Abortion

They Are Coming for Your Birth Control: ‘Do We Want to Make the Pill Illegal? Yes!’

MTV gives Randall Terry a platform to explain what "pro-lifers" are really after.

On an episode of MTV's True Life, Andrew, 28, helps Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry in their efforts to make birth control, or
On an episode of MTV's True Life, Andrew, 28, helps Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry in their efforts to make birth control, or "human pesticides," illegal and to pass laws that will make abortion illegal and jail women for obtaining illegal abortions. MTV / screenshot

Think that anti-choice politicians and activists aren’t trying to outlaw contraception? Think again. Follow along in an ongoing series that proves beyond a doubt that they really are coming for your birth control.

Move over, 16 and Pregnant. MTV has a new message for teens that may be way more effective when it comes to educating them on sex and contraceptives.

Watch out for the rabid anti-choicers!

The network’s True Life series often focuses on unusual or controversial characters to draw in viewers, but a winter episode went beyond “I Hate My Body” or “I Have a Weird Habit” to an even darker place. “I Hate the Government” follows three young adults who say they don’t trust the government and have joined groups to “reform” it: a teenage Tea Party activist, a young woman trying to break into the militia movement, and an anti-choice extremist.


(The relevant portion of the episode begins at about 17:30.)

The show follows Andrew Beacham, who believes the current government needs to be tossed aside because it has abandoned the Bible. In watching the show, however, it becomes clear that the 28-year-old activist really is there simply to give camera time to former Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry. Beacham, as Terry’s accolade, is shown protesting with him, creating graphic abortion campaign ads, and even moving into a group home where the goal is to find a way to end all abortion.

But it’s not just abortion that they are targeting. Terry makes it clear that to be truly “pro-life,” you have to outlaw anything that will allow someone to have sex without risking pregnancy, childbirth, or parenthood—even if that means putting women in jail for avoiding pregnancy.

Terry: Without a clear message of “This is what it means to be pro-life,” then we’re doomed.

Beacham: Nobody articulates our message better than Randall.

Terry: Do we want to make the pill illegal? Yes. Do we want to make the IUD illegal? Yes. The morning after pill? Yes. The patch? Yes. Anything that’s a human pesticide, they all have to be made illegal. A woman has to go to jail if she kills her baby.

Of course, a number of anti-choice activists would bend over backwards to say that Terry doesn’t represent the mainstream of the movement. After all, the current Operation Rescue group is in constant battle to affirm its distance from its former leader. Yet although they may disagree with Terry’s newer tactics, such as purposefully getting arrested in public places or running political ads on television for the sole purpose of showing graphic images on screen, no one mentions disagreeing with his view of what it means to be “pro-life.”

In fact, much of what Terry said can be found echoed in the words of current office holders, from Sen. Dick Black (R-VA) to Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ).Even the anti-choice action group Population Research Institute argues against “human pesticides” like contraception being used to stop the creation of the “most precious resource”: more people.

The “outlaw birth control” mindset isn’t playing well with the MTV bunch, if the comments responding to the show are any indication. Hopefully, they will continue to be outraged over the idea, because soon they will learn that it isn’t just Terry they have to worry about.

The entire anti-choice movement is coming for your birth control.