Religious Groups Continue to Equate Birth Control with Abortion

When it comes to matters of birth control, it often seems like we're living in another time. Take, for example, Foster Friess's comment yesterday (just a joke, he claims now) that in the olden days gals put Bayer Aspirin "between their knees" for birth control. Har har. Joke or not -- and as a joke, it falls pretty flat -- it's attitudes like those that promote further antiquated (not to mention confused) thinking and, again, makes us wonder: Why are men still making the decisions regarding birth control for women?

In this vein, Roman Catholic bishops and other evangelical groups (men, most of them, if not all), continue to hold fast to the idea that certain forms of birth control are essentially the same thing as abortion, an argument they're making to fight against Obama's ruling that would give birth control to all women who need it, even those employed at religious institutions. This clearly scares certain religious organizations, so they're trotting out the A-word. The problem is, science has said over and over again that birth control --in this case, morning-after pills and IUDs -- is not the same thing as an abortion.

Pam Belluck and Erik Eckhold sum up the argument from the religious side in a piece in The New York Times:

more: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/02/religious-groups-continue-equate-birth-control-abortion/48841/