Every day, I take a birth control pill (except during the "off" week). In this way, I am no different from a large number of American women. My daily pill is not an abortion under any recognizable definition of the word, but new regulations under consideration by the Department of Health and Human Services say that it is. Further, people who oppose abortions can deny me my right to medication that has been prescribed to me by a doctor. Today's New York Times reports: The proposal defines abortion as follows: “any of the various procedures — including the prescription, dispensing and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action — that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation.” [emphasis mine] In plain English, Marilyn Keefe, Director of Reproductive Health Programs at the National Partnership for Women & Families , tells us: The leaked draft of the regulation would put politics ahead of women’s health by allowing individuals and organizations to redefine accepted, FDA-approved methods of birth control including oral contraceptives, IUDs and injectables as abortifacients. This definition is at odds with widely accepted science, and the government’s own definition, that pregnancy begins with the implantation of a fertilized egg. The administration is hiding this under language that, according to the ...
Anytime
Every day, I take a birth control pill (except during the "off" week). In this way, I am no different from a large number of American women. My daily pill is not an abortion under any recognizable definition of the word, but new regulations under consideration by the Department of Health and Human Services say that it is. Further, people who oppose abortions can deny me my right to medication that has been prescribed to me by a doctor. Today's New York Times reports: The proposal defines abortion as follows: “any of the various procedures — including the prescription, dispensing and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action — that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation.” [emphasis mine] In plain English, Marilyn Keefe, Director of Reproductive Health Programs at the National Partnership for Women & Families , tells us: The leaked draft of the regulation would put politics ahead of women’s health by allowing individuals and organizations to redefine accepted, FDA-approved methods of birth control including oral contraceptives, IUDs and injectables as abortifacients. This definition is at odds with widely accepted science, and the government’s own definition, that pregnancy begins with the implantation of a fertilized egg. The administration is hiding this under language that, according to the ...