When I read that Sen. Barbara Boxer was sponsoring a bill to promote emergency contraception education, I was shocked.
A politician who made the news for acting to the benefit of her constituents?
Really?
After so many Bush administration years, I expect to read about our lawmakers’ scandals, misconduct or inappropriate relationships with young interns and/or bathroom stall-mates. I never expected to hear about level-headed lawmaking.
The bill that Boxer is sponsoring, the Emergency Contraception Education Act of 2007, would educate the public through various outlets (the media and college campuses, for instance) about emergency contraception.
Emergency contraception is a form of birth control that contains the same hormones that are used in birth control pills in order to prevent pregnancy up to 72 hours after intercourse. It has not been proven to negatively affect or abort already existing pregnancies.
The goal of the proposed legislation is to remedy a problem pointed out in the text of the bill: One in three American women of reproductive age do not know about emergency contraception. Increasing awareness about emergency contraception would therefore safely reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and abortions in the U.S. by giving women additional ways to prevent pregnancy.
The news would have been easy to ignore, as the bill has been proposed during a time when women’s health proponents have minor heart attacks whenever they open a newspaper.
Last month, President Bush appointed Susan Orr, who has shown that she is hostile to both contraception and common sense, to the position of acting deputy assistant secretary for population affairs of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Orr, who told the Washington Post in 2001 that birth control is not a “medical necessity” because “fertility is not a disease,” is now in charge of $283 million of federal funding for family planning services.
In addition, this week, the Dallas Morning News reported that Texas, which promotes abstinence-only education in its public schools, leads the nation in births to teenage mothers, with many teens having more than one child.
This confirms yet again what past studies have already proven ““ abstinence education is completely ineffective. Yet our tax dollars are continually wasted on these programs throughout the country.
Of course, the abstinence programs which use virginity pledges do prove to be remarkably effective at decreasing the rates that their teen participants use condoms once they do become sexually active. It also increases their likelihood of engaging in oral and anal sex.
I guess Orr was right: Contraception isn’t really that important. After all, unprotected anal sex will always be an option.
Despite these setbacks, however, it is essential that those on the left do not become so discouraged that they simply throw up their hands and try not to think about all of these problems.
There are concerted efforts by local governments to go against the current administration’s hostile stance on reproductive rights.
The city of Portland, Maine, recently allowed a middle school physician’s office to distribute birth control to students.
While there was controversy surrounding the issue, an Associated Press poll confirmed that most people support the legislation.
The reason for my initial shock at finding out about the emergency contraception bill is unfortunate, but it also serves as an important reminder.
Just because we may be dissatisfied with the current administration, we should still be paying attention to our local representatives. It’s important to let them know how we feel about their actions.
Although we can’t expect the President to pay any attention to our individual opinions (millionaires can disregard this), our local representatives are supposed to be our advocates and pay attention to what we think.
I’ve already sent Boxer an e-mail thanking her for her bill.
Now it’s your turn.