Obama's Contrived Contraceptives Crisis

President Obama wanted to force Catholic organizations to pay for services they morally oppose so that Obama could provide free birth control to maybe 6 million women who reportedly need help. Here again, a politician makes up a crisis so that he -- and only he -- can swoop in and save the day, opposition be damned.

One statistic jumped out at me during Obama's "contraception mandate" speech yesterday.

"Nearly 99 percent of all women have relied on contraception at some point in their lives –- 99 percent. "

Wow! Considering that there are rougly 150,000,000 women in the United States (2010 census), that is a lot of pills.

Well, not exactly.

Because Obama couldn't be bothered to give us any real numbers, or tell us where he got that statistic, I searched on that line and found a Center for Disease Control report, Use of Contraception in the United States: 1982–2008 (PDF). What follows is a quick, Saturday morning parsing of the numbers.

From the CDC report:

99% of "women 15–44 years of age who had had intercourse at least once (referred to in the text as ‘sexually experienced’). The percentages shown are the proportions of sexually experienced women who reported that they (or their male partners) have ever used each method of contraception at least once, at some time in their lives.

Wait, I thought Obama said 99% of all women have relied, but the CDC reports usage for sexually experienced women who have ever used contraceptives, even once. And suddenly, women have relied on equals women have once used.

But still, these must be some staggering numbers for Obama to make such a big deal about it, to make speeches about it, to force the issue on people who are opposed to contraception. Back to the report:

In 2006–2008, about 62% of these 62 million women (18 to 54) were currently using a method of contraception, including male methods

OK. So 62% of 62 million is roughly 38 million. Wow. From 150,000,000 to 38,000,000. Quite a drop.

• Among the 62% of women who were using a method of contraception in 2006–2008, the leading methods currently used were:
• The oral contraceptive pill, used by 17.3%, or 10.7 million women.
• Female sterilization, used by 16.7%, or 10.3 million women.
• Male sterilization (vasectomy), used by the partners of 6.1%, or 3.7 million women.

Back out the male sterilization (is Obama fighting for that??), we are down to 21 million. What was that undocumented figure that Obama quoted on affordability?

And yet, more than half of all women between the ages of 18 and 34 have struggled to afford it. So for all these reasons, we decided to follow the judgment of the nation’s leading medical experts and make sure that free preventive care includes access to free contraceptive care.

Notice he changed the demographic from ALL women to women ages 18 through 34. The numbers on age are convoluted in the CDC report, more convoluted than I want to decipher on a Saturday morning. So, let's assume roughly half are in the 18 to 34 segment of the 18 to 54 grouping in the CDC report.

Down to 11.5 million.

Half of those, Obama assures us, need help. 6 million. I won't even endeavor to ascertain what percent of that 6% works for a religious organization or is on Medicaid or other program that covers birth control.

Nearly 99 percent of all women have relied on contraception at some point in their lives –- 99 percent. And yet, more than half of all women between the ages of 18 and 34 have struggled to afford it.

The way he juxtaposes those two phrases, heavily emphasizing the "99%," certainly leads one to imagine some staggering numbers -- a veritable crisis.

Alas, no.

President Obama wanted to force Catholic organizations to pay for services they morally oppose so that Obama could provide free birth control to roughly 6 million women who reportedly need help. Here again, a politician makes up a crisis that he, and only he, can swarm in and solve, opposition be damned.