What Pearl Harbor and the Pill Have in Common

Posted on August 02, 2012 |

Posted by:

Sharon Levin, Director of Federal Reproductive Health Policy

I have learned in the last few weeks about a new great threat to America’s national security and infrastructure. Perhaps you did too?

According to Congressional opponents of women’s reproductive health, birth control is going to destroy the Naval fleet and kill 2403 people. A woman getting an abortion will infiltrate our most secure databases and bring down our computer systems. And, abortion will have something to do with damage from rising waters . . . . . I can’t even come up with a snarky line for the last one.

If this all sounds outrageous, it is. Yet, yesterday, Rep. Mike Kelly (PA) compared the health care reform law’s coverage of contraception with no co-pay to Pearl Harbor. He even called its start date a “day that will live in infamy.”

Two days ago, Senator Mike Lee (UT) announced that he was going to offer an amendment to the Senate Cybersecurity bill that would place a ban on abortions in D.C. after the 20th week. (A measure, by the way, that was just defeated in the House.)

And, a month ago, Senator Rand Paul (KY) introduced a “personhood” amendment to the Senate Flood Insurance bill that would have outlawed all abortions and many kinds of birth control.

Of course, all three of these statements and actions are outrageous. But, they are also very revealing. They show how much some Members of Congress hate the idea of women having access to birth control with no co-pay. They show the extremes that Senators will go to gain political points with the far right by injecting abortion into all legislative debates – no matter how irrelevant it is.

And, most importantly, it shows the lengths that they will go to in order to keep women from having access to the full range of reproductive health care.

So, I have an out of left field comparison of my own: Reproductive health is like coal mining. Why? Because if we don’t listen to the canary singing, we are going to have the roof cave in on top of us. And lately, my friends, the canaries aren’t just singing. They’re screaming.