Protesting Sexual Freedom

June 7, 2008 is the 43rd anniversary of Griswold v. Connecticut, the US Supreme Court case that allowed use of contraceptives. While most women (and probably men too) would consider this a day to celebrate, the American Life League has put together a protest.

Protest the Pill Day '08: The Pill Kills Babies! is encouraging people to "gather for peaceful protests in front of facilities that distribute birth control products." Hmmm... facilities that distribute birth control products? Well, that's pretty much any pharmacy that I'm familiar with, including Walmart, CVS, any grocery store with a pharmacy attached, Rite Aid, Target, Walgreens, etc. Perhaps they should extend it to places where contraceptives are prescribed, so that they can also protest outside of nearly every doctor's office as well.

Saving babies always seems like a noble cause, but this is just another blatant attack on sex.
Q: Isn't it better to be on the pill when you are sexually active?
A: Better for whom? The pill does not prevent you from getting a sexually transmitted disease, it is not 100 percent effective in preventing pregnancy and you could conceive a child who gets chemically aborted before the baby’s presence is even known to you. Moreover, sexual activity outside of marriage is seriously wrong.

Who said outside of marriage? There is a HUGE number of married couples that use contraceptives. Not every one wants to have a baby every time they have sex. But, for those of us who aren't married, why is it "seriously wrong"?

Q: I’m for reducing the number of abortions, but isn’t using the birth control pill the only way to do that?
A: The birth control pill does not reduce the number of abortions. The only difference is that you are killing the baby earlier. It is estimated that over 70 million chemical abortions have taken place in the United States in the last 10 years alone. If you’re single, abstinence is always your best choice. It isn’t always easy, but it always works. By abstaining from sex, you eliminate the possibility of pregnancy and catching a sexually transmitted disease. What birth control has done for our society is turn little babies into disposable objects. Pregnancy is no longer seen as a blessing, but a curse.

Pregnancy has frequently been seen as a curse, contraceptives or no contraceptives, marriage or no marriage.

It bothers me how many other issues this website brings into the argument (abstinence, STDs, possible medical side effects of the pill - most of which are rare). If the point of fighting birth control pills is to stop abortion, as suggested in the "The Pill Kills Babies" banner, then these other issues only soften the point. As I read the Protest the Pill literature, what I see is people who are against premarital sex, not people who are actually afraid that hormonal contraceptives are killing babies. If the killing babies was really the point, they'd be concerned about married couples using contraceptives too.