What Did Susan Orr Really Say?

| | Comments (0)
This Think Progress article about Susan Orr is making the rounds. It contends Orr "called contraceptives part of the 'culture of death.'"

It provides a citation, a 2000 Weekly Standard article. I can't find the article, and no link is provided, nor is any context provided. Here's all we've got:

In a 2000 Weekly Standard article, Orr railed against requiring health insurance plans to cover contraceptives. "It's not about choice," said Orr. "It's not about health care. It's about making everyone collaborators with the culture of death."
and

But in 2000, Dr. Orr said that requiring insurers to cover family planning supplies and services -- a policy that promotes access to contraception in many states and the federal employee health program -- is "about making everyone collaborators with the culture of death." This leaves little doubt about where she has stood on contraception access.
Doesn't seem very clear to me, at all. The first quote provides no hints from the text as to the antecedent of "it," only the article author's claims that it refered to "contraceptives." The second implies disagreement with the first, saying the issue was not contraceptives specifically, but "family planning supplies and services." Although it then also says she is saying that about "contraceptives."

Either way, they give us no reason other than their word to believe it is about "contraceptives" in general, as they claim.

My guess is that she was specifically referring to services or supplies that destroyed (or inevitably led to the destruction of) a biologically living embryo (whether implanted or not), not contraception in general, and that her opponents know this and are lying: saying something knowingly false with the intent to deceive.

But I'd really like to see an actual copy of what she said so people could make up their own mind instead of having to trust Think Progress. slashdot.org

Leave a comment

<pudge/*> (pronounced "PudgeGlob") is thousands of posts over many years by Pudge.

"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by pudge published on October 18, 2007 11:04 AM.

Congress Colludes With Press To Make Public Dumber was the previous entry in this site.

"Still Alive" Cover is the next entry in this site.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.