When Pro-Life Wisconsin was founded 20 years ago, we recognized that the deadly spiritual, physical, and judicial connection between contraception and abortion is all too real. Our campaign against the contraceptive mentality has always been seen by the right-to-life establishment as defying their silence on birth control. Consequently, here we are, in 2012, reaping the fruit of their silence. What Griswold succeeded in establishing as a “right,” is now being enshrined as an entitlement through the Health and Human Services birth control mandate.
Worse yet, this ungodly mandate tries to force us all to participate in what we know to be intrinsically immoral. The mandate requires virtually every health insurance plan to offer all FDA approved birth control and all sterilizations free of charge, and President Obama has flat out told Cardinal Dolan, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, that he has no intention of backing off.
We must not cooperate should the mandate withstand court challenges. In fact, Cardinal Raymond Burke discussed the gravity of what we are facing, in an interview with Catholic Action Institute. Cardinal Burke describes the HHS mandate as, “contrary first of all to the fundamental human right, the right to the free exercise of one’s conscience, and at the same time, to the very foundation of our nation.”
As a true shepherd guiding his flock, Cardinal Burke challenges employers to defy the mandate. He decries compliance, stating, “It is not only a matter of what we call ‘material cooperation’ in the sense that the employer by giving this insurance benefit is materially providing for the contraception but it is also ‘formal cooperation’ because he is knowingly doing this, making this available to people. There is no way to justify it. It is simply wrong.”
True to form, Pro-Life Wisconsinites in record numbers are challenging the birth control mandate, standing up for the rights of conscience and the lives of tiny embryonic children.
On March 23, in Madison; Milwaukee; Green Bay; La Crosse; Rockford, IL; the Twin Cities; and Eau Claire, nearly 1,500 of us rallied and prayed for rejection of the oppressive mandate. This was part of a simultaneous nationwide rally that drew more than 55,000 people. Our state office directed the Madison and Milwaukee rallies. Bishop Morlino inspired 500 at Madison’s Federal Plaza, and Bishop Donald Hying, Pro-Life Wisconsin’s Spiritual Advisor, encouraged and challenged 400 in the pouring rain outside the Milwaukee federal building.
We will continue our public advocacy the week of June 7, the 47th anniversary of Griswold v. Connecticut. Our affiliates will rally and pray outside family planning centers across Wisconsin. We will recommit ourselves to combat not only the birth control mandate, but the entire contraceptive mentality. We will mourn the loss of the untold millions of babies lost to abortifacients. We will pray for the Church, for employers, for individuals, and for ourselves, asking God for the courage to stand strong in rejection of the mandate.
How ironic it is that, in 1965, it was agents of the culture of death (Griswold and Buxton) who engaged in civil disobedience in order to legalize birth control. In 2012, pro-lifers are on the brink of being driven to civil disobedience to simply adhere to the gospel of life.
Join us this June when pro-lifers from across the state mark the anniversary of the Griswold v. Connecticut U.S. Supreme Court decision, which decriminalized birth control, led to the pseudoscientific redefinition of pregnancy from conception to implantation, and paved the way for Roe v. Wade and abortion on demand. Call the Pro-Life Wisconsin office toll-free at 877-463-7945 for information or keep an eye on our website at http://www.prolifewisconsin.org/.
To learn more about the detrimental effects of the birth control pill, join American Life League and 30 pro-life groups across the nation as ALL presents a groundbreaking symposium on the devastating impact of the pill. The symposium will be live at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, June 2, from 10 am until 11:30 am Eastern time.
Speakers include Dr. Angela Lanfranchi, who is a breast surgical oncologist and clinical assistant professor of surgery at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Also speaking is EWTN personality Gloria Purvis—the host of the upcoming television series “Authentically Free at Last.” She will discuss the impact that the pill has had on minority communities and will explain its role in black genocide. Rounding out the program is ethicist and theologian Dr. Pia de Solenni, who is an expert on life issues, issues related to women’s health, the new feminism, and culture.
This is truly an important event that you don’t want to miss. Come out to hear the truth about the birth control pill—the truth that you won’t hear on television or in magazines. Bring someone you want to teach—a teenage child or grandchild, a sister, a friend—so that they, too, will learn the devastating impact that the pill can have on women and families.
For more information, visit The Pill Kill’s site at http://thepillkills.com/.
We need your prayers and support. Together with God, we press forward in this battle for life.
This article has been reprinted with permission. More information on PLW can be found at www.prolifewisconsin.org, or call toll-free at 877-463-7945.
Peggy Hamill and her husband are the parents of 11 children (10 living and one lost through miscarriage) and grandparents of 12 grandchildren. Peggy served Pro-Life Wisconsin in leadership as a volunteer from 1994–1999. From 1999 to the present, Peggy has been serving as state director of Pro-Life Wisconsin. Peggy’s work at Pro-Life Wisconsin involves combating the contraceptive mentality and educating about the deadly link between contraception and abortion. Legally blind all her life, Peggy passionately defends the right to life of born and preborn people with disabilities.