(U-WIRE) GREENVILLE, N.C. – “Contraception is more the root cause of abortion than anything else.” This brilliant statement was said by Joseph Scheidler, an anti-abortion activist who sponsored a conference last week to help start the movement of outlawing birth control and other contraceptives.
If you’re like me, I’m sure you are wondering what kind of drug is this guy on to blame abortion on birth control – something that is 99 percent effective to make sure a baby isn’t even conceived.
This idea makes sense to him, as well as the other 250 people from all over the nation who attended the conference. The reasoning behind this idea is because birth control devalues children, and produces unhealthy relationships between men and women because it helps to promote sex and other “promiscuous” activities.
Just because a couple uses contraceptives because they do not want to have a baby doesn’t represent an idea that children are underappreciated or unwanted, it just shows that the couple is responsible and understands that they are not ready for a child.
Many women have been contemplating what they will name their kids ever since they were little girls, and these same women are currently on birth control. This may be a shocker to Joseph and his groupies, but planning for kids in the future, while presently protecting yourself from getting pregnant, isn’t devaluing children. It’s actually protecting them from having a mother who isn’t prepared, or maybe financially stable enough for them.
It was also mentioned that birth control encourages men and women to have sex, which is probably true to a certain extent. But humans don’t have sex just for the purpose of reproduction, and outlawing birth control isn’t going to stop them from doing the deed.
We live in a culture where birth control is commonly used. Ninety-eight percent of women ages 15 to 44 have reported the use of at least one method of contraception, and around 40 million of those have chosen the option of birth control.
So, let’s just say that this bright idea does somehow happen, and birth control and other contraceptives are banned. There would be 40 million women out there who could be having unsafe sex, which could possibly produce 40 million children. Some of those women don’t want or aren’t able to handle the responsibility that a child brings, and may go to the extent of having an abortion.
It seems to me that the way to prevent abortion would be to prevent unwanted pregnancies, and the way to go about doing that would be to make sure birth control is available. So, contraceptives are really one of the main causes of abortion? The idea just doesn’t add up to me.
Stacy Dail is a sophomore at East Carolina University. Her column first appeared in the East Carolinian on Oct. 4.