OPINION:
In her column “Contraception edict tramples conscience” (Culture, Aug. 8), Rebecca Hagelin says President Obama’s decision to provide “free” contraceptives, abortifacients and sterilization to women to prevent pregnancy is a very bad one.
Ms. Hagelin cites many of the problems with Mr. Obama’s pregnancy-prevention campaign. It denies consumers the right to choose the preventive care they are willing to pay for; ignores the conscience rights of those who object to paying for contraceptives; will increase out-of-wedlock pregnancies, abortions and HIV infections; and smells of another chapter of the eugenics practiced on the poor, especially blacks.
It has been demonstrated over and over that increasing contraceptive usage leads to increased abortions. For example, in New York City, where free contraceptives flow like water, the abortion rate for blacks has grown to 60 percent.
In addition to all of the foregoing, the World Health Organization declared in 2005 that the pill and similar contraceptives raise the risk of breast, liver and cervical cancer. And none of this is free. Someone has to pay for the contraceptives and the medical problems they engender.
After a minimal investment, natural family planning based on temperature and ovulation is really “free,” without the medical issues of many contraceptives, but Mr. Obama is doing everything he can to impose his “culture of death” ideology on the United States.
JOHN NAUGHTON
Silver Spring
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