn.org, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, birth control, abortion

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

What would it matter if birth control was the same as abortion? What is so wrong about abortion?

September 3, 2008 at 11:55 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What's so wrong with abortion, though?

September 4, 2008 at 3:18 PM  

Post a Comment

Please be respectful of differing opinions and focus your comments on the featured topic or relevant subject matter. Comments that contain profanity, verbal attacks, threatening or inflammatory language are subject to immediate deletion.

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home

  • Stay informed with updates from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund!