Diocese of Austin • Summer 2012
The Contraceptive Mandate: What Is Its Real Impact?
Newsletter of the Office of Pro-Life Activities and Chaste Living 2 • From the Director The Problem with Dismissing Abstinence*
4 • Around the Diocese
“Popcorn, Movies and Pornography” a Hit at St. Theresa’s* 5 • Thrive: Chastity Education that Leads to Authentic Love, Not Just Dating Survival* • Taking Natural Family Planning Instruction Overseas* 6 • The Death Penalty and the Healing Grace of Forgiveness*
7 • National News
Coercion in the Name of Freedom?*
16 • Calendar of Events * También en español
by Susan E. Wills
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upporters of the Health and Human Services (HHS) contraceptive mandate endlessly repeat these claims: Contraception is an essential preventive healthcare benefit; cost is the chief barrier to access; and those who object to the mandate are “waging war on women.” These are red herrings to distract from the core issue: the Administration’s unprecedented violation of rights of conscience and religious liberty in forcing almost everyone who offers or purchases a health plan — including faithful Catholics and most Catholic employers — to cover sterilization procedures, contraceptives, and abortifacients. Can supporters claim access is a problem, while also asserting that over 99 percent of sexually active American women age 15–44 have used contraceptives? Low-income women can’t afford contraceptives? They received $2.37 billion in federal and state funding for family planning in 2010. Why do some people think Oral contraceptives are also available from many pharmacies for a few dollars a month. contraception prevents health Even teens have access! Contraceptive use is “virtually universal” among sexually experienced teens problems? And why is it a ‘war’ (96%), according to an October 2011 report on on women to speak up for their teen sexual activity and contraceptive use by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The health, and their freedom to say good news is that most teens are now choosing self- no to this agenda? control instead of fertility control with hormones and latex. Currently, 57% of girls 15–19 and 58% of boys have never had sex. Since 1988, abstinence rates increased 20% among these girls and almost 50% among boys. The importance of this trend cannot be overstated, because one-third of sexually active teen girls will become pregnant — despite using contraception — within two years of initiating sex. And young people aged 15–24 acquire close to 10 million new sexually transmitted infections each year. Many STDs are incurable, and annual treatment costs are estimated to exceed $14 billion. But the contraceptive mandate is not just about access to condoms and pills. Reproductive “rights” advocates hope it will help take fertility out of the control of contraceptive users (who may not always take a pill promptly or use a condom as instructed) and give control to drug companies and doctors, by switching women to expensive “long-acting reversible contraceptives” (LARCs). In its 1995 “Uneven and Unequal” position paper, the Guttmacher Institute proposed a comprehensive plan to accomplish this through health care reform:
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• All methods must be covered by all plans, along with surgical procedures like sterilizations and abortions. • No co-pays or minimums required. This eliminates the barrier of the high upfront costs of implants ($800) and IUDs (up to $1,000), and the monthly or quarterly office visits for injectables.
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