Greg Pfundstein (’05) Takes on Washington’s ‘Birth Control Crusade’

Over at National Review Online, Greg Pfundstein (’05) has written a new article, The Misguided Birth Control Crusade Continues, in which he critiques the Obama Administration’s requirement that all insurance plans fully cover contraceptive devices and sterilization surgery. Writes Mr. Pfundstein:

“President Johnson’s fruitless War on Poverty kicked off the nation’s misguided birth-control crusade with grants for ‘family planning’ in 1965. The effort was redoubled in 1970 when, thanks to the efforts of John D. Rockefeller III and George H. W. Bush, Title X of the Public Health Service Act was signed into law by Richard Nixon the day after Christmas. Since 1970, the out-of-wedlock birthrate has tripled to 41 percent. With the help of the Supreme Court with its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, we have also seen the number of abortions spike through the 1980s and reach an equilibrium today at between 1.2 and 1.3 million annually. Both results are at least unexpected from the perspective of a public policy based on the premise that access to contraception will decrease the rate of unintended pregnancies. But perhaps such an outcome should not be surprising.”

Mr. Pfundstein is the Executive Director of the Chiaroscuro Foundation, non-profit philanthropy in New York. He  holds a licentiate in philosophy from the Catholic University of America, and serves on both the Patient’s Rights Council and the Pro-Life Commission of the Archdiocese of New York.