** update included at the end of this post **

Having just reviewed and written about Birth Control Watch, I wanted to add another layer of context to the site… it has rightly placed these organizations on “watch” for the following reasons (listed below the list). These organizations are using flawed logic at best and, at worse, no scientific facts. As a woman of strong faith and strong mind, I urge these groups to realize how truly damaging their lobbying efforts are when it comes to the health, well being and future of women and their families world wide.

  1. Family Research Council
  2. Concerned Women For America
  3. Pro-Life Action League
  4. Christian Coalition
  5. Focus On The Family
  6. Medical Institute For Sexual Health
  7. Population Research Institute
  8. Pro-Life America
  9. Physicians For Life
  10. Operation Rescue
  11. Quiverfull
  12. Human Life International
  13. Army Of God
  14. Stop Planned Parenthood (American Life League)
  15. C-Fam
  16. National Abstinence Clearinghouse
  17. American Life League
  18. Birth Control.Org
  19. Americans United For Life
  20. Catholic Medical Association
  21. No Room For Contraception
  22. Christian Medical Association
  23. Couple To Couple League
  24. Generations For Life
  25. Rock For Life (American Life League)

Note’s Birth Control Watch (and I completely concur):

“This debate is supposed to be over; our most important life decisions are meant to be our own personal responsibility (as 93% of voters believe they should be), protected by the government, (over 75% of voters believe they should be.) Yet right now the 9% of Americans who want to deny us the ability to decide when we become parents and limit our opportunities to make the best decisions for ourselves and our families are aggressively working to control our individual decision-making.”

How is the opposition doing this? Five insidious and unproductive initiatives that you should be on the watch for, that’s how:

1 - Proposed New HHS Federal Regulations on Contraception

These new regulations would seriously limit access to birth control options

2 - Colorado Voter Referendum: A Fertilized Egg is a Person

This ballot proposal would limit access to the prevention of unintended pregnancies that 75% of voters believe we should have. It asks Colorado voters to give full human rights to every fertilized egg.

3 - The “Pill Kills” Campaigns (American Life League)
This campaign shows so little respect for Americans – it makes false claims against birth control pills in an effort to influence the 91% of voters who believe that Americans should make these important life decisions themselves.

4 - Abstinence-Only Funding
76% of voters believe that for teenagers, prevention starts with comprehensive sex education, but over the past two decades the U.S. government has invested over $1.5 billion in abstinence-until-marriage programs that promote inaccurate information and have proven to fail.

5 - Pharmacist Refusals
Refusals to fill prescriptions for contraception are growing across the country. Pharmacists unwilling to provide women their prescription contraception act on personal beliefs, not on medical or professional concerns.

***UPDATE 10/13/08: I was contacted by American Life League’s Director of Communications, Kathleen Walker. Not only was it a respectful email, but we will be following up further for an interview/dialog of some sort that I will share here on my blog. Kathleen also wanted to note a correction: “STOPP Planned Parenthood and Rock for Life are both actually a part of/projects of American Life League - as is the Pill Kills campaign. So you can shorten your list by two to only 23 organizations to watch.” (Thanks Kathleen, I have updated my headline to reflect that there are sub-groups within the 25 that are related to one another. As someone who has been an online brand and community manager for a number top brands in the last 4 years, I want to commend you for being such a great example of an online steward for your organization.)