January 2007 Archives

Rich Lowry suggests that former Massachusetts governor Gov. Mitt Romney's "account of how he came to change his view on abortion—through the issue of stem-cell research—isn't very compelling and he would probably be better off not talking about it at all. "

A pro-life reader disagrees:

I have to disagree with your assertion that Romney's account of he came to change his views of abortion "isn't very compelling" and that "people aren't going to believe it."

Pro-lifers greatly enjoy learning about that moment when it clicked for pro-life converts. Each pro-life convert has his or her own story about what it was that caused them to see the light. Governor Romney's account makes perfect sense. When he had to study the origins of life as he pondered an embryonic stem cell bill, he realized the truth: life begins at conception. It's a fully plausible account and it's also interesting that his study of embryonic stem cell research, a fairly new frontier on the decades old abortion debate, caused him to change his view.

But is there reason to approach Romney’s conversion with skepticism? In 2002, Planned Parent and NARAL questionnaires show Romney as decidedly pro-abortion. [Jennifer Rubin - Weekly Standard]

An article in the Feb. 5 issue of People magazine demonstrated the persistence of liberals to march us all down the path of free love to our deaths.

I don't understand why young people would trust the ideology of those who sought their demise before they were born, but here's one: 33-year-old abortion survivor (which anyone under the age of 34 is) turned actress turned cervical cancer survivor, Marissa Jaret Winokur.

Winokur is best known for her Tony Award-winning performance as Tracy Turnblad in the Broadway musical "Hairspray."

According to the People story's teaser, Tracy "learned the cause of her cervical cancer and now makes sure other women know how to prevent it."

The sole cause of cervical cancer is human papillomavirus, or HPV, a sexually transmitted disease.

So Winokur contracted cervical cancer due to sexual promiscuity, or to put it as ambiguously as possible,
said Winokur, "I learned about a year ago that HPV, a common virus, causes cervical cancer."

The "prevention," according to Winokur? No, not a chaste lifestyle....

Continue reading my column today, "People Magazine: Don't stop, get a shot" on WND.com.

Portugal considers abortion - Thousands of pro-life demonstrators marched through the capital city of Portugal yesterday, in anticipation of a national referendum on legalizing abortion scheduled in two weeks’ time. - LifeSiteNews

David Prentice Strikes Back - Science Magazine has finally printed his response to the stem cell hit piece they published six months ago. - Second Hand Smoke

Fiction for Fundraising? - Have you ever heard of the "Federal Abortion Ban?" Neither has JivinJ.

The baby's civil rights - "The babies need us," Alveda King told a packed state House chamber Saturday in Vermont. "You know, they're like a slave in the womb of a mom. The mom's deciding whether they will live or die. It's civil rights."

A brutal solution to stigma - A Uganda Parliament member asserts child killing is merciful in some cases? "How would society look at a child born to a girl by her father? So, to save such a girl from lifetime trauma and stigma, safe abortion should be carried out," she said. - AllAfrica

She's now pro-life - The Eastern Echo reports that before "Jane Roe fought for her reproductive rights in 1973, abortion was illegal in all but four states and abortions in those states were given only in dire situations." The paper apparently found irrelevant the fact that Norma McCorvey (aka Jane Roe) is now opposed to abortion. "I'm one hundred percent sold out to Jesus and one hundred percent pro-life," she writes. "No exceptions. No compromise."

Purpose - Mark Pickup (HumanLifeMatters) explains "Why". I had to be brought low in order to understand higher things. I had to reach the end of my tether. Only then in defeat, after a life-long illusion that I could soar on my own power crashed, did God set me free inside. Although outwardly I am decaying, inwardly I am renewed daily. (2Cor.4.16). Also, consider Mark's post on spiritual blessings found in suffering.

New legislation was announced today that would ban abortion in South Dakota state except in limited instances. The AP Reports that copies of the bill with full details were not available, and legislators refused to reveal specifics. However, Bob Ellis from the Dakota Voice had a preview of the bill last Friday. He writes:

If it comes out essentially unchanged from what it was on Friday, it's a bill I can fully endorse. My only caveat is that last year's bill was my #1 choice, being more consistent from a pro-life and scientific perspective, since all human life is sacred, no matter how it was conceived.

This one is intended to have exceptions for rape, incest, and the health of the mother. While traditionally these exceptions have been big enough to drive the space shuttle through, this draft has those exceptions very tightly regulated to prevent misuse and abuse.

Calling herself the "pro-life executive director" of the Emma Goldman Clinic abortion mill in Iowa City, Iowa, Karen Kubby took the occasion of the anniversary of Roe v. Wade to reflect in a Jan. 25 opinion piece in the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Highlights:

I am pro-life. I believe strongly in the value of living beings on this planet. I celebrate life in a variety of ways through my daily activities and spiritual life. I recognize the lives gained through abortion. I see the lives of women and their children who are stronger and more stable because of a decision toward abortion....

A decision about abortion is decidedly pro-life. It is a respectful and moral option....

I know one party in abortion who likely feels a tad disrespected.

And which children are stronger and more stable? Aside from those killed, the child abuse rate of those left behind has skyrocketed over 300% since abortion was legalized.

On Jan. 27, at the Emma Goldman Choice Dinner to raise funds for abortion, Kubby reported, according to the DailyIowan.com, "the clinic raised enough money last year... to subsidize 1,143 abortions, and the clinic hopes 2007 will be just as successful."

Be it Freudian or purposeful, "successful" is an interesting word choice for the "pro-life" director of an abortion mill to use while citing her abortion stats.

Hat tip: Michelle L.
[Photo from Iowa City Press-Citizen]

Sen. Sam Brownback has consistently spoken out against the genocide of the disabled. In this video, recorded during the Blogs4Life Conference, he promotes an awareness of the value of all lives and, in particular, children with Down Syndrome.

The Family Research Council writes what we've all been thinking:

What a difference an ideology makes. Last Monday, 200,000 pro-lifers descended on the nation's capital to peacefully protest 34 years of abortion-on-demand. Despite record crowds and a line-up of speakers that included President Bush by phone, the March for Life earned little more than a footnote in the nation's news.

Days later, radical anti-war protestors staged a march in Washington that mustered only 10,000, and the event made the front page of nearly every newspaper in America. Yet for all the media the small demonstration received, few news outlets reported the true headline of the day.

According to reports, hundreds of demonstrators were allowed to take the steps of the U.S. Capitol during the march and desecrate the property with "anarchist symbols." When police formed a security line to stop them, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Phillip Morse ordered his men to fall back and allow the protestors to "exercise their First Amendment rights" by spray-painting the Capitol grounds with graffiti. One source at the scene said that Morse issued an order that no one was to be arrested for desecrating America's and arguably the world's greatest symbol of democracy. In an e-mail on his actions, Morse writes, "The graffiti was easily removed by the [Architect of the Capitol] staff... It is [our] duty and responsibility to protect the Capitol complex, while allowing the public to exercise their [freedom of speech]." Imagine the response had Christians "trespassed" onto this public property and prayed for our leaders! I dare say the outcome would have been quite different. Unlike last Monday's peaceful pro-life protest, this mob of liberals was given access and leniency to commit criminal acts on government property.

This special treatment is unacceptable. The Capitol Chief of Police reports directly to the Speaker of the House, a title which now belongs to one of the demonstrators' most outspoken allies, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Surely, the tens of millions of dollars the American people have invested in the security of their Capitol means there is videotape that will assist in the identification and arrest of the perpetrators. Speaker Pelosi should direct that investigation and prosecution go forward.

Others are commenting, notably PowerlineBlog and Michelle Malkin, regarding the disparity in coverage.

Note: We captured the March for Life crowd: click here. Also, check out this video.

Photo: A fraction of the March for Life participants.

Earlier this mother the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommended that all pregnant women be offered screening for Down syndrome in their unborn babies. The announcement marks a major shift in "prenatal care" and illicited an understanble outcry among pro-lifers and groups that serve individuals with Down syndrome.

George Will, in his exceptional column George Will Golly, What Did Jon Do? explains:

The ACOG guidelines are formally neutral concerning what decisions parents should make on the basis of the information offered. But what is antiseptically called "screening" for Down syndrome is, much more often than not, a search-and-destroy mission: At least 85 percent of pregnancies in which Down syndrome is diagnosed are ended by abortions.

The National Down Syndrome Congress (NDSC) condemns recent recommendations by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) that convey tacit approval for terminating pregnancies where the fetus has Down syndrome.

more

I’ve summarized the recent events because of a letter I received from a good friend who has a wonderful child, a son, with Down Syndrome. He writes,

Is there an appropriate way to consider the prenatal testing that the medical society is pushing for? I’m regularly reading newspaper articles about how the medical community is demanding that all women’s babies be tested for things like Down Syndrome at a much earlier stage in the pregnancy—I think before 3 months. While I have nothing against the testing in itself because it could help prepare people for upcoming medical difficulties, the fact remains that people often are much more willing to abort the children when they know it has Downs. Under these circumstances, assuming that Christians do not abort and non-Christians often abort, I’m wondering if Christians will soon bear the brunt of higher insurance premiums since they will not abort and insist on taking the “risk” of having a medically challenged child. Worse yet, some weaker Christians may make the horrible mistake of aborting due to pressures put on them by the medical community when it is determined that they are pregnant w/ a Downs child and the “risk” level is much higher for the child.

In conclusion, while the prenatal testing issue is what caused me to write to you, my underlying concern is that prenatal testing should not be used to confuse or weaken the resolve of any Christian, strong or weak, to become the father or mother of a child w/ Downs Syndrome. To have such a child is a gift from God. A different gift to be sure and one that will probably require more patience, time and yes, even money. Maybe even more tears. For many Americans, such a gift sounds scary and certainly not fun. While I won’t say that being a father to a son w/ Downs has been without scary times, I will say this—if raised in a Christian home, a child w/ Downs will show his family a more complete meaning of love and devotion than they have ever imagined.

The Jan. 29-Feb. 5 issue of U. S. News & World Report included this in an article by Lewis Lord, "A conqueror more lethal than the sword" :

Experts believe that in 1492 perhaps 10 million people lived above the Rio Grande - twice as many as may have inhabited the British Isles at that time. The hemisphere's population possibly exceeded 15th-century Europe's 70 million. But by 1650, records suggest that only 6 million Indians remained in the New World. The catastrophic loss of native life, wrote Alfred Crosby, author of The Columbian Exchange, "was surely the greatest tragedy in the history of the human species."

That is incorrect. With regrets that they in actuality win the title of Greatest Tragedy in the History of the Human Species, babies aborted worldwide have surpassed the one billion mark.

This according to the Guttmacher Institute, research arm of Planned Parenthood, which estimates 46 million babies are aborted around the world each year. So this statistic is just for the past 20 years. The U. S. Census Bureau estimates the world's current population is almost 6.6 billion, so no other comparison can possibly come close.

[Painting: Picasso's "Tragedy"]

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Saturday made it official, he is seeking the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

"People want an authentic conservative who has a proven record of results," Huckabee said in a statement. "I've concluded that I should take this necessary and vital step to bring a new kind of optimistic leadership to the public square."

For over a year prolifeblogs.com has aggregated and promoted the site Mike Huckabee President 2008 and followed with anticipation his exploration of the presidential nomination. Huckabee’s team now suggest that we learn more about him at the Explore Huckabee website.

Charmaine Yoest live blogged Huckabee’s speech to the National Review Institute and he appeared on Sunday's Meet the Press.

Related: LifeNews and CNS News

A new study was released Wednesday that discloses the role that estrogen plays in breast cancer. Through the University of Illinois, researchers announced that not only does estrogen speed up the process of breast cancer once it has started and help to transport the disease to other cells, but it actually can block our immune cells from being able to kill these cancerous cells. It does this by inducing the expression of an inhibitor enzyme, much like similar inhibitors that can cause depression by blocking the release of serotonin. This study, which is the first of its kind, reports that

“when estrogen binds with an estrogen receptor the complex promotes production of a granzyme inhibitor, proteinase inhibitor 9 (PI-9). That inhibitor binds the granzyme, preventing it from initiating the molecular cascade that kills tumor cells.”

That’s a fancy way of saying that an excess of estrogen won’t let our white blood cells do their job. The scientists go on to point out that it wasn’t previously known that estrogen played this specific role in breast cancer, and that "the amounts of estrogen required to do this are quite small" (David Shapiro, a UI professor of biochemistry who conducted the study).

The Feb. 5 issue of People magazine included a story about actress Marissa Jaret Winokur who, according to the teaser, "learned the cause of her cervical cancer and now makes sure other women know how to prevent it."

The sole cause of cervical cancer is human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually transmitted disease. Winokur contracted cervical cancer at age 27 due to previous sexual promiscuity, or to put it as ambiguously as possible, said Winokur, "I learned about a year ago that HPV, a common virus, causes cervical cancer. Now there is an HPV test that might have caught my precancerous cells earlier."

The "prevention," according to Winokur? No, not a chaste lifestyle. "There's a vaccine, which can be given to women before they're sexually active," she said in People. "It makes sense to take these precautions. I'll encourage my friends' teenage daughters to get vaccinated."

Aside from the fact Winokur has no business telling other people's children "precautions" to avoid the pitfalls of promiscuous sex, her advice stinks. Let's not address the real cause. Let's try to avoid the ramifications of the cause.

Now Winokur cannot have children because she had to have a hysterectomy. Not to worry. She plans to harvest eggs from her remaining ovaries. To do so she will have to inject megadoses of steroids into her body over a prolonged period of time. That should keep her on a healthy track - not. Winokur is currently looking for a surrogate.

Winokur and People only fuel the exploitation and health demise of women by refusing to acknowledge the only full proof way to avoid HPV or cervical cancer: abstinence.

Senator Sam Brownback (KS) drew an enthusiastic response during the recent March for Life in Washington DC that was arguably bigger than that of any other politician. To some extent, the positive reaction was fueled by an exceptional turnout by Brownback's Kansas constituents who appeared to be well represented, organized and vigorous in their applause.

In my opinion, however, it wasn't just Kansans who were excited by Brownback's attendance at the March or his announcement to seek the country's highest office in 2008. The Senator is a breath of fresh air in a field of presidential candidates who have hung their hats on superficial makeovers, doublespeak and exploitation of the U.S. response to Terrorism. His stand on issues proceeds from principles rather than the latest opinion poll and his campaign rests on making America a greater nation rather than advancing his own self-interest.

I suggest our readers examine his announcement for President. As you read it, I think you will find it consistent with how he has lived his life - genuine and authentic.

He advocates for passionately fighting for the dignity of every human life, renewing family and culture, healing our land and seeking reconciliation. He recently called for the divestiture of state pension funds from investments in companies that do business with the genocidal government of Sudan after divesting his own funds.

Fiscal soundness echo in his criticism of pork-barrel projects, promotion of tax reform, and market-based solutions for healthcare. As a member of the Senate Judicial Committee, he advocates for judges who want to be judges…not legislators.

As a leading pro-life voice in the Senate he spoke effectively during the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito against the judicial tyranny that brought the scourge of legalized abortion to the United States:

Among the most famous of these Supreme Court cases of exercise of political power I believe are the cases of Roe V. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, two 1973 cases based on false statements which created a constitutional right to abortion.

And you can claim whatever you want to of being pro-life or pro- choice, but the right to a abortion is not in the Constitution. The court created it. It created a constitutional right. And these decisions removed a fully appropriate political judgment from the people of the several states and has led to many adverse consequences.

...between 80 percent to 90 percent of the children in America diagnosed with Down's Syndrome will be killed in the womb simply because they have a positive genetic test which can be wrong, and is often wrong, but they would have a positive genetic test for Down's Syndrome and they will be killed.

America is poorer because of such a policy. We are at our best when we help the weakest. The weak make us strong. To kill them makes us all the poorer, insensitive, calloused and jaded.

Roe has made it not only possible, but has found it constitutional to kill a whole class of people, simply because of their genetic make-up.

Few candidates have the ability to write the following with sincerity:

At the end of the day, it comes back to the basics: faith, family, and freedom. America is great because she is good. That goodness is not based in Washington, or New York, or even Topeka. It is based in the hearts of the American people. This is a goodness whose Author is the Divine. A goodness that doesn't let us rest until our neighbor is at peace. A goodness that feels the chains of another rub on our own skin. A goodness from God that demands our vigilant action.

How much better we will be as we seek to live the Great Commandment to love God and one another.

Update: check out this picture assembled from the video (amazing!)

A reader from a similar background wrote to me:

Barbara, After our decision to try to have another baby, I started thinking and couldn't stop. I've never tried to have a baby before. There have been times when I didn't try not to have one, but that's not really the same. The memory of my abortion has really been haunting me lately. Sometimes I feel like I don't deserve another child because of it. I'm coming to the conclusion that I probably need counseling about this, and hoped you would provide some insight as to how to find the best counseling options.

In case any of you are dealing with similar issues, please read my answer, filling in the blank with your name:

Posted by Genevieve Parker on ContraceptionBlog.com

First off, I'd like to extend a warm welcome to Britt - so glad you're joining NRFC's blogging team!

Also, here's an interesting article about the phenomenon of transsexual fish in Boulder Creek, Colorado.

In 2004, David Norris reported that fish just below the Boulder, Colo., Wastewater Treatment Plant's outflow pipe were changing sex.

..... surprisingly low concentrations of treatment-plant effluent can change male fish into females.

The 2004 study showed that certain chemicals from pharmaceuticals and personal-care products made it through the Boulder Wastewater Treatment Plant and into Boulder Creek. Ninety percent of the white suckers swimming downstream of the plant were female. Upstream, there was an even split.

"What we see in the fish downstream is as if they are taking birth control pills," Norris said.

Posted on ContraceptionBlog.com by Britt Shankle.

As I promised, here's a short synopsis of how Project Plus came to be, and what we're doing now.

Like I said earlier, we are a group of college students who were all concerned about the Women's Clinic re-opening on our campus after nearly 4 years without a physician who would do the necessary physical exams to prescribe Birth Control. Within the past 4 years, the Health clinic had routinely dispensed BC to all female students who had an active prescription at their discounted price, but they could not provide new students with prescriptions, so their customer base had decreased exponentially each year. In fact, when they started back up, they had so few students still on the plan, that they weren't even keeping the pill stocked at our school, but giving the students discounts if they went across the street to the grocery store pharmacy to buy it.

I'd like to introduce the latest member of the NRFC blogging team, Britt Shankle.

Britt has been involved in Project Plus, a campaign to educate college students about the harms of contraception.

Here's more about Britt in her own words.

My name is Britt and I'm a recent graduate of a public university in Virginia. Ruben has invited me to join the blogging team, and I very happy to have accepted.

Before I get into anything too deep, I thought it would be appropriate to let those of you who read this blog know who I am. As I said, I am a recent graduate from college, where I headed up a campaign to educate my peers about the harmful effects of birth control. We started as a small group of concerned students who wanted to let our peers in on the negative effects of Birth Control. We've billowed out into a somewhat national project, called Project Plus, in just the last few months with schools from all over participating. You can check it out here.

As the mainstream media editorialize outgoing Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, I can’t help but compare their opposition to the 34-minute execution of convicted killer Angel Diaz with their support of the 14-day execution of my sister, Terri Schiavo....

Orlando Sentinel, 12-28-06

[Gov. Jeb Bush's] intervention in the Terri Schiavo fiasco, without even talking to her husband, was unconscionable.

News-press.com, 12-19-06

Gov. Jeb Bush was wise to suspend executions and order the review of lethal injection procedures after the bungled execution of a convicted murderer last week.

Miami Herald, 1-8-07

It will be difficult for the public to forget [Bush's] disgraceful performance in the Terri Schiavo case, just one of a number of legal battles in which the ACLU engaged his administration because of his posture that public policy "should err on the side of life.''

FloridaToday .com, 12-20-06

Gov. Jeb Bush was correct to impose a hold on death warrants in Florida following the gruesome execution of Angel Diaz.....

Convicted murderer Diaz was put to death by lethal injection, taking 34 minutes to die.... That likely violates the constitutional mandate against cruel and unusual punishment....

An American Bar Association study... cited more than a dozen glaring flaws [with Florida's death penalty process]. Among them....

• Florida unjustly imposes the death penalty on persons with severe mental disabilities.

Orlando Sentinel , 12-31-06

... Mr. Bush... insisted on intervening in the case of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo.

The Ledger (Associated Press), 12-17-06

Article title: "Doctors: Botched execution likely slow, painful"

Death penalty foes have for years warned of a worst-case scenario in which an inmate being executed by lethal injection could remain conscious, experiencing severe pain as he slowly dies. That day may finally have come.

"It really sounds like [Angel Diaz] was tortured to death," said Jonathan Groner, associate professor of surgery at the Ohio State Medical School.... "My impression is that it would cause an extreme amount of pain."...

[W]itnesses reported movement of Diaz as long as 24 minutes after the first injection, with him grimacing, blinking, licking his lips, blowing and attempting to mouth words. At one point, about midway through the process, he turned his head toward witnesses....

Tampa Tribune, 1-31-07

Family members - and later state lawmakers, with Bush's support - tried to force [Terri's] sustenance. Courts stopped the Legislature, and later Bush, from ordering a feeding tube reinserted..... Despite overwhelming public distaste over the government's intervention - by a 2-1 ratio in one poll - Bush remains unrepentant.

I don’t believe in the deliberate killing of any human being.

But if the press is so worried about cruel and unusual punishment of convicted murderers by lethal injection, perhaps they would consider it better to starve and dehydrate them to death.

Because as the press constantly reminded us, death by dehydration and starvation of innocent disabled people who have committed no crime is a “peaceful and painless” way to die.

On the 34th anniversary of the infamous Roe V. Wade decision, Stacy Harp attended the City of Orange's pro-life candlelight vigil to remember and pray for those impacted by abortion. Stacy interviews Patsy, Joan and Sam about why they engage in prolife activism, and also to a group of young feminists and pro-choicers who try to explain why they believe killing preborn babies is okay. You'll definitely want to listen and then tell a friend... click here.

No one wants the government rifling through his or her bank accounts. The FBI has no business perusing your grocery lists. The right of privacy is clear in this country. With very few exceptions, the government has no reason to mandate that you tell them about your finances, your relationships, or your personal health.

That is why Representative Naomi Jakobsson's bill, HB115, is unconstitutional. The bill requires that sixth grade girls receive the vaccination for HPV before going to public or private school. Many similar laws and proposals have cropped up in other states as well.

Yes, the crowd at this year's March for Life was massive. Similar to Barbara, I've published a short photo album here. The fundamental story, however, is not the size of the gathering or even the number of congressional representatives who spoke. The most important issue of day is that the participants were there to commemorate the Supreme Court ruling that has led to the slaughter of over 45,000,000 Americans.

You would have a difficult time figuring out Barack Obama supports infanticide by the Jan. 17 Associated Press story entitled, "Obama record may be gold mine for critics."

Each of five times the AP referred to Obama's votes as state senator against legislation to stop infanticide, it softened the blow to make it unintelligible to the fetus on the street....

Any dictionary defines "fetus" as "an unborn or unhatched vertebrate ... a developing human from usually three months after conception to birth"....

But the AP couldn't admit abortion has extended to killing born children in the U.S.:

[Obama] voted against requiring medical care for aborted fetuses who survive....

Giving noncredit where it's due, the AP is not the only mainstream media outlet to handle the topic of babies aborted alive with fetus gloves....

The Southern Illinoisan reported Jan. 21, "Obama voted against a measure designed to protect what supporters termed live babies born during abortion procedures," as if pro-lifers made that term up....

Continue reading my column today, "The AP's fetus frenzy," on WND.com.

Posted by Genevieve Parker on ContraceptionBlog.com

Replying to several press releases from yesterday, the FDA issued a statement affirming that there is NO PROBLEM with the EFFECTIVENESS of the hormonal contraceptives currently approved at this time. So, no worries, their primary concern - contraceptive effectiveness - is totally under control. I guess it's of much lesser concern that the studies on which they base the approval of these physiology-altering drugs are potentially flawed in their representative safety claims.

Posted by Genevieve Parker on ContraceptionBlog.com

First of all, kudos to Ruben's efforts to raise awareness about the harms of birth control at the recent March for Life in Washington, D.C. As we've stressed time & again, abortion & contraception are bound up in the assault of the same principle; that is, respect for the dignity of human life, whether that be the dignity of a woman or the dignity of a pre-born child. Contraception & abortion exist on a continuum that - in principle - violates human dignity.

In other news, have a look at this recent article in the Washington Post regarding the FDA's standards for the approval of various types of hormonal contraceptives. The very first sentence of the article reads,

"The government is considering setting higher standards for birth control drugs used by millions, saying that newer pills appear to be less effective at preventing pregnancy than those approved decades ago."