Testimony Opposing "UW Birth Control Ban," AB 343
TESTIMONY OF KELDA HELEN ROYS
OPPOSING 2005 AB 343, THE “UW BIRTH CONTROL BAN”
To: Wisconsin State Assembly
Committee on Family Law
From: Kelda Helen Roys, Esq., Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin
Re: Opposition to 2005 AB 343, the “UW Birth Control Ban”
Date: May 26, 2005
Good morning. My name is Kelda Helen Roys. I am the Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin, and I am here representing thousands of our members statewide to register strong opposition to AB 343, the UW Birth Control Ban. Thank you for the opportunity to testify against this proposed legislation.
NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin is a grassroots political advocacy organization that works to ensure every woman the right to the full range of reproductive health care services, including preventing unintended pregnancy, bearing healthy children, and safe, legal abortion. We believe in a culture of freedom and personal responsibility, and that starts with prevention of unintended pregnancy and responsible use of birth control.
Contraception is basic health care: over 95 percent of American women use birth control at some point, without which the average woman would have 12-15 pregnancies. Many women use hormonal birth control to treat serious, life-threatening conditions. This ban interferes in the personal lives of Wisconsin’s citizens, violates women’s constitutional right to privacy and to access birth control, and puts women’s health at risk.
Furthermore, this bill simply defies common sense – birth control and sex education are the proven methods for reducing unintended pregnancy and the need for abortion. To those of you who oppose abortion rights, I say, let’s set aside our differences on a woman’s right to choose – let’s work together to reduce the need for abortion. We, as people who care about the health and well being of women and families, should have zero tolerance for unintended pregnancy. Let’s give our young people, including adult college students, the tools they need to make healthy, responsible choices about sex and reproduction. We should expand access to birth control, including emergency contraception, and make sure that every person has accurate, comprehensive information about abstinence, as well as how to protect against unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection.
Emergency contraception is the single most promising avenue for reducing unintended pregnancy and the need for abortion in the United States. EC is simply a concentrated dose of ordinary birth control pills that greatly reduce a woman’s chance of becoming pregnant when taken as soon as possible after unprotected sex, sexual assault, or contraceptive failure. In fact, a 2002 study revealed that EC use was likely responsible for up to 43 percent of the decline in abortions in the U.S. between 1994 and 2000. It could prevent as many as 88% of the 25,000 to 30,000 pregnancies resulting from rape every year. Yet many Wisconsinites still have difficulty accessing EC in a timely manner. By educating the public about EC and ensuring that patients can get it when needed, University Health Services have been key in preserving the health of our students and community members, treating sexual assault survivors with compassion, and reducing unintended pregnancy.
Emergency contraception pills have twice been overwhelmingly recommended for over-the-counter status by President Bush’s expert FDA panels. EC is safe, effective and simple to use, does not have serious or harmful side-effects, is not dangerous to women with particular medical conditions, even those for whom daily birth control pills might present risks, and EC does not lead to riskier behavior or less frequent use of other forms of contraception. Six US states have direct pharmacy access for EC, and many more are considering such legislation. Many countries allow EC to be purchased over the counter – Wisconsin should join the rest of the nation and the world in improving health care access.
Studies from around the world and the US have proven that access to emergency contraception does not encourage riskier sexual behavior, nor does is lead to less frequent use of other forms of contraception. One 2004 study, published in the Journal of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology, found that giving EC in advance to at-risk young women ages 15-20 does not increase the likelihood of unprotected sex, nor does it negatively affect the use of condoms or other ongoing forms of contraception. In fact, at the sixth month follow-up, more young women who received EC in advance reported using condoms than those in the group that received only education about EC. Those who received EC in advance also reported fewer pregnancies and no more STDs than the group not receiving an advance supply of EC. Studies also consistently conclude that reducing access to contraception does not decrease sexual activity – young people continue to have sex even if no contraception is available.
This bill is especially cruel to the hundreds of young women who are sexually assaulted on campus every year. For them, emergency contraception is the only way they can take back a little bit of the power that was robbed from them. They might contract herpes, they might contract gonorrhea, they might contract HIV – we can’t protect them from disease. But they absolutely do not have to face a pregnancy from that rape. If any one of us had a daughter, or sister, or godchild who suffered the trauma of unwanted sexual contact, we would do everything in our power to help restore her physical, mental, and spiritual health. For many rape victims, the comfort that emergency contraception provides by preventing pregnancy is a crucial relief that helps them move towards wholeness and healing.
While I have focused on emergency contraception, the UW Birth Control Ban is written so vaguely that it could easily apply to ordinary daily birth control pills, which are often used as emergency contraceptives. Wisconsin’s Attorney General has found this ban constitutionally deficient in several ways, under both our state and federal Constitutions. The UW Birth Control Ban is discriminatory, it violates citizens’ right to privacy, it is unconstitutionally vague, and it violates the First Amendment – it also lacks any compelling governmental purpose. The purpose set forth by the bill’s author has been explicitly rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court time and time again.
For decades, when women went to college, they were derided as being there to get their M-R-S. With this ban, we’re sending the message that if they have sex or are raped, they deserve to get their M-O-M. Our college students can go to war and fight for our country, they can put themselves through college, they can vote – these young adults are being responsible, healthy, and moral by taking control of their own reproductive health.
Let’s work together to prevent unintended pregnancy, reduce the need for abortion, and promote a culture of freedom and personal responsibility. Please reject the UW Birth Control Ban. Thank you.
|
