Wednesday, September 15, 2004

"Get that for me, would you Deidre?"

It seems that the pro-life folks have shifted the debate from abortion to the birth control pill.

The BBC reports: "A growing number of doctors and pharmacists are now refusing to dispense it, on the grounds that it is actually a form of abortion....This year 12 states took steps to try to introduce so-called conscience clauses. They allow pharmacists to refuse to dispense drugs, including the Pill, on moral grounds, without losing their jobs."

Not good, not good at all. What next, a law that will penalize women for every baby they didn't produce, from puberty on? Do lawmakers believe that, as Monty Python once asserted, "every sperm is sacred"? As pro-choice groups noted, according to the BBC, more restrictions on birth control may well lead to more abortions. Scary stuff, at any rate.

Via Andrew Sullivan.

5 comments:

Daniel said...

"What next, a law that will penalize women for every baby they didn't produce, from puberty on?"

Well, yeah. I mean, what else are you gals good for? I mean, c'mon. This makes perfect paleo-con sense. What we really need to do, though, is force people to stop selling oysters :)

Phoebe Maltz Bovy said...

"The hormonal conditions created by the Pill mean, if that happened, the fertilised egg would not be implanted or survive. Mainstream medicine does not define that as a pregnancy."--BBC

I'm with mainstream medicine on this one.

Maureen said...

But Dylan, what if the fertilized egg splits (as in identical twins)? Does the soul split, or does God just add an extra soul? Wouldn't it be more efficient for God to wait to put the souls in after implantation, when the zygote can no longer split?

Phoebe Maltz Bovy said...

Also, when choosing their battles, you'd think pro-lifers would put abortion prevention before contraception prevention, even if, personally, they wouldn't make use of either option.

Nick said...

I can see what's next, a la monty python:

every sperm is sacred
every sperm is great
if a sperm is wasted,
god gets quite irate...

sigh, what's happening to this country!?