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Pro-Life Wisconsin joins national protest to end legal access to birth control

Judith Davidoff  —  5/14/2008 8:40 am

In recent years, some anti-abortion advocates have turned their attention to birth control -- not as a means to reduce unplanned pregnancies, but as another target of protest.

One of the most fervent anti-contraception crusaders is Pro-Life Wisconsin, which believes virtually all forms of birth control can cause a "chemical abortion" by preventing an already fertilized egg from implanting in the uterine wall.

The Brookfield-based group, along with the American Life League and Pharmacists for Life International associate groups, will take their protest to the streets June 7 with prayer vigils staged at family clinics around the country and state.

In Dane County, a prayer vigil will be held at 10 a.m. at the Planned Parenthood clinic on Orin Road in Madison, following Mass at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, 120 W. Johnson St., at 8 a.m.

The protests, under the banner of "Protest the Pill Day '08: The Pill Kills Babies!" are timed to coincide with the 43rd anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision Griswold vs. Connecticut that established the right to birth control for married couples.

A later decision extended that right to single individuals. Both decisions helped establish a recognized constitutional right to privacy, which paved the way for the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.

Griswold was a seminal decision in that it allowed women and men, for the first time, to control their reproductive destinies through the use of legal contraception.

But in recent years, it has come under growing attack by anti-abortion groups.

In a flier for the June 7 protests, Pro-Life calls the Griswold ruling "the first of many decisions that led to the culture of death we live in today."

Neither Matt Sande, director of legislation for Pro-Life Wisconsin, nor Virginia Zignego, communications director, responded to requests to be interviewed for this article.

According to Nicole Safar, legal and policy analyst for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, 98 percent of women in the United States have used birth control at some point in their lives.

"So this whole idea that birth control is bad for women and bad for families is such an extreme view," she said.

Furthermore, she says protests over birth control actually help her organization's cause, which is to promote and provide family planning services.

"When you tell people that birth control is under attack, we are met with some skepticism," she said. "So the more they want to stand out there and say, 'We don't want you to have access to condoms and the pill to better plan your children,' really, the better for us."

Media critic

Those who followed the ultimately ill-fated effort to unionize Madison's Whole Foods Market a few years ago might remember Debbie Rasmussen, one of the unionizing drive's lead organizers.

Rasmussen, who received a master's degree in journalism from UW-Madison, returns to Madison today in her new role as publisher of Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture, a quarterly magazine devoted to feminist analysis and media criticism. The 12-year-old magazine recently moved from Oakland, Calif., to Portland, Ore., in search of less expensive digs and a better standard of living for its five staffers.

"Portland is a little like Madison," said Rasmussen, who during her time here was also co-publisher and co-editor of the second incarnation of The Insurgent, Madison's now-defunct, collectively run community newspaper. "It's a great city, but it's a bit of a bubble. People are well-connected and engaged."

That's part of why Rasmussen is now on the road, seeking diverse feedback for her magazine and hoping to spark discussion on whether and how feminism can be a transformative movement for social change.

She says she hopes to use the clout of her magazine to get at issues of "privilege and oppression and marginalization that continue to play out in feminist communities."

Tonight Rasmussen will lead a discussion on "Feminism In/Action: What Is Your Feminism for and Why Does It Matter?" from 6 to 8 p.m. at Room of One's Own Bookstore, 307 W. Johnson St. She'll also co-host a benefit for her magazine at 8 p.m. Thursday at Mother Fool's Coffeehouse that will feature music and performance art.

Domestic partner benefits

Last week the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the state's gay marriage ban forbids public employers from offering domestic partner health insurance.

Wisconsin passed its own gay marriage ban in 2006, which included ambiguous language on the legality of benefits for unmarried couples.

But Fair Wisconsin, the statewide advocacy group for gays and lesbians that led the fight again Wisconsin's constitutional amendment, says the Michigan ruling should not affect domestic partner benefits in the Badger State.

"Wisconsin is not Michigan," Glenn Carlson, executive director of Fair Wisconsin, wrote in a letter to supporters Monday.

One significant difference between the two states, he notes, is that Wisconsin courts -- unlike Michigan's -- would be required to consider the intent of the ban's proponents. Legislators and advocates alike said many times in the weeks leading up to the referendum vote that Wisconsin's ban would not prohibit domestic partner benefits, Carlson said.

Now, Carlson said, his group is going to be "calling on the legislative proponents of the Wisconsin marriage amendment to reaffirm the assurances they made during the campaign."

And those who backtrack will be held accountable, he warns: "We are prepared ... to identify and target any who refuse to stand by their earlier words."

Judith Davidoff  —  5/14/2008 8:40 am