Why Do Conservatives Hate Contraception?
As a guy, I probably shouldn’t be wading into this subject, but, hey…I’ve got an opinion on it, so here goes.
Today, in yet another HUGE step backwards, Trump announced he’s rolling back a key rule of the Affordable Care Act requiring employers to cover contraception costs for their female employees. The new rule gives employers the “option” to not provide coverage, but doesn’t actually repeal the rule, which the administration knows would be hugely unpopular. The anti-choice knuckledraggers are rejoicing the move, even though unintended pregnancies and abortion have dropped after the ACA to their lowest levels since abortion became legal in 1973. This move is stupid, like most other decisions Trump has made, will drive costs up for women’s healthcare by hundreds of millions of dollars per yer, AND will cause unintended pregnancies to once again start climbing.
So what’s going on here? Why, in the 21st century, would anyone want to force women to bear children by making contraception harder to get, and abortion services almost impossible to receive. I understand (even though I don’t agree with) the long standing teachings of the Catholic Church, even though actually being a non-practicing Catholic, I know for a fact that clergy all over the world looks the other way when it comes to the whole no contraception thing. But why would others so vehemently oppose one of the most empowering methods for women to control their own bodies?
Well, I finally learned the reason just recently, and I can’t believe it took this long for me. The reason that conservatives hate birth control? Race. If you keep birth control services away from well-off white women they’ll start making babies as fast as those poor, dark skinned women. Yep, as shocking as that sounds, this is a theory born of white supremacists that has now permeated conservative politics to the point that normal people have been brainwashed to believe that women controlling ANY aspect of their own bodily functions especially when they make babies should not be allowed.
Hear me out – Just recently, the New York Times published the story of a young Swedish student who went undercover and penetrated several white supremacist organizations in Europe and the US, even videoing conversations with their leaders. The one thing that becomes clear in these videos is that these people are weird and scary. I’m mean REALLY weird and scary. They dress in goofy khaki shirts and shorts with ties like the Hitler youth used to wear, but spout the same dark ideology as their hero, Hitler. And they talk continuously of mainstreaming their ideas of separating all the races from one another so each race lives in its own “ethno society”. One of these weirdos is an American recluse named Greg Johnson who runs Counter Currents Publishing, that spreads racist hate and drivel. In a particular video shot undercover, he described how he would organize these societies. He says the first thing he would do is ban all “voluntary birth control”. Explaining further, he says,
“Voluntary birth control means that people who are far sighted and responsible restrict their fertility, and people who are impulsive and stupid don’t. That’s dysgenic on the face of it, so you can’t leave birth control up to the individual.”
He went on to talk about giving women a free year of education for each child they bear, and advocates for sterilization of those convicted of serious crimes. It goes on and on. The video is embedded in the NYT article I linked to, and I highly recommend you listen the entire thing even though it, and indeed the entire article, is chilling. This warped thinking has now actually been mainstreamed far enough to be picked up by conservatives in the US, and it comes straight from ethno fascist ideology that we thought had been stamped out when we destroyed the Nazis in 1945. But it’s back, and it’s back with a vengeance, aided today by evil toads like Steve Bannon, and useful idiots like Donald Trump.
Learning this little factoid helped me understand what was until recently one of those weird beliefs of conservatives that I never could get. I have to tell you, this is about as scary as it gets to this old guy.
