For anti-contraception activists in Wisconsin, it’s been a busy year. Nary a month has gone by without a fresh attack on family planning by Pro-Life Wisconsin. The most recent has taken the form of a deceitful ad campaign falsely claiming that one of the most effective pregnancy prevention methods, emergency contraception, is an abortion method. The target of the ad campaign? The population most at risk for unintended pregnancy and which has the highest abortion rate: college women. Timed to run directly before the spring break recess, the ad encourages women to not use emergency contraception if their primary birth control method fails. A Pro-Life Wisconsin press release about the campaign explains, “Emergency contraception is a powerful, high dose of steroids that tricks a woman’s body into thinking it is pregnant. These steroids can cause chemical abortions and deadly bloodclots.” The group admits it was motivated to place the ads because “Unfortunately, in the past, Wisconsin college campuses have promoted EC to students, urging them to “prepare” for spring break by stocking up on it.”

Pro-Life Wisconsin, which two years earlier had attempted to ban EC from all University of Wisconsin campuses, tried to place the ad in every college newspaper in the state. But after looking at the content of the ad, three campus newspapers, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, University of Wisconsin-Stout and Marquette University, rejected it. Peter Fox, executive director of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, told the AP that "newspapers have the right to refuse any ad deemed inappropriate. He added the decision often is based on whether the ad is factual, if it creates false impression or presents someone in an inaccurate light." Naturally, the fact-challenged folks at Pro-Life Wisconsin were incensed by the decision to not run their inaccurate ads. “I was shocked when the Tribune objected to the words ‘chemical abortion’ in the ad,” said Virginia Zignego, Communications Director for the group. Her executive director, Peggy Hamill chipped in, “This is censorship. It truly is. When newspaper editors have a problem with the medical term ‘abortion’, there is something really wrong here.”

What really is wrong here is that Pro-Life Wisconsin has spent much of its energies trying to scale back access to contraception without revealing that as their true aim. Earlier in the month, the group opposed the “Birth Control Protection Act” which would have assured women can get their prescriptions for contraception filled at any pharmacy in the state. In response to the bill, Peg Hamill, the group’s director, stated, “This bill is not about access to birth control at all. Birth control is everywhere – even the morning-after pill is now accessible over the counter for those aged 18 and over. What this bill is really about is forcing pro-life pharmacists to cast aside any moral or medical qualms about birth control and do the bidding of the birth control industry.”

In January, the group waged a campaign against providing pregnancy prevention for victims of rape. When the bill passed ensuring that rape victims, no matter which emergency room they are taken to, will be offered emergency contraception, the group threatened a lawsuit. Peg Hamill explained, “The state Assembly has shamefully ignored the fate of embryonic children by forcing Wisconsin hospitals to dispense a known abortion-causing drug to vulnerable women. In so doing, they have trampled upon the conscience rights of hospitals and hospital workers in blatant disregard of our federal and state constitutions which guarantee freedom of religious expression and liberty of conscience. This deadly legislation should never have been scheduled for floor action. That it passed the day after the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade is an added insult.”

In October, Pro-Life Wisconsin successfully opposed a bill that would have expanded the Medicaid Family Planning Demonstration Project to offer confidential sexual health services to teenage boys. Despite the fact that all studies indicate that greater access to prevention services has no impact on the degree or initiation of sexual activity, Matt Sande, of Pro-Life Wisconsin, claimed that offering birth control to teenage boys increases their likelihood of having sex, stating, “The availability of confidential ‘family planning’ services to our teens is encouraging sexual promiscuity and with it a host of social pathologies. Protecting young boys and girls from the devastating physical and emotional effects of STDs, pregnancy and abortion, as well as ensuring the rights of parents to be involved in such important issues in their children’s lives, is our moral and civic duty.”

In June, the group hosted a talk by Joseph Scheidler, organizer of the Contraception is Not the Answer Conference, lamenting the Supreme Court decision in Griswold v Connecticut granting married people the right to use contraception. A press release for the event explained, “By commemorating the Griswold decision our affiliates are raising awareness about the judicial tyranny that has been going on for over 40 years...Ever since the Griswold decision, the courts have arbitrarily protected all sorts of immorality, all under the banner of so-called ‘privacy.’ Those who are appalled about the condition of our culture should have both a moral and civic interest in exposing the fraud that began with the Griswold decision.” Along with the Scheidler event, the group marked the anniversary of the decision by holding protests outside of seven health care centers around the state that prescribe birth control.

At this point, most of the work of this supposedly anti-abortion group isn’t against abortion. It is in opposition to contraception although few Wisconsinites have discovered the clear pattern. This is a long term, dangerous shift in focus. And for the pro-life folks it not only informs most of what they do, but seems to distort their ability to even think about the subject with an open mind. A few years ago I noticed the group had indicated on its website that most birth control methods are abortifacients. It included the cervical cap and spermicides. When I called to inquire about the last two they claimed it was a mistake and removed those from the list. But that mistake is telling. It seems clear by the events and statements of the group it’s after all forms of contraception, and science, fact and reason won’t stand in their way.

To lay all doubt to rest, here is their official admission of that fact:

This article originally appeared at BirthControlWatch.org.