top of page

Birth Control – A Reproductive Choice


Has anyone wondered where the drug companies are in the fight against contraceptives?


Sixty years have passed since oral contraceptives were made available to women and in light of that, the French company HRA Pharma has been in talks with the FDA about oral contraceptive to be available over the counter for women in the near future. This was progress until the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning of Roe v Wade, and the concurring statement written by Justice Clarence Thomas stated, “That the 1965 decision that established a right to contraception should also be overturned.”


Going back to the early 2000’s, no one wanted to go on record discussing a ban on birth control until the end of 2011 and early 2012. Republican legislatures made two attempts to deny Medicaid funded abortions to rape victims and push against birth control. It was the beginning of proposals limiting abortion rights and “proposals that could have treated killing abortion providers as justifiable homicide.”


In October 2021, Mississippi activists and congressional Republicans pushed legislation on the state and federal level, that recognized zygotes (fertilized human eggs) are legal “persons.” The definition of legal personhood would be changed to life begins when the sperm meets an egg. A “hormonal birth control or barrier devices that prevent zygotes from implanting in the uterine wall could become illegal, making use an IUD tantamount to murder.” This was supported by 40% of House Republicans and 25% of their allies in the Senate backing bills that would do exactly that.


On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), into law with a mandate that all employer-sponsored health care plans had to cover fourteen methods of contraception. On January 31, 2012, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) introduced the “Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” or S. 2043 to counter President Obama’s ACA’s contraception mandate to cut off birth control access for millions of women by allowing even non-religious employers to refuse birth control coverage as long as they cited a religious reason.  Rubio’s bill could also allow states to refuse to provide birth control through Medicaid, which provides family planning services to millions of poor women. John Boehner (Rep. Ohio Speaker of the House), Mitt Romney, Mitch McConnell among many Republicans proposed allowing employers to decide if their insurance should include birth control.


On September 12, 2012, Barbara and David Green (owners of the Hobby Lobby chain) filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on behalf of their Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. The Greens claimed when the stores were founded in 1975 “they incorporated his Christian beliefs into their everyday functions.” This went back and forth until June 2014, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores was ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby by the US Supreme Court. They did not have to cover birth control for their employees through their health insurance. No worries, they do support vasectomies and erectile dysfunction treatments.


Rick Santorum has stated Griswold v. Connecticut (decided 1965), the Supreme Court decision that stated, “states cannot deny married couples access to contraception, should be overturned.”

In 2013, everything went to new heights past anti-abortion, anti-contraception, push for feticide and personhood laws. Welcome the Koch Brothers to the war with their legions of wealthy associates under the guise of their foundations, American Encore (formerly Center to Protect Patient Rights (CPPR)– formed 2010) and Freedom Partners (formed 2012) pumping millions into their causes but hidden because they were created under501(c)(4) and 501(c)(6) of the tax codes. CPPR was run by the illustrious Sean Noble, a political operative able to hide the donors for the 2012 presidential election. They were able to create sensationalized propaganda to secretly push their agenda to “eliminate worker, consumer and environmental protections” to increase their corporate profits. How? Feed the fears of government intrusion held by “white social conservatives” pushing them to vote against liberals. It is always about greed and power but none of them care about abortion, contraceptives, feticide, or personhood laws…they only care about control and the bottom line.


Has anyone wondered where the drug companies are in the fight against contraceptives? The Koch brothers are libertarians who support the Supreme Court striking down the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and eliminating Medicaid and Medicare. The U.S. pharmaceutical market is projected to grow from USD560 billion in 2021 to USD861.67 billion in 2028 with a CAGR 6.3%. Medicaid paid USD73 billion in outpatient prescriptions in 2020 before rebates and Medicare part B paid USD37 billion and Medicare part D paid USD145 billion. The monies are based on chronic disease and geriatrics medicine on the rise not contraceptives. In 2021, contraceptives were USD8 billion with a CAGR of 4.7% increase to 2030. The pharmaceutical giants are not going to get involved in the politics of contraceptives for 1% of their market when they need to fight to keep the ACA going with Medicaid and Medicare for 45% of their market.


Republicans want to take women’s power away, especially low-income women…the more children they have, the larger the soldier and low labor pools, the more “clients” for privatized prisons and organized “orphanages.” There is always a financial gain for the rich. Historically, this went back to the Bible to Comstock Laws to today.



 

Comments


bottom of page