Contraception Under Fire
In Connecticut
"Contraception is disgusting and demoralizing" and by requiring insurance coverage for it, "you are funding craziness and irresponsibility." Comments by Rev. Joseph E. Looney of Sacred Heart Church in Waterbury, CT, during a committee hearing on contraceptive equity legislation in the Connecticut General Assembly. -- Hartford Courant, 3/10/99 (reported by PPFA in What's Up)
In Japan
Japan's Health Ministry's Central Pharmaceutical Affairs Council continues to reject the legalization of the birth control pill for use to prevent pregnancies. Currently, only high-dose pills are available, and only to treat menstrual disorders.
Japan is the only industrialized country in the world that prohibits the use of birth control pills for contraception. Side effects have always been highlighted as a reason to avoid the pill. Conservative fears of promiscuity also have played a role in preventing approval of the use of the pill. The favored contraceptive method in Japan is the condom. Fear of HIV/AIDS also has been used as a reason to refuse approval of birth control pills, out of concern that people would stop using condoms.
A new wrinkle has been added recently. Concern has been expressed that estrogen-tainted waste products from women using the pill would find its way into the environment and cause reproductive problems for the country. Doctors have dismissed this fear, noting that there is more estrogen in the waste produced by pregnant women.
The rejection of the pill this time has been especially galling for Japanese women because Viagra was approved for use on January 25, just six months after its release.
- PPFA What's Up
In U.S. Pharmacies
The Fox News Channel recently featured a segment on pharmacies that refuse to fill prescriptions for emergency contraceptives -- the "morning after" pill. A Bronx pharmacist was heard to say: "These pills are actually an abortion type of situation, and we don't want to get involved in that. We're talking about killing babies or killing fetuses. ...We feel at the time the egg is fertilized by the sperm, that is conception."
Wal-Mart, the nation's second-largest drug retailer, also was reported to have refused to carry emergency contraception. Reporters said Wal-Mart called this a business decision but refused to discuss it on camera.
A spokesperson told reporters that Planned Parenthood of New York City would call for a national boycott of Wal-Mart pharmacies "until this policy is reversed."
Last Modified January 1, 2000.