Banning birth control in Michigan
4 March 2024
The Republican Party’s attacks on the reproductive healthcare of women and girls are not just about criminalizing abortion. They also include banning hormonal birth control and intrauterine devices (IUDs), which they consider to be forms of abortion because they believe a fertilized egg should have all the rights of a person (the Life at Conception Act has 125 Republican sponsors in the House, including House Speaker Mike Johnson). You should be prepared for these limitations in your state or even nationwide unless you work hard to elect Democratic public officials.
In Michigan, doctors and reproductive rights advocates are condemning a Michigan Republican’s endorsement of misleading statements about hormonal birth control and his suggestion that lawmakers should ban them.
According to Michigan Advance, state Representative Josh Schriver shared an X post written by Elon Musk, the social media site’s owner, alleging that hormonal birth control “makes you fat, doubles risk of depression & triples risk of suicide. This is the clear scientific consensus, but very few people seem to know it.”
There is no “clear scientific consensus” on the risks of weight gain or psychiatric conditions while using hormonal contraceptives, according to modern research. Still, Schriver reposted Musk’s assertion and wrote, “If doctors are sworn to ‘do no harm,’ then lawmakers should look into banning hormonal birth control.’
Dr. Farhan Bhatti, a family physician and the Michigan lead for the Committee to Protect Health Care, said efforts to restrict contraceptives could harm Michiganders.
“It’s unbelievable that in this day and age, Rep. Schriver has to be told that contraception is a safe and absolutely critical component of health care for many people, protecting both their bodily autonomy and their health,” Bhatti told the Advance.
Any attempt to ban birth control would run contrary to Michigan voters’ approval of a reproductive rights constitutional amendment in November 2022. The referendum codified the right to abortion along with personal decisions about contraception, childbirth, infertility treatments, miscarriage management, pregnancy care and sterilization. News From The States
The Republican anti-abortion blueprint also includes:
Travel bans so women and girls cannot go to other states or get any assistance in seeking an abortion
Targeting patients who dare to use the word abortion, so people will be afraid of it
Disparaging prenatal testing, so it will be used less
Using tax dollars to fund crisis pregnancy centers that focus on forced religion, not medical care
Creating state databases of women and girls who have had an abortion
Trying to force doctors to perform C-sections instead of life saving abortions and redefining these abortions as “pre-viability separation procedures” so there will never be a “legitimate” use of abortion.
Forcing anti-abortion propaganda on public school students
Limiting appropriate medical care to women and girls with cancer or autoimmune diseases, whether or not they are currently pregnant, because treatment may damage their embryo or fetus if they become pregnant.
The healthcare rights of women and girls should be important to all of us, which makes this election very important and our choice very simple: the Democrats will preserve and strengthen these rights and Republicans will weaken them.
Will Americans consider these important matters when voting, or will they focus on minor issues? If Republicans win, this nation is doomed. I, for one, will work hard to prevent that from happening.
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