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Tag: contraception

  • Sonia Sotomayor Rips Court a New One

    Sonia Sotomayor Rips Court a New One

    The dust from the “Hobby Lobby” ruling at the Supreme Court has not even settled yet, and the next SCOTUS scandal is already hitting the ground.

    In the landmark case involving the Affordable Care Act, certain forms of contraception, and whether corporations can claim religious differences that exempt them from following the law of the land, the Court handed down a ruling that divided the country sharply. Through the loads of misinformation on both sides of the issue, the Court sought to allay fears that their decision would have far-ranging consequences. They assured the public that their stance was only applicable to “closely-held” corporations.

    The IRS defines closely-held corporations this way:

    Generally, a closely held corporation is a corporation that:

    * Has more than 50% of the value of its outstanding stock owned (directly or indirectly) by 5 or fewer individuals at any time during the last half of the tax year; and
    * Is not a personal service corporation.

    In her dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, “In a decision of startling breadth, the Court holds that commercial enterprises, including corporations, along with partnerships and sole proprietorships, can opt out of any law (saving only tax laws) they judge incompatible with their sincerely held religious beliefs.” She said the Court had “ventured into a minefield,” and that her dissent was because she was “mindful of the havoc the Court’s judgment can introduce.”

    Now, mere days removed from that case, the Court has expanded on its decision, just as Ginsburg feared.

    The new development is a case where Wheaton College objects to having to fill out a simple form for the Department of Health and Human Services, which would exempt them from providing the contraception in question. The form is simple; one page, front and back. You can see it here. The College says that the act of having to fill out a form burdens their religious freedom. They see it as making them “complicit in the provision of contraceptive coverage, in violation of [their] religious beliefs.”

    Churches do not have to fill out the form. Thus, non-profits like Wheaton are asking to be treated as churches.

    The Court agreed, and said that Wheaton did not have to fill out the form.

    This time, it was Justice Sonia Sotomayor who took the heat to the five male justices who made that call. In a dissent coming from all three female justices, she said the Court had assured the American public that their decision only affected certain types of companies, but now they were going back on their word.

    “Those who are bound by our decisions usually believe they can take us at our word,” Justice Sotomayor wrote. “Not so today.”

    “After expressly relying on the availability of the religious-nonprofit accommodation to hold that the contraceptive coverage requirement violates [the Religious Freedom Restoration Act] as applied to closely held for-profit corporations, the Court now, as the dissent in Hobby Lobby feared it might, retreats from that position.”

    The fears that the Hobby Lobby ruling would sprawl to include other organizations, even to the extent of telling companies not to even bother with the paperwork of the law that would make them exempt, appear to be coming to pass.

    Keep in mind that it was Sotomayor who temporarily blocked the contraceptive provision in the first place, as seen in this news story. So this is not about birth control, it is about Supreme Court decision creep.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Hobby Lobby Invests in Abortion Pills

    In a discovery that is bound to rankle supporters, Mother Jones magazine revealed yesterday that Hobby Lobby is in bed with the enemy.

    After months/years of fighting the Affordable Care Act’s provisions requiring birth control to be covered by employer-provided insurance plans, including taking that fight all the way to the United States Supreme Court, it now comes to light that the company may not know where its money goes.

    In fact, it turns out that Hobby Lobby’s corporate 401(k) plan has more than $73 Million in mutual funds investments in companies that produce the very drugs and devices that they are fighting against. These include emergency contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices, and drugs commonly used in abortions.

    Mother Jones reported:

    “These companies include Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, which makes Plan B and ParaGard, a copper IUD, and Actavis, which makes a generic version of Plan B and distributes Ella … Pfizer, the maker of Cytotec and Prostin E2, which are used to induce abortions … AstraZeneca, which … manufactures Prostodin, Cerviprime, and Partocin, three drugs commonly used in abortions; and Forest Laboratories, which makes Cervidil, a drug used to induce abortions.”

    Many people don’t know exactly what is in their 401(k) mutual fund sections. That is the nature of a mutual fund: it is managed by someone else so you don’t have to pick what you are investing in. But a company that is so ardently fighting this battle should have had someone who knows how to see such things – like the someone that Mother Jones has – to check.

    Some folks have argued that Hobby Lobby’s assertions about so-called “morning after” and “Plan B” pills are unfounded, that they have a mistaken understanding about how these things work. But there is no accounting for a person’s opinions. If Hobby Lobby wanted to fight for its religious right to not pay for aspirin because they viewed headaches as God’s will, we would still be at the Supreme Court with this case. That is the nature of a religious liberty argument. It does not have to make sense to anyone else but the person making the argument.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Contraception: Permanent Birth Control “Essure” Causes Pelvic Pain

    You know it is a serious public health issue when famed consumer advocate Erin Brockovich is campaigning against a procedure that claims permanent contraception, but delivers excruciating pelvic pain and a variety of other side effects in women.

    According to complaints emerging around the country, thousands of women are reporting that Essure, a medical procedure that provides permanent birth control for women, is also giving them unbearable cramps. One mother of two, Tanya Lovis described the pain as

    literally walking around hunched over holding onto my stomach for three weeks out of the month…The pain was just too much to bear…Excruciating pelvic pain, sharp stabbing pains in my left and right side, I started bleeding very heavily and I would literally vomit from the spinning sensation…My body was telling me something was wrong…

    The pain went away only after she underwent a radical hysterectomy, which included the removal of Essure coils. “Oh, I feel amazing. I feel like a new woman. I feel like they’ve replaced my body with another woman’s body,” added Lovis.

    According to Bayer, the global pharmaceutical and chemical behemoth that owns the rights and trademark to Essure,

    it is among the most effective permanent birth control available—even more effective than tying your tubes. Essure is hormone-free, surgery-free and there’s no slowing down to recover. You can get back to your family right away.

    The official website for Essure makes it very clear that there are long term risks involved, including ectopic pregnancies and hives. Says the statement under the headline “Long-term Risks”

    The Essure insert is made of materials that include a nickel-titanium alloy. Patients who are allergic to nickel may have an allergic reaction to the inserts. Symptoms include rash, itching and hives.

    The headline “Adverse Events” further adds:

    During the procedure, the most common problem reported was mild to moderate pain (9.3%). Some of the women in the study reported moderate pain (12.9%) and/or cramping (29.6%) on the day of the procedure. A smaller percentage of women reported nausea/vomiting (10.8%) and vaginal bleeding (6.8%).

    So although Bayer claims that women reported pain and cramping on the “day of the procedure,” the “long term Risks” or “Adverse Events” headlines do not warn against persistent or recurrent cramping months or years after the procedure is performed.

    The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accorded preemption status to Essure when it was approved in 2002, which insulates Bayer from potentially billions of dollars in lawsuits resulting from consumer complaints. In response to complaints, Bayer issued the following statement

    “At Bayer, we care about patients and take the safety of our products very seriously. We are saddened to hear of any serious health condition affecting a patient using one of our products, irrespective of the cause. Essure was approved by the FDA in 2002, and has a well-documented benefit-risk profile, with over 400 peer-reviewed publications and abstracts supporting Essure’s safety, efficacy and cost-effectiveness. Approximately 750,000 women worldwide rely upon the Essure procedure for permanent birth control. A recent practice bulletin issued by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has recognized that hysteroscopy tubal occlusion for sterilization has high efficacy and low procedure-related risk, cost, and resource requirements. No form of birth control is without risk or should be considered appropriate for every woman. It is important that women discuss the risks and benefits of any birth control option with their physicians.”

    Brockovich is now trying to overturn the preemption status of Essure and drag Bayer into the courts. So will Essure continue to be offered at clinics around the country, and more importantly, is Essure even necessary?

    China, the world’s most populous country, adopted hormone free intrauterine devices (IUDs) as the long term contraception method of choice, or sterilization as the permanent contraception to control its explosive population growth. Recently, Western women are increasingly giving natural methods based on cervical mucus or menstrual cycle a second look.

    Whichever direction the Essure story takes, one thing is certain – there is still room for innovative medical device companies to come up with a safe, effective, side-effects and surgery free procedure for permanent contraception.

    [image from Youtube]

  • Pope Francis Preaches Mercy, Not Dogma, in Interview

    Pope Francis has made some bold moves since becoming Pope. First, he shunned his elaborate palace-like apartment in the Vatican in favor of the guest house. Pope Francis also got rid of the Pope-mobile, has washed the feet of others (including women and children), placed phone calls to average, everyday people, and has become a prolific Twitter user. Pope Francis has also gone as far as stating that atheists are redeemed if they live good lives, and that gays should not be marginalized.

    In a recent interview with Civilta Cattolica, an Italian-Jesuit journal, Pope Francis gave the world even more insight to his “controversial” beliefs. (By the way, the interview is 12,000 words. Apparently the Pope had a lot to get off his chest.) The Pope’s main message: The Catholic Church needs to preach more mercy and less dogma.

    Pope Francis says that he has often been criticized for not speaking out about the conventional Catholic hot-button issues of abortion, contraception, and homosexuality. However, Francis believes that “We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods…But when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context.”

    Many conservative Catholics are concerned that the Pope is not spending more time talking about these dogmatic issues. Bishop Thomas Tobin, of Providence, Rhode Island, has publicly stated that he is disappointed that the Pope has not addressed “the evil of abortion”. Jason Clendenen, a church administrator in California, has publicly criticized the Pope on Twitter for being too accepting of sinners such as gays and lesbians: “When we (believers) see sinful behavior that the Bible calls evil being called good, it should stir us to respond.”

    While Pope Francis asserted that “We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel,” he still threw a bone to conservative Catholics today. Francis released a statement in which he stated that he sees abortion as a result of today’s “throw-away” culture, and that he would encourage all Catholic doctors to refuse to perform abortions.

    This statement does not contradict the beliefs professed in his interview, though. In speaking on the issues of abortion, contraception, and homosexuality, Francis states that “The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time.” It’s all part of the balance that he is hoping that Catholic church can find and establish.

    Another part of that balance is making females more involved in the Church: “We have to work harder to develop a profound theology of the woman. Only by making this step will it be possible to better reflect on their function within the Church.” While Pope Francis still believes that women should not serve as priests within the Church (Based on the fact that Jesus did not have any female disciples. What was that you said about taking things in context, Francis?), he still believes that “The feminine genius is needed wherever we make important decisions.”

    Whether it’s the fact that he is the first Jesuit and Latin American Pope, or the fact that he is adapting to the ever-changing world rather well, it is fairly clear by this point that the “radical” Pope is here to stay. It will be interesting to note whether his influence spreads throughout the church and creates a more merciful Catholicism, or if his actions will provoke a backlash of conservative fervor. My wish is for the former, but my money is on the latter.

    Image via Facebook