Birth Control is Not Healthcare

by Marie T. Hilliard

Dr. Malcolm Potts, first medical director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, in a piece late last month in the Los Angeles Times¸erroneously blames the Vatican for denying the Little Sisters of the Poor the alleged health benefits of hormonal contraception.  In fact, the Little Sisters of the Poor are challenging in court their real oppressor, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is mandating that employers violate their consciences by providing all of their employees’ contraceptive, abortifacient and surgical sterilization coverage in their health plans.  We are grateful that the Sisters are taking this courageous stand for religious liberty, which may, in the long run, benefit all persons who believe in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.  Although the positions of the Vatican are always based on sound science and truth, the challenge by the Sisters to the HHS mandate is their own initiative. Indeed, their decision has much more to do with religious liberty than the flawed arguments contained in Dr. Potts’ column.

For starters, when Pope Paul VI issued the encyclical, Humanae vitae, he did so after reviewing both the majority and minority reports of the Pontifical Commission on Birth Control of 1966.  Humane vitae is a profoundly prophetic document since it foresaw the inevitable societal abuses of women and the family from the widespread use of contraception, including high rates of divorce and illegitimacy.  All one has to do is go to Planned Parenthood’s own website to see the statistics on unplanned pregnancies.  This is especially true for college age students who are the “beneficiaries” of the HHS mandate.  In fact, the “rates of unintended pregnancy and unintended pregnancy ending in birth [is] highest among women ages 18 to 24.”

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 Marie T. Hilliard, Ph.D., RN, is the Director of Bioethics and Public Policy at the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia. She holds an MS in Maternal Child Health Nursing, an MA in Religious Studies and a degree in Canon Law.