Mark your calendars folks, because June 5th is “Protest the Pill Day: The Pill Kills the Environment.” Yes, this Saturday, 27 “pro-life” groups are coming together to rail against birth control pills, evidently because trying to control one aspect of a woman’s medical decisions doesn’t take up enough of their time. So on June 5th, the American Life League, Human Life International, Operation Rescue, and others are urging people to stand outside a local pharmacy, Planned Parenthood clinic, random doctor’s office, or any busy intersection with a sign protesting birth control.

So why are these organizations so dead-set against forms of birth control? Well, the protest’s website, www.thepillkills.com, attempts to explain their reasoning. Like any medication, hormonal birth control can occasionally have some risks, which is exactly why it’s dispensed by doctors and physicians, who can evaluate whether the drug is appropriate for a patient. But the website sensationalizes these side effects, along with the (very) rare deaths that have sometimes been linked to birth control use, and even goes so far as to suggest an enormous conspiracy. Besides effects on humans, the site also attempts to make the case that birth control is “making male fish, frogs and river otters less masculine.”

The website’s obsession with the “feminizing” of fish and other animals is pretty fascinating (and I could probably write a fair amount about the connection the site then makes to humans eating these fish, and the implicit use of homophobia as a scare tactic, but that may be a bit off topic) . And if you actually look at the article the website used to make its case on this issue, it  is more focused on “the environmental effects of chemicals that aren’t being filtered out by sewage plants, including pharmaceuticals and pesticides that can mimic hormones.” This is an environmental problem, but not something that can strictly be blamed on birth control. It seems to be much more about the lack of proper precautions in the disposal of medications and other chemicals. Not that the people behind www.thepillkills.com would want to be bothered with those facts.

No, they instead hide behind whatever articles or theories they can find to further their real agenda: trying to control the medical decisions of all women.

They can say that they want birth control banned because of health risks or the environment, but I just don’t buy it. The website has too many references to violating “Church teachings” and “Bringing Jesus to Planned Parenthood” to make me think this is nothing but a (very) thinly veiled cover for attempting to (yet again) impose a group’s “moral” values on everyone else.

What I don’t understand, and what I think I never will, is why it’s so important for some groups of people to control what every else does. If you don’t want to take birth control, no one is forcing you. No one from Planned Parenthood is trying to get legislation passed to mandate that every woman must be on some form of hormonal birth control. No one is calling for mandatory abortions. We simply want these options to be available to women who need or want them. If you don’t, then don’t use them.

If only it were actually as simple as that.

What do you think of “Protest the Pill Day?” Is it even something worthy of our time or attention?

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