McCain Works Against Access to Contraception

Once again, the media and even
Democratic candidate Barack Obama, have failed to follow-up on McCain's
stated opposition to abortion by questioning his equal opposition to
contraception - the primary means to reduce the rate of abortion.

Nancy Keenan of NARAL Pro-Choice America cites at least 22 John McCain votes against women's access to family-planning
services, including birth control. "During his twenty-five years in
office, Sen. McCain has consistently voted to block low-income women's
access to birth control, to deny our teens accurate information about
birth control and condoms, to stop measures that would require
insurance companies to cover birth control, and to prevent funds to an
organization that provides family-planning services -- not abortion --
for the world's poorest women..."

McCain's voting record is solidly antichoice. His Web site states: "John McCain believes Roe v. Wade
is a flawed decision that must be overturned, and as president he will
nominate judges who understand that courts should not be in the
business of legislating from the bench." One of his three most
important goals, he told the American Conservative Union, is to promote
"a nation of traditional values that protects the rights of the unborn."

McCain voted in 2005 against a $100-million allocation for
preventive health care services targeted at reducing unintended
pregnancies; in 2006 he opposed funding for comprehensive, medically
accurate sex education for teens. Instead, McCain has lined up behind
Bush's ineffective abstinence-only education. When asked if
contraception could help stop the spread of HIV, McCain said "You've stumped me."

McCain demured
that he didn't know enough to comment on the fairness of health care
plans covering Viagra and not contraception -- which can cost a woman
up to $600 a year. McCain voted against just such a bill to require
health plans to cover birth control the same as other prescription
drugs. The great conceit of the right and John McCain is the denial
that contraception is fundamental to women's health and lives. Note his
cavalier disregard of pregnancy as an issue of women's health during
the debate.

McCain supports the global "Gag Rule." It bars foreign family
planning organizations from receiving U.S. funds if the group in any
way advises clients on abortion as an option or advocates for legal
abortion - even when using their own funds. Again, he is in denial
about contraceptive access that can reduce the occurrence of abortion.

McCain's promise to "nominate strict constructionist judges" is
ultraconservative code for adhering solely to the original
Constitution, a test that is selectively applied by the right. The
Ninth Amendment in fact preserves all rights existing at the time the
Constitution was written. Abortion was not criminalized until 1869, and was accepted in the 1700s, when cook books commonly contained recipes for abortifacients.

Presumably McCain supports the Bush administration targeting of
contraception under the pretense of opposing abortion? So-called
"conscience clauses" are invoked by pharmacists and health care
providers who refuse to fill contraceptive prescriptions or provide
health care based on individual religious beliefs.

The Bush administration's Department of Health and Human
Services is proposing a rule redefining the start of pregnancy from the
point of conception, disregarding the medical definition of pregnancy
as beginning with "the implantation of a fertilized egg." The rule
would categorize as abortion any contraception (e.g., the pill, IUD,
emergency contraception, contraceptive patch) that interferes with the
implantation of a fertilized egg, thus outlawing most contraception.

The HHS proposal
states, "[T]he conscience of the individual or institution should be
paramount in determining what constitutes abortion..." Anyone would
have the right to hold women's health care hostage to their beliefs.

The right's adamant opposition to contraception is testament to
their larger extreme agenda. The 1965 Supreme Court decision Griswold
v. Connecticut that upheld the right to access birth control as a
privacy right has long been targeted by Pat Robertson et al: "I want to
see it abolished," he said.

The anti-choice, anti-birth control American Life League in June launched a "Protest the Pill Day '08: The Pill Kills Babies."
Anti-abortion activist Nellie Gray revealed the intent of the movement
in the '80s with her insistence that "Contraception is murder because
it prevents the sperm from meeting the egg." This is the fringe
steering the Republican agenda, with total capitulation by Republican
leaders like John McCain.

Women's autonomy is seriously challenged by the right. Yet,
Democrats, including Barack Obama in the last debate, have evaded the
obvious follow-up questions, instead listing as alternatives to
abortion only adoption and sex education. What about birth control as a
means to reduce the need for abortion, not to mention supporting
women's right to control their reproductive lives and family size?