The Religious Consultation
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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (US), June 7, 2005 After 40 years,
tiny pill still leads big debate; Some prefer
natural family planning BYLINE: STACY FORSTER, Staff, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Madison - For Fay McClurg and her husband, birth control pills made it possible for them to plan the births of their children at a time when they were emotionally and financially ready for them. But Ginny Smith and her husband found the opposite was true: Natural measures - not hormonal birth control - were the way to go when the Watertown couple planned the births of their eight children. Today marks the 40th anniversary of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized birth control for married women and that laid the groundwork for later decisions on abortion and birth control for unmarried women. Some will celebrate the decision as a revolutionary advancement that allowed women to seize their reproductive rights and embrace economic and career opportunities. At the same time, abortion opponents will mark the anniversary with prayer vigils to commemorate the moment they say launched later battles about abortion. Four decades later, the debate over birth control still rages in Wisconsin. The Legislature is considering a ban on providing emergency contraception on University of Wisconsin campuses, as well as a measure that would allow pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for contraceptives. And some Democratic lawmakers will introduce legislation today they say will protect women's access to birth control. Just last year, Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager issued an opinion that said employers who offer prescription drug benefit plans must cover the cost of birth control. In her lifetime, Ginny Smith, 45, said she's seen the negative effects that contraception has had on women. "Contraception objectifies women," she said. While loose attitudes about sex have contributed to social problems, Smith said, women are "teasing themselves if they really think they have power by (controlling) their own fertility and their femininity." But McClurg, 49, of Madison, said it would have been difficult to manage the emotional and financial obligations of having children without the ability to control the timing of her pregnancies. "Having children when you're prepared for them is one of the best things life has to offer," McClurg said. Landmark decision The birth control pill was introduced in 1960, for the first time giving women a way to control their menstrual cycles. Five years later, the Supreme Court took up the case of Estelle Griswold, executive director of the Planned Parenthood League in Connecticut. She and others at the Planned Parenthood Center in New Haven were arrested for giving information and instruction to married couples about how to prevent pregnancies. In writing for the majority in the 7-2 opinion, Justice William Douglas cited constitutional guarantees of privacy that should prevent the government from interfering in people's bedrooms. At the time, the use of all forms of birth control was illegal in Wisconsin, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruling made it legal for married women in the state, said Chris Taylor, legal counsel for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. It wasn't until 1976 that all Wisconsin women had legal access to birth control - four years after a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that applied to birth control for unmarried women, Taylor said. Some abortion opponents believe the Griswold decision paved the way for the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion. By not immediately seeing the impact of the decision on birth control and how it might contribute to moral decline, abortion opponents lost ground in the 1960s, said Julaine Appling, executive director of the Family Research Institute of Wisconsin. But to Democratic Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton, the legalization of birth control was "every bit as revolutionary as the discovery of fire, in what it means for women and the opportunities we have to reach our potential." Katie Scott, a 21-year-old University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student, believes strongly that women's access to reproductive options should be preserved. "As a woman . . . who is three years out of her parents' home, I'm fully aware of what emergency contraception and birth control are, especially in an age where sex is openly talked about," said Scott, of St. Paul, Minn. Mary Kay Kulla, who has four children with her husband, Scott, said she's happy the debate continues because it makes people more aware of the alternatives to contraceptives. "It's an openness to life, that we're not afraid of anything," Kulla, 33, of Johnson Creek, said of their decision to use natural family planning techniques that require charting and monitoring her monthly cycle. << Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- 6/7/05
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