Pelosi: 98% of Catholic Women Use Birth Control - Where Did That Figure Come From?

Posted by Brian

The Media Lie 
Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats have been repeating the same thing since the firestorm with the Catholic Church over providing free contraception in their health care plans - "Ninety-eight percent of Catholic women use contraceptives". Almost immediately I was dubious of the statistic. Where did this number come from? It was out there so quick, and the media was gleefully out there parroting it with literally no vetting of the "statistic". Pelosi and the Democrats said it, so they repeat it. No journalistic curiosity at all.
The number sounded way too high. Too me, it is reminiscent of the kind of percentage we hear about when despots get 98% in their rigged elections. In addition, the figure was touted immediately after the first inkling of opposition to the Obama Administration's mandate.
Well it turns out that the figure comes from an Guttmacher Institute (a liberal group that started as an arm of Planned Parenthood) study that was done in 2011. The study, called "Countering Conventional Wisdom: New Evidence on Religion and Contraceptive Use" (link here) doesn't seem to support the claims in the incurious media. Supplemental Table 3 shows that 11 percent of Catholic women use no method at all, and 4 percent use what is labeled "Other", possibly the 'rhythm method'. Those alone knock the number down to 85%. In addition, if a woman who falls into the 15-44 year age group, has ever used a contraceptive, even once, during her life she is lumped into the 98% group. The study also "refers to sexually active women who are not pregnant, postpartum or trying to get pregnant". Of this group, only 68 percent are using what is called "highly effective methods". These are listed as:

• Sterilization - 32%
• Pill or other hormonal - 31%
• IUD- 5%

 According to the study, the Dems and the media are spewing political talking points, spreading the propaganda/lie that 98% of Catholic women use contraceptives, as the study only looked at women in the age range of 15-44 who had ever had sex.
The next time you hear a "fact" or "statistic" being regurgitated by the Diane Sawyers', Brian Williams', or some hack up on Capital Hill, fact-check it. We know the media's not.

Companion Story
Pelosi: Catholic Church 'Has Not Enforced' Its Teaching on Contraception
By Eric Scheiner February 22, 2012

(CNSNews.com) - During an event at Texas A&M University on Monday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) claimed the Catholic Church has not enforced its teaching on contraception and that the church now wants the federal government to enforce that teaching for it.
Read More at CNS News

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Media Bias: Santorum Backer Aspirin Joke Much Ado About Media Double Standards

Posted by Brian

The media is all in a tizzy over a comment by Santorum Backer Foster Friess' comment, “Back in my days, they used Bayer aspirin for contraceptives. The gals put it between their knees and it wasn’t that costly.”


I've heard this, or variations on this with coins, for decades as parents have used it as a reminder to their daughters that if they don't let their legs come apart, they won't get pregnant. I've also heard of giving their daughter a quarter, so if a boy gets frisky, the girl can give him the quarter with the instruction to "Call my dad. If he is okay with it, then it's okay". Old fashioned? Yes. But worthy of creating a nuclear firestorm around Rick Santorum over something one of his supporters said?! Greta Van Susteren said he was creepy for making a failed attempt at humor. And Andrea Mitchell! You would have thought that Andrea Mitchell had taken a body blow from Mike Tyson, saying she needed to catch her breath, after hearing the remark. Oh, the horror!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Really?  And then to go after Rick Santorum, as if he were the one who had made the remark.  Yet back in 2008 when we had Barack Obama's pastor Jeremiah right screaming "Not God Bless America. God Damn America!", the media were accusing those who brought it up as racists, and excusing it by saying it by saying  that it was a "guilt by association" game by Republicans. Same with Bill Ayres, the former leader of the Weather Underground, which committed terrorist acts against the United States and is a committed Marxist.

This whole thing is much ado about nothing and the media is turning it into two days of feigned outrage.  The only thing that this is good for it that it gives one more example of the medias double standard when it comes to Republicans and Democrats, and gives us peek into the institutional bias that exists in today's media.

Jeremiah Wright: God Damn America!

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Obama Lied About Cost Effectiveness Of Contraception Mandate

Posted by Brian

HHS Prohibited Panel Developing Contraception Mandate from Considering ‘Cost Effectiveness’
By Terence P. Jeffrey February 16, 2012

(CNSNews.com) - There would be no consideration of cost effectiveness.


That was the explicit condition that the Department of Health and Human Services imposed on the panel of health-care experts it commissioned to develop the “preventive services” mandate that will require virtually all health-insurance plans in the United States to cover sterilizations and contraceptives—including those that cause abortions.

Read More at CNS News

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Mark Steyn: Obama Contraception Mandate "Definitely Something For Civil Disobedience"

Posted by Brian

Steyn on contraception mandate: ‘Definitely something for civil disobedience’ [AUDIO] 
Published: 10:29 AM 02/10/2012 | Updated: 3:24 PM 02/10/2012

Although the White House appears to be wavering on its contraception mandate with an announcement expected later today, there are some indications the announced revision could still interfere with religious sensibilities, particularly Catholic institutions.

On Thursday’s “Hugh Hewitt” radio show, National Review columnist Mark Steyn, author of “After America: Get Ready for Armageddon,“ said this interference blatantly goes against the Catholic Church’s doctrine and made the case that this is cause for “civil disobedience”.

Read More at The Daily Caller

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Obama's Contraception 'Compromise' Is A Smokescreen

Posted by Brian
President Obama is expected to announce a plan to "accommodate" religious groups over a mandate requiring religious institutions to provide birth control coverage in their health plans.  This new "compromise" is simply a rephrasing of what has already been mandated - the insurance carried by a religious institution must carry birth control , regardless of the religious tenets of the institution.  So, what we have is an administration issuing an edict which violates the First Amendment, now saying they are only going to violate Freedom of Religion by a half measure.  First, there are no half measures in the Bill of Rights.  This is an attempt by Obama to begin to dismantle the Constitution by piece meal.  He is going after Freedom of religion first, which makes sense.  The Bill of Rights are those rights which are God-given. To make this a "human rights" issue takes God out of the equation. If you take God out of the equation, God-given rights become secondary. It is now a humanist issue, which is the goal of all totalitarian governments.

This is a full frontal assault on the very moorings of this country, whose foundations are of a Judeo-Christian genesis. The Founding Fathers believed that all of our rights came from God. Obama and statists like him believe that rights are given to us by an all powerful central government.
This is not about women's health. This is Obama's attempt to take religion out of the public square and to begin to dismantle the very foundation of what made this the most free, powerful, and wealthy country on earth.

ABC: Obama to ‘accomodate’ religious groups over HHS mandate
Posted by  The Right Scoop on February 10th, 2012

ABC is reporting that the White House, possibly Obama, will attempt to ‘accommodate’ religious groups by announcing this afternoon that health insurance companies will ‘help’ provide the birth control coverage, which I assume means an absorption of the costs by the insurance companies themselves. But unlike Hawaii, religious groups still won’t be able to ‘opt out’ of the coverage:
Read More at The Right Scoop

Pelosi: President "very couragous" in forcing Catholics to violate their faith

Posted by Brian

Pelosi Vows to Stand With Obama Against Catholic Church; Says Decision Forcing Catholics to Act Against Faith Was ‘Very Courageous’

By Thomas Cloud

February 2, 2012

(CNSNews.com) - House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) vowed today that she will join with the Obama administration in standing up against the Catholic Church in defending a new regulation that will require Catholic individuals to buy, and Catholic institutions to provide, health insurance plans that cover sterilizations and artificial contraceptives, including those that induce abortions.

The Catholic church teaches that sterilization, artificial contraception and abortion are morally wrong and the Catholic bishops of the United States have argued that forcing a Catholic individual to purchase a health insurance plan that covers these things--or forcing a Catholic institution to provide such a plan--forces Catholics to act against their consciences and is a violation of the First Amendment right to free exercise of religion.

Read More at CNS News

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White House To Catholic Church: We'll Tell You What You Believe. Now Take Your Contraceptives!

Posted by Brian

WH:‘No Constitutional Rights Issue’ in Forcing Catholics to Act Against Their Faith
 By Fred Lucas January 31, 2012

(CNSNews.com) – White House Press Secretary Jay Carney says there are no “constitutional rights issues” involved in a regulation issued by the administration that requires all health-care plans in the United States to cover sterilizations and all FDA-approved contraceptives, including those that induce abortions.

Because the Catholic Church holds that sterilization, artificial contraception and abortion are morally wrong and Catholic cannot be involved in them, the regulation in combination with the Obamacare mandate that all Americans buy health insurance will force American Catholics to choose between following the federal regulation or following the teachings of their church.
More at CNS News

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