Abortion Opponents Peddle Lies, Look To Ban Contraceptives
To the right wing, there’s nothing more inconvenient than facts that don’t agree with their point of view. And if the facts are wrong but they boost the MAGA point of view, that’s fine.
A case in point is the argument over whether certain contraceptives should be made illegal. Key to the argument by Republicans and conservatives who favor bias and disinformation over science is the false claim that IUDs, the birth control pill, and the morning-after pill are abortifacients that cause abortions.
Dr. Christina Francis, Chief Executive Officer of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, went as far as to say at a June Senate that she believes IUDs and emergency contraception are abortifacients.
An intrauterine device (IUD) is a small, often T-shaped birth control device that is inserted into the uterus to prevent pregnancy. IUDs primarily work by preventing fertilization and may also function by preventing ovulation from occurring.
The morning-after pill is a used to prevent pregnancy for women who’ve had unprotected sex or whose birth control method has failed. The morning-after pill is intended for backup contraception only, not as a primary method of birth control. Morning-after pills contain either levonorgestrel (Plan B One-Step) or ulipristal acetate (ella). Levonorgestrel is available over-the-counter without a prescription; ulipristal acetate is available only with a prescription.
Birth control pills are a type of contraception that’s 99 percent effective at preventing pregnancy when taken consistently every day. The pill contains hormones that regulate menstruation, decrease PMS symptoms, lower the risk of ovarian and uterine cancers, improve acne and treat endometriosis.
Abortifacient is Latin for “that which will cause a miscarriage.” Abortifacients are substances that induce abortion and includes various substances or medications, ranging from herbs to prescription medications.
Common abortifacients include mifepristone, which is typically used in conjunction with misoprostol in a two-step approach. Synthetic oxytocin, which is routinely used safely during term labor, is also commonly used to induce abortion in the second or third trimester.
The controversy over the use of mifepristone is a prime example of science fact and fiction. Anti-abortion opponents have claimed that mifepristone is dangerous. The facts show the opposite.
In March, the Supreme Court heard a case about access to mifepristone, and is expected to rule soon on whether the drug can be sent through the mail. Just weeks before the hearing, some of the scientific studies underlying the legal challenge to the abortion pill were retracted by Sage, the academic publishing company, over methodological and ethical concerns.
The legal challenge was set off by a group of antiabortion doctors who argued that the Food and Drug Administration ignored safety concerns when it eased restrictions on mifepristone’s availability. They relied on scientific studies claiming the medication is dangerous, citing the number of emergency room visits after mifepristone use. After publication, other scientists voiced major concerns about the statistical methods and questioned the conclusions, according to a report from epidemiologists, Katelyn Jetlina, and Heidi Moseson.
Sage then asked two subject matter experts and one independent statistical analysis specialist to peer-review the studies. The experts identified major ethical issues and scientific errors, including that a peer reviewer knew at least one of the authors of all three studies, and several are members of the same pro-life advocacy organizations.
The Sage review also concluded there were “unjustified or incorrect factual assumptions,” “material errors” and “misleading presentations” of data that “demonstrate a lack of scientific rigor and invalidate the authors’ conclusions in whole or in part.”
“Clinical guidance and policy are (ideally) built on decades of research and consideration of the totality of evidence. In the case of mifepristone, more than 100 studies show it’s safe — in fact, safer than Tylenol — with only a few discordant studies,” the review said. “However, big mistakes can make it past the peer-review process, and, in some rare cases, ‘mistakes’ are intentional and egregious. Even if studies are retracted, they can do a lot of harm.”
A recent report by the Guttmacher Institute, a think tank that supports abortion rights, noted that medication abortions increased by 10 percentage points between 2020 and 2023, likely because of wider availability after the FDA had loosened restrictions.
Mifepristone was developed in the 1980s by French researchers and was initially banned in the United States. In 2000, the FDA approved it for terminating pregnancies up to seven weeks gestation, and in 2016 the agency extended the approval to 10 weeks.
A 2015 study in the journal “Contraception” found that the two-drug regimen was 95 to 98 percent effective at terminating pregnancies, depending on when it was taken within the first 10 weeks
Patients who are denied mifepristone, misoprostol, and methotrexate are especially vulnerable because the three medications are often prescribed for other conditions, including mifepristone for Cushing’s syndrome (a hormonal disorder), misoprostol for ulcers or miscarriage management, and methotrexate for autoimmune disorders and cancer.
“It’s safer than penicillin. It’s safer than Tylenol. It’s safer than probably eating peanut butter, given the rate of allergies or anaphylaxis,” said Jessica Lee, an associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “A majority of people experience nothing … the most common side effect, if [you] have any side effects at all, are very light vaginal bleeding, also known as spotting.”
A key piece in the campaign to further impede abortions and related women’s rights is the growing effort to adopt the so called “fetal personhood” laws that provides the same rights to a fetus as to a fully-developed person. The “fetal personhood” measures would protect a fertilized egg at any stage, potentially banning IVF or in vitro fertilization, medications like mifepristone and other forms of contraception.
IVF often involves the creation of embryos which a fetal personhood law would consider “potential persons.” Fetal personhood laws could determine that destruction of embryos, as is common in unsuccessful IVF treatments, is tantamount to murder.
“Anti-abortion advocates have deliberately and effectively sown misinformation to create disagreement on what constitutes abortion by claiming, despite all medical evidence to the contrary, that some forms of contraception are abortifacients,” according to a report from Pregnancy Justice, a non-profit that defends the rights of pregnant people against criminalization.
The report noted that anti-abortion laws are often “ambiguous, and we have seen again and again that rogue, aggressive prosecutors can stretch the bounds of law to police the bodies of people with the capacity for pregnancy.”
Many actions by congress and legal rulings demonstrate a continuing effort toward banning certain contraceptives.
In the 2014 decision Hobby Lobby v. Burwell, the Supreme Court held that religious employers who believed IUDs and emergency contraception are abortifacients had a religious right to opt out of Affordable Care Act requirements that they cover contraception in their employee health insurance plans.
Another sign of the times is that since Roe v. Wade was deemed unconstitutional in June 2022, Republicans in at least 17 states have blocked Democratic efforts to expand or protect access to contraception, citing false claims equating certain methods with abortion.
Last month, trump said he was “looking at” restricting the right to contraception if he is reelected in November. The Republican blueprint for a second trump term outlined in “Project 2025” calls for an end to requirements that employers cover emergency contraception and add requirements they cover “fertility awareness-based methods.” Project 2025 also says the government should apply the Comstock Act, a 19th-century anti-obscenity law, to ban the mailing of abortion pills. Comstock could also potentially be used to ban contraception and gender-affirming care.
Trump recently ratcheted up his far right campaign of violent rhetoric when he said that, if reelected, he would work “side by side” with a newly formed religious organization that says abortion is the “greatest atrocity facing” the United States and should be “eradicated entirely.”
Trump aimed his comments at the Danbury Institute’s inaugural Life & Liberty Forum in Indianapolis. Trump called on The Danbury Institute and church members to vote for him in November, saying that President Joe Biden and Democrats are “against religion.”
The Danbury Institute writes on its website that it opposes abortion from “the moment of conception, meaning that each pre-born baby would be treated with the same protection under the law as born people.”
“The intentional, pre-meditated killing of a pre-born child should be addressed with laws already in place concerning homicide,” its website states. “We also support bolstering the foster care system and encouraging Christian adoption and are working with churches around the country to help them become equipped to care for children in need of loving families.”
Another section of the Danbury Institute’s website states the organization believes, “the greatest atrocity facing our generation today is the practice of abortion — child sacrifice on the altar of self.”
“Abortion must be ended,” the website states. “We will not rest until it is eradicated entirely.”
Finally, as part of the June 2022 Supreme Court ruling that prohibited abortions, Justice Clarence Thomas said the court should now reconsider the 1965 ruling of Griswold v. Connecticut which protected the rights of married couples to buy and use contraceptives without government restriction. Thomas said the court also should take another look at past rulings on contraception, sodomy and same-sex marriage.
The Griswold decision established the right to privacy, which gave rise to later court decisions on the right for unmarried people to use contraception without government interference; the right to abortion, which was overruled by the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision; and other rights, including same-sex marriage.
Republicans in the Senate recently were nearly unanimous in defeating a Democratic resolution to guarantee that individuals have the right to obtain contraceptives and to “engage in contraception” and that health providers can provide them. The proposal would have prevented states from passing laws that limit access to contraception, including hormonal birth control, intrauterine devices and other methods that prevent pregnancy.
The vote was 51 in favor and 48 opposed, but 60 votes were required for passage. All Democrats present voted for the bill while two Republican women also supported it, Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine.
Among the male Republican senators, nine Republicans didn’t vote but all other male Republicans voted against the measure. Republicans who voted against a guarantee for contraceptives included six of seven women in the Senate who were at the vote, including Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia , Joni Ernst of Iowa, Deb Fischer of Nebraska, Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming. Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama did not vote.
Democrats said the resolution was important because the handwriting on the wall shows that Republicans are moving toward further restrictions on women’s rights. Republicans claimed the resolution was a political stunt to slam the GOP for its anti-abortion stance.
The women senators who voted against the guarantee of contraceptives include a group of mostly, deeply conservative lawmakers.
Hyde-Smith, 65, has been a senator since 2018. In February, Hyde-Smith blocked a federal law intended to protect access to in vitro fertilization treatments following the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling in LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine. In a speech on the Senate floor, she claimed continued in vitro fertilization would “legalize the creation of human-animal chimeras.”
In 2018, Hyde-Smith voted with Senate Republicans to prohibit federal funding for any organization or facility that promotes abortion services or family planning. She described Planned Parenthood as “one of the worst things that has ever happened to us.”
Hyde-Smith attended Lawrence County Academy in Monticello, Ala., a segregation academy established in response to Supreme Court rulings ordering the desegregation of public schools. The school’s team nickname was the Rebels; the mascot was a “Col. Reb” who carried a Confederate flag.
As a member of the Mississippi state Senate, in 2001, Hyde-Smith introduced legislation to name a portion of Highway 51 for Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, who had no ties to the area.
Hyde-Smith’s husband, Mike Smith, is related to Noah Smith, who is believed to have murdered civil rights activist Lamar Smith in 1955.
Lummis, 67, has been a senator since 2021 and was a member of congress from 2009 to 2017. Lummis voted against certifying the results from Pennsylvania in the 2020 presidential election and voted to acquit trump at his second impeachment trial. She opposes same-sex marriages and was given a zero percent rating from the Human Rights Campaign during her entire tenure in the House of Representatives.
Fischer, 73, has been a senator since 2013 and is just the third woman to represent Nebraska in the Senate after Eva Bowring and Hazel Abel. Fischer also is the first woman to be reelected to the Senate. She rejects scientific conclusions that human emissions of greenhouse gases are the primary cause for global warming. On May 28, 2021, Fischer voted against creating an independent commission to investigate the 2021 United States Capitol attack.
Ernst, 53, has been in the senate since 2015. She has supported a fetal personhood amendment and introduced legislation to defund Planned Parenthood and to allow states to block Planned Parenthood from receiving Title X grants or reimbursements for treating Medicaid patients.
In May 2020, Ernst praised trump’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying, “he was right on it from day one.” Trump’s delays on acting to stem the pandemic cost the lives of millions of Americans. On May 28, 2021, Ernst voted against creating an independent commission to investigate the 2021 Capitol attack by trump supporters. Ernst rejects the scientific consensus on climate change.
Capito, 70, is in her second term in the senate. She said she partially blamed trump for the “insurrection” at the Capitol and did not think he would be the Republican nominee for president in 2024. She has since endorsed trump’s reelection bid.
Capito has waffled between describing herself as “pro-choice,” or pro-abortion rights, but has a mixed record on abortion. She supported Roe v. Wade, but in 2020, she declared her support for March for Life, an anti-abortion movement and in 2022, she reversed her position on Roe, saying states should be free to ban abortion. She supports legal abortion in cases when the pregnant patient’s health is at risk and said abortions should be rare. She is against bans on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy but supports banning abortion after 20 weeks.
Capito opposed banning funds for mifepristone and for spending bills funding Planned Parenthood and was against a bill to defund it.
Capito’s father, Arch Alfred Moore Jr., was governor of West Virginia for 12 years before he was convicted of corruption charges and served more than two years in prison. Her sister, Lucy Moore Durbin, was arrested in 1992 along with her husband for selling cocaine to an undercover officer.
Blackburn, 71, was elected in 2018 as the state’s first woman senator. She was in congress from 1999 to 2003, where she was considered among the most conservative lawmakers. She is a staunch trump supporter and was chosen in 2013 to manage debate on a bill promoted by House Republicans that would have prohibited abortions after 22 weeks’ gestation, with limited exceptions for rape or incest.
In 2015, Blackburn led a panel that investigated the unfounded, Planned Parenthood undercover video controversy. Anti-abortion activists had published a video purporting to show that Planned Parenthood illicitly sold fetal tissue. Subsequent investigations into Planned Parenthood found no evidence of fetal tissue sales or of wrongdoing, but in 2017, Blackburn ran a controversial advertisement saying that she “fought Planned Parenthood and we stopped the sale of baby body parts.”
In 2015, Blackburn falsely claimed that 94 percent of Planned Parenthood’s business revolves around abortion services. In 2009, Blackburn sponsored legislation requiring presidential candidates to show their birth certificates.
In November 2016, Blackburn joined trump’s presidential transition team as vice chair. She later nominated trump for a Nobel Peace Prize for his negotiations with North Korea.
Blackburn is a member of The C Street Family, a prayer group that includes members of Congress.