OK, that was a shameless attention-getting title, and not quite what a new proposal by the Bush administration aims at, but it's not too far off the mark. Imagine a return to the days when birth control pills were illegal contraband, though... this is a big step in that direction, and we need a public outcry against it.
The proposal applies to hospitals offering contraception to women in need, and defines abortion as
"any of the various procedures that results in the procedures that result in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth whether before or after implantation."That includes birth control pills and IUDs. Yes, your birth control pills, according to this plan, are a method of abortion. Now extend this idea a bit further - if this definition sticks, parental notification laws, 24-hour waiting period laws, and other laws aimed at preventing abortion could apply to birth control.
What scares me almost as much as this proposal is the lack of news coverage it's receiving. It's on Reuters and ABC, but is conspicuously missing from CNN and other major news outlets.
Reuters says there's a petition at www.hillpac.com to oppose this measure, but I went there and as of 7 am Central Time the website is incomplete, and there's no petition yet.
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