Contraception has been a constitutional right for some time, but it is also being debated more than ever. Most Americans insist, or by now simply assume, that they have a right to privacy which includes the ability to use contraception. What these Americans don't understand is that there is a growing movement among anti-abortion activists to move against contraception as well. Right-wing religious authoritarians regard standard forms of contraception as nearly or just as bad as abortion itself.
Some conservative Christians actually argue that all the sins and evils in society can be traced back to the availability and use of contraceptives: they diminish love, increase selfishness and lust, promote sex-education, encourage the corruption of youth, and lead to things like abortion, sterilization, and euthanasia. There are anti-abortion activists who don't have a problem with contraception, but thus far most seem to regard preventing pregnancy to be just as much of a problem as terminating one. It may not be murder and not draw the same large demonstrations, but it is a sin.
Conservative politicians who oppose abortion also pursue policies that lead to increases in unwanted pregnancies (and thus demand for abortion) by opposing public funds for contraceptive services. Such services are labeled an "inappropriate use of tax dollars." It's "inappropriate" to help poor women avoid getting pregnant; and of course the state will do everything possible to prevent these same women from getting abortions if they do end up getting pregnant. The goal? To keep them from having sex, at the very least. Sex is bad in and of itself; it's made worse when humans dare to separate it from procreation.
Consider, for example, the fact that Bush tried to slash the budget for Title X, a program the funds family-planning services for low income women. About 95% of these funds go to contraceptive distribution. One of Bush's earlier nominees to lead the FDA, Lester Crawford, opposes birth control because he believes that it encourages promiscuity. These moves are hardly surprising because the anti-abortion movement was only ever partially or even marginally about the fetus.
Restricting sexual behavior and women's autonomy have always been at the heart of religious authoritarianism and religious authoritarians are the heart of the anti-choice movement. Furthermore, the constitutional right to an abortion in America is based on the exact same legal arguments as the right to contraceptives and even contraceptive information. If the Christian Right is successful in overturning the basis for legal abortion, they will also necessarily overturn the basis for legal access to contraceptives.
Who really believes that if they achieve the first, the second won't immediately follow?
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