The following article by Osub Ahmed was posted on the Center for American Progress website March 26, 2018:
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 landmark decision in Roe v. Wade was a critical step forward for women’s equality, establishing vital, constitutionally protected privacy rights that enable women to access abortion services. However, the ruling also became a target for anti-choice politicians and advocates to organize around. Since the Supreme Court’s decision, these groups’ attacks on abortion access have become an everyday reality that reproductive health advocates, providers, and patients must face. From targeted regulation of abortion provider (TRAP) laws to mandatory waiting periods and biased counseling, there is a well-organized and widespread effort to limit a woman’s ability to make decisions about her own reproductive health when it comes to pregnancy. What is less visible—but equally as disturbing—is an intentional strategy to attack access to birth control methods that is predicated on conflating abortion and contraception. This strategy of blurring the line between abortion and contraception is part of a radical agenda to assign personhood and constitutional rights at the point of fertilization, thus further imposing limits on reproductive health services. Continue reading “Efforts by Anti-Choice Advocates to Redefine and Limit Contraception”