New CDC study promotes the use of abortifacients to reduce abortion rates

by Ben Johnson

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 21, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new CDC report promotes the widespread use of abortion-inducing contraception as a means to reduce the abortion rate.

The newly released “Abortion Surveillance,” which states that abortion rates dropped five percent in 2009, acknowledges that “multiple factors” may influence abortion rates, “including the availability of abortion providers” and “state regulations…on abortion providers.” For instance, a Texas law reduced abortions after 16 weeks by a whopping 88 percent.

Yet the report promotes only widespread use of abortion-inducing drugs as a means of reducing assisted abortions.

The report concludes: “Removing cost as one barrier to the use of the most effective contraceptive methods might therefore be an important way to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and consequently the number of abortions that are performed in the United States.”

The report bolsters this claim by citing the debunked study conducted by Jeff Peipert, which appeared in the October edition of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

The government report singles out the use of intrauterine devices (IUDs) and hormonal implants, calling these drugs “as effective as sterilization.”

Both may act as abortifacients.

IUDs can inflame the lining of the uterus, making implantation of a newly conceived child impossible and inducing an early abortion. Hormonal implants, such as Norplant, can have the same effect by changing the endometrium.

“According to their patient information inserts, all of the longer-acting methods sometimes act as abortifacients…which will actually lead to an increase, not a decrease, in total abortions,” Brian Clowes, director of research for Human Life International, told LifeSiteNews.com.

According to the Life Issues Institute, “in as many as 95 percent of the cases [the IUD] does not prevent fertilization.”

Although IUD use has more than doubled in recent years, with 8.5 percent of American women using an IUD or implant, the CDC states “use of these methods in the United States remains among the lowest of any developed country.”

In fact, peer-reviewed studies show wider contraceptive use may spike abortion rates.

A January 2011 study published in the journal Contraception found that the number of Spanish women taking contraception increased from 49.1 percent to 79.9 percent between 1997 and 2007, but the number of abortions more than doubled during the same time period.

The IUD and hormonal implants such as Norplant have also had a long history of causing serious health issues for women resulting in large class action lawsuit awards. The Pharmalot website reports that “tens of thousands of women had filed lawsuits claiming Wyeth failed to adequately warn about irregular menstrual bleeding, nausea, headaches and depression” resulting from the use of Norplant.

Although newer, supposedly safer versions of IUDs and implants have been introduced into the market, there are still concerns about the history of unexpected dangerous side effects that have accompanied the insertion of devices and hormones into women’s bodies via either the pill or hormone injections, regardless of formulation.

The CDC report’s advocacy for reducing the cost of contraception enhances the Obama administration’s efforts to promote the HHS mandate, transforming a government report into a lobbying tool.

Congressman Darrell Issa has accused the president of regularly engaging in “inappropriate and sometimes unlawful public relations and propaganda initiatives,” including covert government propaganda on behalf of his legislative agenda. He cited Andy Griffith’s commercials aimed at Medicare recipients as an example of overt propaganda.

The CDC’s advocacy comes on the heels of last week’s 2012 UN Population Fund report – “By Choice, Not By Chance” – which proclaims access to birth control a “human right.” The UNFPA calls on “duty-bearers” (national governments) to extirpate any barriers to the “acceptability” of abortifacient birth control, including “religious” and “cultural” objections. The report specifically mentions Catholicism.

The report also follows a host of credulous reporting on the “Turnaway Study,” which touts the alleged benefits of abortion-on-demand.