war on contraception goes mainstream

[niyad]

The War on Contraception Goes Mainstream

The Catholic Church’s fight with the White House makes an extreme stance seem reasonable.
BY Sady Doyle
. . . .


In her book How The Pro-Choice Movement Saved America, Page argues that right-wing attacks on abortion are cover for a far more radical agenda. The real target of organized anti-choicers, she says, is not abortion. Abortion is just the divisive, emotional topic used to mobilize grassroots support. The real target of the organized anti-choice movement–as opposed to individuals who are anti-abortion–has always been birth control. Page told me she’s been recommending since 2008 that reporters ask all GOP candidates about their position on contraception.
. . . .

It’s worth noting how very far from the mainstream the roots of the anti-contraception movement are. In our conversation, Page mentioned Quiverfull, a radical religious movement aligned with the Christian Patriarchy Movement. (Yes, they actually call themselves the Patriarchy Movement.) Quiverfull believes that children are a blessing, and that to refuse such a blessing–under any circumstances, in any way, or for any reason–is a sin. Oh, and also that true believers will impregnate their wives as many times as humanly possible, in order to raise an “army” and eventually rule the United States. In the grand scheme of wacky cult strategies for world domination, this one’s fairly practical: They plan to overcome us through sheer numbers.

But examining the Patriarchy Movement is useful to understanding what it would look like if we lost the “War on Contraception.” In practice, women within Quiverfull and similar evangelical anti-contraception movements can have well over a dozen children. Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, the most high-profile representatives of the movement (who star in The Learning Channel show 19 Kids and Counting), recently tried for their twentieth. Women are kept from working not only by religious rhetoric, but by the sheer physical burden of cycling rapidly through pregnancy and childbirth while bearing sole responsibility for massive amounts of domestic work. Daughters are enlisted early to assist, and like their mothers, they work full-time; home schooling is central to the movement.

Of course, denying women education and income and putting them in a near-perpetual state of physical vulnerability makes them totally dependent on men. Which is the point: As Libby Anne, a woman raised in the Christian Patriarchy Movement, put it, “a woman is always under male authority, first her father, then her husband, and perhaps, someday, her son.” And if she wants out, she can’t get out, because she’s been systematically denied the economic and social power necessary to escape. Anne got free because her parents took the fairly heretical step of allowing her to attend college.

Page argues that this vision, dystopian and unlikely as it sounds, is essential to understanding anti-choice conservatism. She lists the seemingly paradoxical stances of the anti-choice movement: They’re against abortion, but also against contraception that reduces the likelihood of abortion, but also against child care for working parents.

. . . . .

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/12757/the_war_on_contraception_goes_mainstream/

[CrispyQ]

1. "...but also against child care for working parents."

Assholes.

How does Duggar support his family? What does he do besides that awful television show where they glorify this kind of shit. What is their solution for those who can't afford a litter?

I think a lot of men are going to flip out when they discover how radical these people are & just how far these people want to take this. Right now it may seem like only a woman's issue, but when men start realizing the implications - no sex or lots of kids - I think they will join our fight.

I don't know many men who could support a family of 20.

I don't know many two income families that could do that!

[niyad]

2. logic is not in the database for these nutbars. not only can most people not afford this insanity,

neither can the earth. but then, so many of them seem to think this is the end times as well, so they really don't care about a viable, sustainable planet on which to live with their horde.

[Tomay]

3. I have heard that the Duggars' "church" pays their bills

because the Duggars are the poster children for the Quiverfull "church" (actually a cult, if you ask me). Obviously this solution isn't available to the average family trying to figure out how to feed and clothe a family of 12 or more.
The thing that puzzles me is why would any women allow themselves to be enslaved like this? Why are there female members of Quiverfull? Is it a case of women being brainwashed from childhood to believe this is the only "holy" way to live?

[CrispyQ]

4. Like you, I cannot fathom the mind set required to go along with this.

Every day I give thanks for the upbringing I had - being raised around strong women & reasonable people.

[niyad]

6. I was raised catholic, but got tossed out for telling the celibate hierarchy they were full of it.

that is what comes from having a decent education, which most of these women do not have a chance to acquire.

[niyad]

5. brainwashing is the word--certain churches preach this kind of nonsense, and if that is all you ever

hear, or have available to you (which is why they want to restrict education as well) how are you going to know any differently?

[pamela]

7. This is important.

" The real target of the organized anti-choice movement–as opposed to individuals who are anti-abortion–has always been birth control."

I would even go so far as to say that the real target of the anti-abortion movement has always been birth control. Now, I know that not everyone who is anti-abortion is also anti-contraception but the leaders of the anti-abortion movement know that any law that defines life as beginning at conception, and outlaws abortion, will automatically make many forms of birth control illegal. That's why they are so adament that the laws include that definition and why they are so opposed to morning after pills. If it was just abortion they were against, they would accept, or at least consider, a less strict definition.

I think many people who call themselves pro-life have been duped. This is ALL about controlling women. It's about a worldview that believes that a woman's place is in the home and that society was better off when women knew their place. That seems so archaic to us now that we laugh when someone suggests that is the true motive but I really am starting to believe that it is. The Pill changed everything for women. If you look at the history of womankind, the period in which women could freely delay childbirth and choose education and/or careers is just a tiny little blip. Just 40 or 50 years compared to the thousands of years before in which women's roles were limited to wife and mother. We came so far, so fast, and we can not forget that we could lose it all just as quickly.

[OKNancy]

8. I think we have gone so far that we can't turn back

pamela wrote: We came so far, so fast, and we can not forget that we could lose it all just as quickly.

I know the right wing and some religious groups are really, really trying to set us back a century, but I also think they won't succeed.
It will be a hard fight, but one we will win. I don't think the majority of women ( or most men for that matter) will stand for it.

Who will suffer are the poor and uneducated. Those are the people we need to fight for.

[Kath1]

9. Very well-said, OKNancy!

I really hope that you are right and they don't set us back a hundred years but sometimes I have doubts. Women will not stand for it. Hopefully, men will take issue with it as well. Republican/conservative victories in the upcoming elections will be devestating and you ane right - the poor and uneducated will suffer the most.

[Warren DeMontague]

10. outlawing contraception has always been the goal of the anti-choice movement

however, it's important to note that these 'quiverfulls' would be negating their own strategy if they succeeded in doing away with contraception, because then us pointy-headed secular elites would be spawning giant families, too.

Beyond that, it's a dumb-ass, simplistic idea that ignores one fundamental facet of human nature; the time-honored tradition of kids rebelling against their parents, often directly correlated to how repressive and dogmatic said parents are. Some of the world's biggest atheists and rebels have come from fundy backgrounds.