They Are Coming for Your Birth Control

(Note: Think that anti-choice politicians and activists aren't trying to outlaw contraception? Think again. Follow along in an ongoing series that proves beyond a doubt that they really are coming for your birth control.)

Charlotte Lozier Institute's Michael New is at it again, with another article reminding us of why the battle over the right to control a woman's reproduction is about more than just abortion, but also about contraception and the act of sex itself.

Writing in the National Review Online, New posits that the clearest way to determine a person's opinions on whether abortion should remain legal is to examine whether or not that person believes premarital sex is immoral. It's a fairly simple gamble to make, and one that doesn't need any studies or surveys to really back it up. Considering almost 60 percent of Americans think that premarital sex isn't a sin, and that 95 percent of Americans have had premarital sex (yes, even people who believe they were going to Hell for doing it... well, do it), the idea that the same minority of people would also believe abortion is immoral would make perfect sense.

What doesn't make sense (at least, not if anti-choice advocates really want to end legal abortion) is arguing that the best way to proceed is to convince people that premarital sex is wrong. I guess the assumption is that as a corollary, more people would then want abortion ended as well?

New writes:

I always remind pro-lifers that a promiscuous society will never support significant restrictions on abortion. While pro-lifers are good at talking about fetal development and personal responsibility, we are less comfortable with subjects such as sexual activity and contraception. Indeed, it is doubtless more difficult to advocate for sexual restraint than for the unborn. However, this is a battle in which pro-lifers must continue to engage if we are to succeed in our goal of providing legal protection to all unborn children.

I'm just going to backtrack and insert this again. Over 95 out of 100 people report having premarital sex. Yes, 95 percent. And they have been for decades. The only difference between 95 percent of people in the fifties having sex and 95 percent of people today having sex before marriage?

Now we have birth control.

Or, at least we do at the moment. But who knows how long that will last since, as New makes it clear, they are coming for your birth control. For the sake of ending abortion, of course.