The Real Objective - by Janet Brazil

Americans should ask themselves--what is the real goal of Congress in banning both abortion and contraception? Any thinking person can see that the use of contraceptives will reduce the need for abortions. 

If you’ve kept up with actions of our new Republican Congress, you know that they have attacked abortion in the Health Care Plan. Now they have passed bills to defund Planned Parenthood, which does abortions but is the biggest dispenser of contraceptives, and even defund the government Title X program, which doesn’t cover abortion at all, but does provide contraceptives and other care.  

Cutting both contraception and abortion is not going to reduce the budget as they say, because experience shows this will only lead to unsafe abortions. A recent study in Nigeria found that the cost of treating complications from unsafe abortions was about $19 million, while it would have cost around $4.8 million to provide contraception preventing those pregnancies.

Those of us who have followed Catholic actions know that eliminating both abortion and contraception in this country has been the goal of the Catholic Church, starting with their Bishops’ Pastoral Plan in 1975 to organize and influence all three branches of government. They have been amazingly successful, since Catholics now make up the majority religion in Congress—151, with Baptists placing second with 71 members—and Catholics are the majority religion on the Supreme Court. 

Part of the Pastoral Plan was to create a non-Catholic movement to oppose abortion, the topic chosen to galvanize the movement. Paul Weyrich, a Catholic, set up the Moral Majority and enlisted Evangelist Jerry Falwell to run it, once Falwell agreed to oppose abortion. 

Why this adamant opposition to contraception and abortion? Read about the Commission on Population and Birth, convened by Pope John XXIII in 1966 to determine if the Church could change its opposition to birth control. Though the Commission voted overwhelmingly that the policy should be changed, Paul VI adopted the minority view that insisted that making this change would destroy the fundamental principle of infallibility and with it, the Church itself. He then issued his encyclical, Humanae Vitae (1968), reaffirming the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church regarding contraception and abortion. The Church hierarchy does not permit abortion even in case of rape or as a direct way of saving the life of a pregnant woman.  

While defunding contraceptives and abortions fulfills the longtime goal of the Catholic Church, there may be an additional, more devious, purpose at work here.  

Throughout history, countries have prohibited abortion whenever it suited their needs, such as increasing the size of their armies. Capitalism presents a new opportunity. Non-availability of subsidized birth control increases birthrates among families who are least able to afford children, forcing them to work for low wages. This cheap labor creates greater profits for the employer.  

Now, with many Tea Party candidates funded by corporations, with the past election won by donations from corporations—thanks to the Supreme Court ruling allowing corporations to spend unlimited sums anonymously in political campaigns—with Speaker of the House John Boehner’s close ties with corporate interests, our country is effectively controlled by corporate power. If this legislation becomes law, that corporate power will have far greater control over its workers, increasing over time.  

That may be the real objective.

The Real Objective - by Janet Brazil

Appeared March 20-26, 2011 with the quotation below.  

I am convinced that some political and social activities and practices of the Catholic organizations [I mention here only the fight against birth control] are detrimental and even dangerous for the community as a whole, here and everywhere.  

Albert Einstein, 1954