At CPAC, leaders urge steering birth control conversation toward abortion
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Stop talking about birth control. That was the key message from some of the most prominent leaders of America’s anti-abortion movement, speaking Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference. During a talk on how to advance the movement through messaging, an all-female panel discussed the Obama administration’s birth-control-coverage mandate and suggested that the best way to defeat it is by calling it an “abortion mandate.”
Americans United for Life CEO Charmaine Yoest, Students for Life of America Executive Director Kristan Hawkins, and Live Action President Lila Rose speak on an anti-abortion panel at CPAC 2012, Feb. 10, 2012; click to enlarge (AMERICAN INDEPENDENT/Sofia Resnick).
The panel was moderated by Live Action President Lila Rose and included Americans United for Life President Charmaine Yoest, Students for Life of America Executive Director Kristan Hawkins, National Right to Life President Carol Tobias, and Rebecca Kiessling, an attorney who advocates against rape exceptions in anti-abortion legislation. Kiessling, who is adopted, found out later in life that she was conceived after her birth mother was raped.
“This new situation that’s coming down [from the Obama administration] is actually an abortion mandate,” Yoest said. “As an organization we’re going to be more disciplined about talking about the abortion mandate coming from HHS and I would encourage you all to do the same.”
Yoest, Hawkins and Tobias all said that their organizations do not take a position on birth control, only on emergency birth control. Anti-abortion activists believe emergency birth control drugs like Plan B and Ella can cause abortions, something that is disputed by the drug-makers, the federal government, and abortion-rights activists.
An obstetrician-gynecologist in the audience who said she works for a religiously affiliated institution, likened taking emergency birth control to going to a playground where 100 kids are playing and shooting one of them. It’s a one-in-100 chance that taking an emergency birth control pill will kill a fetus, the doctor said.
“I would encourage you not to let this become a debate over birth control,” Tobias said. “I truly believe the mandate from HHS was a deliberate attempt by the Obama administration to get a discussion in this country right before the election over whether men controlling the Catholic church can tell women whether or not to take birth control. That’s the debate they want. We need to bring it back. This is religious freedom. If they can tell the Catholic Church that they have to provide contraception to their employees, then they can also tell National Right to Life that we have to provide abortions for our employees.”
About the same time that the women were speaking, the Obama administration was announcing what was billed as a compromise to religious groups opposing the mandate. The administration is now promising to introduce a policy that if a woman works for a religious employer that objects to providing contraceptive services in its health plan, the employer will not be required to cover her contraceptive costs. However, her insurance company will be required to offer contraceptive care for free.
The Family Research Council released a statement Friday rejecting Obama’s compromise, invoking very similar language used by the woman on the panel, particularly when it comes to sex.
National Right to Life President Carol Tobias (l) and Rebecca Kiessling speak on an anti-abortion panel at CPAC 2012, Feb. 10, 2012; click to enlarge (AMERICAN INDEPENDENT/Sofia Resnick).
“Liberals say keep your morals out of the bedroom, yet the President’s plan forces everyone to pay the cost for someone else’s contraceptive use in the bedroom,” said FRC President Tony Perkins in the statement. “That’s not freedom, it’s a mandate.
“This revised HHS mandate does nothing to change the fundamentally anti-religious, anti-conscience and anti-life contraceptive mandate,” he continued. “It rather only creates some paperwork gimmicks that don’t change the fact that religious employers who object to coverage of these services will now have to drop health insurance altogether to maintain their conscience and face severe penalties for doing so.”
On the CPAC stage, Kiessling said the Obama administration’s mandate is ironic.
“[People are always saying to] stay out of their bedroom; this is basically inviting others into their bedroom, wanting others to pay for what they’re doing in the bedroom,” she said. “I mean, really, what else do you want us to pay for? Do you want us to pay for condoms, too?”
CPAC 2012 2-10-12
Keep on talking Conservatives, give the monkey’s enough rope they’re going to hang themselves… Every year I think the Conservatives couldn’t do, say or act any worse than the year before. Attack on Religion? Are you people kidding me? What does Conservatives know about GOD and what have you done for this country?
I don’t care what anyone says, these Republicans of 2012 are f***’n insane. They suffer from severe superiority complexes, odd paranoia, religious delusions, racist attitudes and low, LOW grade thought processes!
Why would ANY responsible journalist take anything Conservatives say seriously? Just look at how your spokespersons are representing you Mr & Mrs Republican voter. Has anyone really listened to what they’re saying? Doesn’t anyone think it matters the likes of Ann Coulter (and 100’s like her) insults a majority of the population on a daily basis? An American majority that is already very, VERY angry at Conservatives for the Bush/Cheney catastrophe…
I think the limit has been reached. You right-wing losers have threatened my Progressive belief system for 30 years now and IT’S WAY PAST TIME TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR VIOLATIONS! Just wait an see what happens this American Spring… You Conservatives GOT A BIG SURPRISE COMING! I am somebody who fights back jinnbad.blogspot.com
IF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH TAKES UP WITH REPUBLICANS THEY’RE FINISHED because of such poor judgment:
“In the year of our LORD 2000, The GOP took on the seal of the upside down pentagram, better known as the sign of Satan. RECOGNIZE what the Republican Party has become since.
Wealthy, power-mad individuals who have no shame, feel no guilt, possess no conscience or capacity for empathy. Evil beings who use everything from the Bible to Darwin to justify their own vain, self-serving, power mad, evil existence. Knowledge as a weapon , a tool to CONTROL the masses who, in their minds, couldn’t possibly understand.
“Morality – it was created for the common man. The higher man doesn’t worry about whether something is good or evil. He has the courage to rise above that sort of nonsense and ACT.” NIETZSCHE
(balls, big ****’n heavos man… and 15 billion tons of TNT)
Since human beings are doing the right or wrong, once and for all we must set the standards of what is good and what is evil. WHAT IS RIGHT AND WHAT IS WRONG! Reality NOW, from the Almighty GOD to Allah to Buddha to Jesus to Zoroaster there are common basic principles needed to judge your fellow human being:
Seven Virtues – justice, temperance (moderation), courage, wisdom, faith, hope and love (charity).
Seven Sins – pride, envy (malice), wrath, lechery, gluttony, avarice (greed) and sloth.
…Anything beyond these is whiny excuse, spin, ignorance, disinformation, propaganda, hiding behind high priced attorneys and the worst kind of BS…”
“Did ya hear the one about the Mormon who became President so he could blow up the planet?” Anonymous
The conservative strategy. When you’re losing the argument just start blatantly lying.
So, in other words, CPAC is encouraging its members to lie?
Mighty Christian of you.
I gather the Christian Conservative Taliban didn’t learn a thing from the Susan G. Komen fiasco. You play this game and you are going to LOSE!
Wait, a MEDICAL DOCTOR said taking an emergency birth control pill has a 1 in 100 chance of killing a fetus? A fetus is, by definition, an unborn human more than eight weeks after conception. No one would wait two months to take emergency contraception. The level of doublethink among these cretins is hard to fathom.
Even if one considers a newly-formed fetus that has not developed into anything beyond a collection of connected cells a “human life”, the ob-gyn’s accusation is not accurate purely from a statistical viewpoint. Makes me wonder how he ever passed the mathematical requirements to get to that position…
To wit: One bullet which is shot and kills one child is killing one child. One “morning-after” pill has a 1 in 100 chance of causing the “death” of a child. That is, on average, one one-hundredth of a child. The only way the math would be equivalent is if the hypothetical child being shot has a 99% chance of survival, which is most assuredly not what was said and most definitely was not implied.
“An obstetrician-gynecologist in the audience who said she works for a religiously affiliated institution, likened taking emergency birth control to going to a playground where 100 kids are playing and shooting one of them. It’s a one-in-100 chance that taking an emergency birth control pill will kill a fetus, the doctor said.”
This is one of the most ridiculous analogies I’ve ever heard. Plus, she doesn’t know how emergency birth control works. It doesn’t “kill a fetus” – it doesn’t even allow an egg to be implanted. This supposed “OB/GYN” is a total moron. Or else a bald-faced liar. Or both.
This reminds me of a story I read in my local newspaper about a woman who was the result of a violent attack. Her adoptive parents were against abortion in all cases, because if this woman’s birth mother had aborted her, this wonderful person would not exist. Someone pointed out that if her birth mother had been able to successfully fend off her attacker, she likewise would not exist.
Excellent article and spot-on. God bless these women!
