Post, AP uncritically report anti-abortion activist's claim that birth-control pills "don't work"
Summary: Reporting on Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains building a new family planning clinic in Denver, The Denver Post and the Associated Press uncritically allowed an anti-abortion activist to assert that the agency "get[s] young girls hooked on their birth control pills, which don't work." To the contrary, medical reference materials state that oral contraceptives are 92 percent effective with typical use.
An August 20 article in The Denver Post about a new family planning services clinic that Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (PPRM) is building in Denver uncritically reported anti-abortion activist Leslie Hanks' comment that Planned Parenthood "get[s] young girls hooked on their birth control pills, which don't work." In fact, according to the medical reference book Contraceptive Technology: Nineteenth Revised Edition (Ardent Media, 2007), oral contraceptives work with 92 percent efficacy for the first year of "[t]ypical [u]se" and are 99.7 percent effective with "[p]erfect [u]se."
The Post article by Karen Augé covered PPRM's announcement that it would "break ground in November on a $4.2 million headquarters and clinic on northeast Denver property it bought secretly last year." The Post further reported, "The organization initially intended to complete the whole project in secrecy in order to avoid the kind of protests and delays that Planned Parenthood's building projects have ignited elsewhere, said Leslie Durgin, a Planned Parenthood senior vice president."
Noting that Durgin said PPRM "anticipate[s] we will have protests" the Post reported that "Hanks, vice president of Colorado Right to Life, said her organization ... likely would fight efforts to build a clinic":
"Let's face it, they're in the business to kill babies for profit," she said. "First and foremost, they get young girls hooked on their birth control pills, which don't work," Hanks said.
Right to Life followers are among the regular protesters -- Hanks calls them "rescuers" -- at Planned Parenthood's current locations, she said.
Similar to the Post, other Colorado media outlets -- including the Rocky Mountain News, Summit Daily News, The Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction, and KCNC CBS4 -- published an Associated Press article on their websites that also reported Hanks' quote. From the August 20 AP article:
Leslie Hanks, vice president of Colorado Right to Life, said her organization likely would fight efforts to build a clinic.
"Let's face it. They're in the business to kill babies for profit," she said. "First and foremost, they get young girls hooked on their birth control pills, which don't work."
Citing the same statistics from the 18th Revised Edition of Contraceptive Technology (Ardent Media, 2004), the Guttmacher Institute noted that 0.3 percent of women who use birth control pills perfectly will become pregnant in their first year of use, while 8 percent of women who practice typical usage of the pill will become pregnant in the first year of use. Although the 19th Revised Edition of Contraceptive Technology still is in the process of being published, its 2007 Summary Table of Contraceptive Efficacy is available and states that oral contraceptives work with 92 percent efficacy for "[t]ypical [u]se" and with 99.7 percent efficacy with "[p]erfect [u]se." According to the authors' website, Contraceptive Technology is "the basic reference book in family planning for physicians and allied health personnel, has sold over 1,500,000 copies in the United States and has been translated into several languages. The authors work closely with 26 other respected clinicians, scientists, and educators to produce the books."
Other research mirrors the findings published by Contraceptive Technology. For example, a March 2004 Canadian Contraception Consensus report from the clinical practice guidelines of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada describes oral contraceptive pills or the "combined OC" as "a highly effective method of reversible contraception" and further notes:
With perfect use, the combined OC is 99.9% effective in preventing pregnancy. However, typical user failure rates range from 3 to 8%. Poor patient compliance is a major factor in limiting effectiveness.
By comparison, the figures provided by the Guttmacher Institute indicate that for women engaging in sex and using no method of birth control, 85 percent will become pregnant in the first year of doing so.
From the August 20 article "Faceoff looms at new Planned Parenthood" by Karen Augé in The Denver Post:
Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains will break ground in November on a $4.2 million headquarters and clinic on northeast Denver property it bought secretly last year, the organization has confirmed.
The organization initially intended to complete the whole project in secrecy in order to avoid the kind of protests and delays that Planned Parenthood's building projects have ignited elsewhere, said Leslie Durgin, a Planned Parenthood senior vice president.
"We changed that several months ago. We just decided that wasn't right for us," Durgin said.
"We anticipate we will have protests," she said.
But the organization decided the best way to handle that was to be forthright about its plans.
[...]
Leslie Hanks, vice president of Colorado Right to Life, said her organization will continue its opposition to Planned Parenthood and likely would fight efforts to build a clinic.
"Let's face it, they're in the business to kill babies for profit," she said. "First and foremost, they get young girls hooked on their birth control pills, which don't work," Hanks said.
Right to Life followers are among the regular protesters -- Hanks calls them "rescuers" -- at Planned Parenthood's current locations, she said.
The block-long work site will be fenced, and protesters will not be allowed inside the boundaries of private property, Durgin said.
"We don't expect to have a police presence on a daily basis unless we need it, in which case we'll call for it, and I have been assured we will get it," Durgin said.
—T.S.P.
Comments (11) Show
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Surely Hanks' arguements should apply equally to Onanism.
The pregnancy prevention failure rate of birth control pills in teens is 8%-14% ([link to www.contracept.info] That's about a 1 out of 7 chance of getting pregnant. Not very effective.
Even when the pills do "work," they frequently prevent implantation rather than fertilization. Thus, they work by ending the life of a human being in the womb.
Birth control pills also offer no protection at all for sexually transmitted diseases.
Huh? I highly doubt that research. Plannedparenthood claims 1 in 100 with use of the pill:
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/birth-control-pregnancy/birth-control/the-pill.htm
There are other forms of birth control via implantation, etc.
Just looked at your source. It claims the failure rate for abstinence is 0% but cites an 8.6% failure rate for teens as they don't follow proper use of the pill. Well, how many teens end up having sex when their only method of birth control is abstinence? I call bullsh*t!
"Thus, they work by ending the life of a human being in the womb."
Ah yes, another RTLer that thinks a 100 cell blastocyst is a "human being".
Save the snowflakes!!
Tell me, Les, if you were faced with the choice of saving 1 3-year old child, or 100 blastocysts from a fire (can't save both) which would you choose?
If you're anything but a utter hypocrite, you MUST choose to save 100 blastocysts OVER a real child. That is, IF you really believe what you say above.
It's just too easy to reveal the ignorance and hypocrisy in the RTLs, too easy.
"Birth control pills also offer no protection at all for sexually transmitted diseases."
What a goddamn cop-out. Do you actually think we're stupid Leslie? Only the truly idiotic or the uninformed believes that crap.
Family planning centers are an important community service. You know, some of us married people actually WANT to plan on when to have our kids, instead of popping them out one after another. And some of us, myself included, don't want to have any children at all. I am a firm believer that if you don't think you can properly and responsibly parent kids then you shouldn't have them--EVER. I am dually committed to remaining childless and enjoying my husband at the same time.
Your assertion that birth control pills don't work gave me a good laugh. As a ten year pill popper with no pregnancies to speak of, I would have to say you're full of it.
Used properly and taken daily, birth control pills are 99.2% effective.
Your little 8-14% failure rate refers to those people who use the pill, but admit to not taking it daily, and therefore, become pregnant.
Maybe you should learn to analyze statistics properly before you open your mouth and make a fool of yourself.
It's funny how you based an entire article off of lies. Ms. Hanks has already corrected the columnist on this quote through the Denver Post. In fact, what was said was that birth control pills don't work because the children they are prescribed to almost never take them appropriately. Lots of research has been done regarding how young girls take BC pills, and they almost never, especially without a parent involved, take the pills correctly.
Get your facts straight before you start slandering others.
We correctly addressed the material that was published in the Denver Post, noting that the newspaper allowed Ms. Hanks to make a factually inaccurate claim about birth control pills. The Post has yet to run a correction on the article; if you have evidence that Ms. Hanks was misquoted, you need to take it up with them.
You should note that what you claim is Ms. Hanks' actual quote also would have warranted an item, given the widely available statistics that show the effective rate for the pill among young women vs. the pregnancy rate among those who use no contraception. Either way, the Post allowed her to make a claim without addressing its factually distorted nature.
Bill Menezes
Editorial Director
Colorado Media Matters
Sorry, but I'm not dismissing her comment, no matter what her meaning intended to be. Up until the mid to late 1960s, many states in the USA banned the use of almost all birth control devises--including for married couples. If Hanks and her fellow Right to Lifers had their way, all birth control methods would be banned again.
And no matter what anyone says, educating teenagers about birth control and giving them access to it doesn't increase sexual activity. Damn, their going to have sex anyway if they really want to. They are bodies of walking hormones prone to throwing away their judgment in the heat of the moment. It's better to educate and prepare them responsibly. The parent who talks honestly to their teens about sex and its responsibilities and consequences is the parent who is less likely to have their kid pregnant at the age of 16. Not to mention that there would be less abortions and teenage mothers in the 16-21 age range if we all took the responsibility of sex education seriously. Preaching abstinence is not the answer.
In an obvious attempt to equate birth control pills with addictive drugs, Hanks makes the silly statement that ". . . they get young girls hooked on their birth control pills . . . ." As one who took the pills for nearly 30 years, I never once went through any kind of withdrawal when I discontinued them in order to become pregnant. Unfortunately, use of this kind of inflammatory language is typical of the rabid right.
what people seem to either dismiss or intentionally avoid is the staggering amount of money a "non profit" preaching abstinence only rakes in. the dance goe like this....they unnabashedly back repub candidates locally and nationally. the flock believes the GOP cares about their "values". they vote red. after election it's payday, not for the flock but for the "chosen few". the unborn aren't the issue to these grifters. it's about making a living.
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