Skip to main content

Free contraceptives and STDs

An essay by Jennifer Fulwiler in the National Catholic Register criticizes the recent Obstetrics & Gynecology study (the St. Louis study) on the connection between free contraceptives and pregnancy and abortion rates.

Her critique does not focus on the methodology of the study or its specific results. Instead, she focuses on the possibility that using certain types of contraception may increase STD rates.

She does not describe the causal links, but she is implicitly floating two hypotheses:
  1. Women who rely on IUDs or hormonal implants are less likely to use condoms during sex and therefore are more likely to be exposed to STDs.
  2. Some studies indicate that hormonal implants increase the likelihood of contracting an STD. Therefore, use of hormonal implants makes STD contraction all the more likely, given hypothesis 1. 
Given what Ms. Fulwiler cites as high rates of STD contraction in the study area (St. Louis), she thinks the researchers were ethically irresponsible for promoting IUD and hormonal implant use. She does not acknowledge that the researchers did not push these methods of contraception; the women in the study were free to choose from a range of contraceptive methods.

Links:

Essay in the National Catholic Register (October 10, 2012): The Shocking Ethics Behind the Contraceptive Choice Project

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The irony of the inquiry into Dr. Halappanavar's death

The Associated Press (via  The Washington Post ) reports that the composition of the panel that is investigating Dr. Savita Halappanavar's death in Ireland has changed: Prime Minister Enda Kenny told lawmakers he hoped the move — barely 24 hours after Ireland unveiled the seven-member panel — would allow the woman’s widower to support the probe into why Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old Indian dentist, died Oct. 28 while hospitalized in Galway.   Kenny’s U-turn came hours after her husband, Praveen Halappanavar, said he would refuse to talk to the investigators and would not consent to their viewing his wife’s medical records because three of the Galway hospital’s senior doctors had been appointed as investigators. Kenny said that the three doctors would be replaced by other officials “who have no connection at all with University Hospital Galway. In that sense the investigation will be completely and utterly independent.”   This makes sense. Why conduct an inquiry at all

Planned Parenthood and mammograms

Pro-life groups like Live Action love to charge Planned Parenthood with lying when it comes to whether the organization provides women with mammograms. Does Planned Parenthood provide mammograms? The literal answer appears to be "no," they do not. That being said, Planned Parenthood provides a) many breast exams a year (according to The Hill , 750,000), and b) referrals to organizations that do provide mammograms, much like many basic health care organizations. As with negative political advertising, then, the activists attacking Planned Parenthood are indulging in myopia, which allows them to focus on something that is literally true while failing to see the bigger and more relevant picture. The larger and more relevant picture in this case is that Planned Parenthood provides, among other preventative and primary care, access to breast exams and mammograms for women. If those women are poor and in areas (like in rural Texas) where Planned Parenthood is one of the only p