In the most recent Bush administration slap in the face to women, an inter-administration (dept. of health and human services) memo chips away at Roe vs. Wade and women’s health in general by planning to cut off federal funds to states, hospitals and clinics that “discriminate” against employees who refuse to offer birth control or abortions on religious grounds. Now, I have no problem with healthcare providers choosing not to provide abortions because of their religious beliefs, but birth control? Don’t they know that birth control prevents said abortions from being an issue? Well, not if they think birth control is abortion…seriously, that’s what the rest of the memo says. From Reuters: the memo “proposes to define abortion as ‘any of the various procedures — including the prescription 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.”
That’s right, that’s IUD’s, birth control pills, and basically any type of birth control a woman could use except for tube tying. Notice the shocking absence of male-used birth control methods, condoms and vasectomies.
