Note: Think that anti-choice politicians and activists aren’t trying to outlaw contraception?  Think again.  Follow along in an ongoing series that proves beyond a doubt that they really are coming for your birth control.

We have seen a rise in attempts to defund Planned Parenthood, eliminate family planning funding for low income women, and cut off access to contraception. But actually throw you in jail for getting birth control?  No one really wants to go there, do they?

Oh, wait, Judie Brown and her followers do.

Via Renew America:

Pope Paul VI aptly explained in Humanae Vitae that human sexual intercourse is essentially procreative and unitive. It is focused on life and and love. Being open to the possibility of new life and being open to more intimate unity between husband and wife is what human sex is really about. When it becomes merely a recreational activity, it is selfish love, not mutual love. It is certainly not sacrificial love if the end is merely physical pleasure for pleasure’s sake. Pleasure is the happy by-product God added to the act of married conjugal love. Contraception often makes the sex partner an object rather than a person who is worthy of, and who deserves, sacrifice. The husband and wife sacrifice for one another. They offer themselves to each other. That means being open to the possible gift of new life from God and it means that the physical intimacy must be accompanied by emotional intimacy as well. The ‘two become one flesh’ is not just the act of coitus; it is the union of two human beings into one married couple.

…

Certainly, the government cannot outlaw every sinful or immoral act since it would be impossible to enforce, and human law is imperfect. Serious harm to the one and the many, however, warrants the inclusion of civil proscription. Just as we have a distinction between venial and mortal sins, there is a difference between a misdemeanor and a felony. We cannot compel by civil law people to act or do good, but we can and must outlaw sinful and evil acts which seriously threaten the person and/or the community. Danger to the institutions of marriage and family is no less serious than danger to one’s life, health, property or reputation. Law protects the latter and should protect the former as well.

It’s been 40 years now since contraception became legal for single people, and nearly 50 years since married couples were assured their rights to birth control, yet for some reason we are arguing about whether using the pill should be a misdemeanor or a felony? Sadly, even without laws making it illegal, some pharmacists and doctors are already making the choice for women. Due to increased “conscience clause” provisions, pharmacists in Indiana have been known to ask women if they are married before filling prescriptions, and receive no penalties if they choose to refuse to fill one for woman who is not, according to a state Planned Parenthood contact.

No wonder anti-choice advocates see making contraception illegal again as something attainable.

So, book’em, Danno. They may not be quite there yet, but they are definitely coming for your birth control.