“Powerful drugs should require a prescription”

By Maggie DeWitte, Board President

Pulse connected with William Joensen, Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Des Moines, and Tom Chapman, Executive Director of the Iowa Catholic Conference this past Monday at the Pro-Life Prayer Rally at the Capitol. The subject of contraceptives, which are powerful drugs, came up.

We discussed a big bill pending before the legislature, HSB 91, which I wrote about last week. We like most of this bill, except for the piece on contraception. Tom Chapman made a key point:

“From our perspective, there’s a reason those powerful drugs need a prescription … we don’t want to break up that relationship with the doctor.”

As a reminder, I expressed these concerns in my testimony before a sub committee last week:

Maggie DeWitte testimony

1. Oral contraception is dangerous.  The World Health Organization has classified combined hormonal contraception as a Group 1 carcinogen.  This is the same classification as tobacco, arsenic, and asbestos.  Women who use contraception for 11 years or longer are at a 210% increased risk of breast cancer. Contraceptives have been proven to increase the risk of blood clots, which can be fatal. They also have increased risk of causing heart disease, especially in smokers. Lawsuits have been filed blaming the Patch for several deaths due to blood clots, heart attacks and strokes. The Food and Drug Administration has cautioned that the Patch carries a higher risk of blood clots than the birth control pill. These medications should not be prescribed by anyone except a medical doctor who has access to accurate medical records and the necessary medical tests. 
2. Hormonal Contraception is ineffective and gives women a false sense of security.  The New York Times published an article that stated that the fail rate is 38% by year five and that by year ten, 61 out of 100 women who use the pill will become pregnant. According to a March 2017 Guttmacher Institute study, “A substantial proportion of unintended pregnancies occur despite women’s and their partners’ use of contraceptives. In 2001, some 48% of women experiencing an unintended pregnancy had been using a method in the month of conception.” In the same study Guttmacher also reported that “about half of pregnancies terminated by induced abortions in 2008 occurred during use of contraceptives.” So, you can give them the pills, but faulty or incorrect use makes them ineffective in reducing unplanned pregnancies.
3. This bill states it does not include any drug intended to induce an abortion.  Unfortunately, oral contraception can be abortifacient in nature. It is a medical fact that most if not all hormonal birth control drugs and devices, including the Patch and the Pill, can act to terminate a pregnancy by chemically altering the lining of the uterus (endometrium) so that a newly conceived child (human embryo) is unable to implant in the womb, thus starving and dying. This mechanism of action is termed a pre-implantation chemical abortion. 
4. If the intent of this section of the bill is to reduce abortions, providing OTC birth control will not reduce abortions.  More contraception leads to more abortions not less.  And frankly, we don’t have an access problem; birth control is readily available in the state of Iowa. This will undercut / damage the physician-patient relationship.  Any prescription medication carries risks, and a doctor should be monitoring those risks- it’s not the role of a pharmacist to monitor symptoms and they do not have access to the patient’s medical history.  And relying on a self-administered questionnaire is not reliable- people frequently do not remember the name or type of medication they have been on or currently on and would not know of the risks associated with that medication.”

The Iowa Catholic Conference shares our concerns on these powerful drugs

You can see in the interview above with Pulse board president, Tom Quiner, that Tom Chapman and Bishop Joensen share our concerns on this piece of the bill and the powerful drugs that compromise conception. Like Pulse Life Advocates, the Iowa Catholic Conference is a member of the Iowa Coalition of Pro-Life Leaders.

As you can see in the accompanying pic, a large crowd turned out for the Prayer Rally, including so many followers of Pulse Life Advocate’s blog and social media platforms. Thanks to you all for turning out.

Yes, we have our finger on the pulse of what is happening in the pro-life arena in Iowa. Even more, we are championing solid legislation that protects innocent human life in the womb to build on our successes in recent year.

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