Mention “The Pill,” and almost no one thinks of cold medicine. Yet, despite its massive name recognition and widespread availability, that’s not enough for President Biden’s FDA, which recently set up over-the-counter hormonal birth control distribution on the heels of their No Test, Online Distribution of deadly Chemical Abortion Pills. The anti-baby bias of such policies is celebrated as a social good from ecstatic media. But lost in all the coverage are the increased risks to young women, along with The Pill’s troubling history and deceptive marketing.
From its founding, Planned Parenthood sought an easily distributed product to prevent pregnancy, the “brainchild” of discredite
Let’s be clear: A “fertilized egg” is a unique life with a distinct genetic code, a human zygote, only different from us in size and location. The New York Times and other influencers refer to the newest of humans as such to dehumanize and confuse young women on the potentially abortifacient side effects of hormonal birth control drugs and devices.
Princeton University reports that fact in “Life Begins At Fertilization.” The majority of American biologists say life begins at fertilization. Though Kristan’s a Catholic and Tina’s a Protestant, our views on birth control don’t impact our conviction that protecting new life is important, including expressing our opposition to drugs and devices that have the potential to harm new life.
That’s the CON in contraception, mislabeling life-ending drugs and devices as “contraception.” An entire Supreme Court case, Hobby Lobby v. Burwell, uncovered that masquerade.
Media, like the New York Times, skipped over such thoughtful concern when recently reporting about the Biden Administration’s reckless move, writing: “Opposition appears to come primarily from some Catholic organizations and Students for Life Action.” But there is a lot more to it than that, as Biden’s FDA prepares to expose young women to massive risk, all to facilitate a quick sale of artificial hormones without ensuring fully informed consent.
Interestingly, after working on more than 1,400 college and university campuses for more than a decade, we’ve found that concerns with hormonal birth control represent our least controversial topic.
Women talk about the harms of hormones for nonreligious reasons, expressing confusion and frustration. They tell us: “The medical community failed us when they acted like taking hormonal birth control was no big deal.”
Depression is the side effect most discussed, as girls struggle with unexpected and crushing pressure, hurting their academic development, social life, and inner peace. Some say their duress even led them to consider suicide, a side effect that’s well-documented.
One study from JAMA Psychiatry showed that the use of hormonal birth control often leads to subsequent antidepressant prescriptions or a depression diagnosis. Another study found that 16-year-old girls on the pill cried more often while also suffering more from sleeping and eating problems than their counterparts. Just in the last month, a large Swedish study examined more than 264,000 women and found they were 92% more likely to be depressed while on the pill. For those who begin taking it as teenagers, that number spiked to 130%.
When we are on campus, young women are horrified to learn that taking the pill also puts them at higher risk for breast cancer, heart attacks, strokes, blood clots, liver tumors, and even death. Others are exasperated with doctors prescribing the pill as more of a band-aid to control symptoms rather than opting to resolve underlying problems.
With both of us mothers to four children each, we are also deeply concerned that sexual abusers can misuse the over counter access to hide criminal contact. Sexual predators can cover up abuse and statutory rape crimes — no pregnancy, no proof. Contraceptive coercion in sex trafficking at home and worldwide is well documented.
Even President Barack Obama opposed over-the-counter distribution of hormones, recognizing that casual distribution could cause problems for young girls.
With one in five Americans infected with a sexually transmitted disease, at the very least a conversation is needed with young people about other risks of sex and about the dangers of not reading and following directions.
The Pill doesn’t protect from a broken heart, an incurable disease, or sexual abusers who can now get The Pill at any drug store, without even showing identification as required to buy Sudafed.
And the Pill doesn’t always work as advertised. The Planned Parenthood founded Guttmacher Institute reported that more than half of the women who got an abortion were on birth control. Add to that the high failure rate of the specific hormones the FDA just approved, and it’s easy to see that abuse and pregnancies are likely to increase, the opposite of what its supporters claim they want.
Exposing young women to deadly risks because of the anti-baby bias of the Biden administration policy ignores the dangers any parent can see. At the very least, it’s worth a conversation in a medical setting before pretending that as long as a baby isn’t born, everything else is ok.
Kristan Hawkins is president of Students for Life of America & Students for Life Action with more than 1,400 groups on educational campuses in all 50 states. Follow her @KristanHawkins or subscribe to her podcast, Explicitly Pro-Life. Tina Whittington is Executive Vice President of Students for Life of America.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.