It’s about preventing choice, not abortion

A federal judge appointed by Ronald Reagan struck down a Health and Human Services decision Friday that prevents girls under 17 from accessing the emergency contraceptive “Plan B.”

Immediately pro-life groups slammed the ruling, saying that “Girls Will Be Exploited!”

“Young girls need medical supervision in taking such a potent and potentially life-ending drug,” said Americans United for Life president Charmaine Yoest.

The implication is that the Plan B is an “abortion drug.” It is not. It’s an abortion-prevention drug that is as safe for girls as aspirin.

What’s dangerous for young girls is unwanted pregnancies. They are they number one reason a girl will drop out of school, making her far more likely to be dependent on others — parents, men, the government — for the rest for her life.

The cliche goes: You trust me with a child but not a choice.

Pro-lifers don’t mind if a girl is forced to deal with a child but a pill — that’s so dangerous. They say it will make it less likely she’ll report crimes or get proper medical help. What Plan B does is make it far more likely that they’ll have a life where they can make the kinds of reproductive choices that do not ignore her needs as an individual.

The White House isn’t backing down on supporting a policy of restricting the drug to those under 17. I don’t get this and don’t agree with the assertion, “It could be dangerous if misused.” But at least it isn’t coupled with a worldview that seeks deny even women the most basic choices about reproduction.

Pro-lifers who support Personhood bills don’t even believe women should have Plan B because, for them, pregnancy is a god-willed punishment for having sex — even if you didn’t choose to have sex. The Personhood movement believes a woman or a girl ceases being a person the moment her egg is fertilized. This is an extreme position that is countered by others in the movement who want to focus on late-term and other extremely rare cases that they horribly mislabel as “infanticide.”

The goal of both strains of the pro-life movement is the same: Close Planned Parenthood and get options that could prevent abortions out of the hands of the females who need or want them.

If their goal were really preventing abortions, they’d want all women and girls to have access to birth control, Plan B and family planning. Not the exact opposite.

Pro-lifers consciously or unconsciously want to deny women and girls the ability to operate with the same sexual freedom as men and boys. And decisions like this help make that clear to everyone.

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