Readers React: Hobby Lobby decision perpetuates myths on birth control

To the editor: Jonah Goldberg’s column on the Hobby Lobby case takes as given the distortion of scientific facts at the core of the case. (“Alito agrees: Your birth control is not your boss’ business,” Op-Ed, June 30)

Overwhelming evidence has shown that emergency contraception does not prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg and does not cause the termination of an existing pregnancy. Therefore, emergency contraception it is not an abortifacient, contrary to what the Supreme Court justices and Goldberg contend.

Such uncritical endorsements of distorted science are the source of much misinformation, as I have discovered in my own research on barriers to access to emergency contraception. It is sad that the highest court in the nation has propagated this false belief and created another barrier for access to safe, effective and evidenced-based pregnancy prevention.

Tracey Wilkinson, MD, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Goldberg compares requiring employers to provide contraceptive health insurance to their employees to hypothetically requiring these companies to pay for their employees to attend a “Game of Thrones” convention.

Goldberg ignores the fact that every time a couple engages in unprotected intercourse, they are putting the woman’s life at risk. According to a study published in the medical journal the Lancet, 18.5 women died in childbirth for every 100,000 live births in the U.S. in 2013.

The intimate relations between couples are no mere game. The ability to obtain and use contraceptives is a matter at the heart of family life.

Goldberg and the five men who make up the U.S. Supreme Court majority in the recent Hobby Lobby case have shown the world that they place little value on the lives of women.

Eleanor Egan, Costa Mesa

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To the editor: I suspect that because Hobby Lobby is so deeply religious, it would not support a woman’s right to have an abortion. What causes more abortions than not having contraception?

Sarah Maze, Orange