Eye On Modesto

Thoughts and observations about Modesto and Stanislaus County

Archive for the tag “birth control”

08 Jun 2012

The War Being Fought FOR Women

In 1994, the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development set goals to improve access to reproductive and sexual health services including family planning, and infant, child and maternal mortality.  They hope to meet their goals by 2015.

The conference participants envisioned rich countries helping poor countries to meet these goals, but no one was given a free ride.  Developing countries agreed to provide 2/3 of the money needed.  For every $1.00 spent in these countries to meet these goals, they save $1.40 in maternal and newborn health care costs.  It’s a win-win for the health of women and their babies, and a win-win for the financial well-being of the developing countries.

But as noted, this isn’t just about saving money.  This is about saving the lives of women and children.  The International Planned Parenthood Foundation works in 153 countries around the world.  Their Director-General, Tewondros Melesse reports that while maternal deaths have fallen by 47 percent since 1990, women in sub-saharan Africa still have a 1 in 39 lifetime risk of dying due to pregnancy related causes.  If the goals set in Cairo are met, it would result in global unintended pregnancies dropping from 75 million to 22 million.  There would be approximately 25 million fewer abortions (a goal we should all get behind), 22 million fewer unplanned pregnancies, and almost 1 million fewer deaths among women and newborns.  Right here in America, we have the highest maternal death rate of all industrialized countries due to lack of pre-natal care for low-income and uninsured women.

The world’s population hit 7 billion last year.  Half of the world’s citizens are under the age of 25.  It is imperative that these young people are educated about reproductive rights and have access to necessary reproductive health care.

While countries around the world are trying to provide better access to reproductive health care, right here in America we are trying to curb that access.  In 2011, states enacted 135 new reproductive healthcare laws ranging from personhood amendments, to trans-vaginal ultrasounds as a pre-requisite to receiving an abortion, to attacks on contraception, including allowing employers to decline to cover contraception, even when they hold no moral or religious objection to it.  In some states it is legal to charge a woman up to 80% more for insurance coverage than a man of the same age and health status.

But the truth is clear now.  Opponents of abortion have often said they simply want to end abortion.  We can see now that their ultimate goal is to end access to contraception.

We won that battle almost 50 years ago with a Supreme Court Decision (Griswold vs. Connecticut).  Yet here we are again, fighting once more to have control over our reproductive lives.

So there is a world wide war being fought FOR women.  It’s just not happening here in America.  Right here, we have a war AGAINST women.  If you don’t see that, you haven’t been paying attention.

The teen pregnancy rate in the US is at the lowest in four decades.  This is a direct result of two things:  sex education in public schools and access to birth control.  Many states are banning sex education and many more are trying to limit access to birth control.  This will only result in an increase in teen pregnancy.

Talk to your wives, your mothers, your sisters and daughters.  Ask them what they think about birth control.  Ask them what they think about the possibility of NOT having birth control.   And please register to vote.  This presidential election will be one of the most important elections for women in the last 50 years.

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19 May 2012

The Slow But Steady Erosion of Women’s Rights

By EOM Staff

We all thought this battle was over.  In 1965, women were granted the right to use birth control.  In 1973, we were granted the right to terminate a pregnancy.  In 2012, we are extremely close to losing these rights.

State by state, legislatures are taking away our rights, or making them extremely difficult to exercise.  Consider this:

Nine states (AL, GA, ID, MI, NE, OH, SC, UT, WV) mandate (that word that Republicans hate so much, except when they use it) physicians to perform ultrasound exams on women seeking an abortion and encourage them to view the images.  Alabama Senator Clay Scofield (R) said, “this bill just allows them to see the child inside of them, so it’s not just out of sight, out of mind.”  How insulting is that comment?  He believes that when a woman is agonizing over whether to end a pregnancy, that pregnancy is “out of sight, out of mind?”

Thirty-five states have mandated (there’s that word again) that a woman seeking an abortion is counseled and the counselor must try to dissuade her from ending her pregnancy.

Six states mandate (yes, once again) physicians to tell a woman that a link exists between abortions and breast cancer.  There have been many studies and none have shown such a link.  What they have shown is that a pregnancy carried to term in a woman’s younger years results in a lower risk of breast cancer.  But that does not equate to having an abortion increasing the risk of cancer.  The risk would be the same as having never been pregnant.  These states are mandating that physicians lie to their patients.

Eight states mandate physicians to tell women that having an abortion could cause psychological problems.  There is no evidence to back that up.  The vast majority of women who have an abortion, have no psychological side effects.  The ones who tend to have problems later on are those with previous mental health issues, or who abuse alcohol or drugs.

Arizona protects a physician from a lawsuit if the physician chooses NOT to tell a pregnant woman that her fetus has major fetal abnormalities (including fatal ones), because that information might cause her to have an abortion.

So, here’s what we have:  State by state laws are being passed that interfere with the private patient/doctor relationship.  Requiring physicians to lie to their patients.  Protecting physicians who don’t tell their patients the truth.

How do you think men would feel if laws were being passed that did those things concerning their health?  Do you believe they would find it acceptable for their physician to lie to them, or to withhold the truth from them?

What’s most insulting of all is that in the past few months we’ve seen “panels” formed to discuss issues that effect women:  birth control coverage and abortion rights.  These are ALL-MALE PANELS!  And they are refusing to allow testimony from WOMEN!

Is this really the kind of health-care we want in America?  Or are we now living in Ameristan…I wonder if Sears carries burkas.

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23 Mar 2012

The Shaming of American Women

By EOM Staff

Several states are proposing severe restrictions on abortion rights and even access to birth control.  Birth control became legal in 1965.  Abortions became legal in 1973.  In an attempt to restrict both of these things, the conservative right has proposed the following in some states:

A mandatory, medically unnecessary trans-vaginal probe ultrasound.  If the woman is insured, this procedure won’t be covered because it is medically unnecessary.  If she is uninsured and low-income, how will she pay for this?

Requiring a physician to describe in detail the fetus, and force the woman to listen to the fetal heartbeat.

Requiring a physician to tell his patient that abortions cause breast cancer, which is not true.  Carrying a pregnancy to term and breast-feeding reduce the risk of breast cancer,  but that is certainly not the same as saying abortions cause breast cancer.

Requiring a physician to read a government prepared pro-life script to their patients, even if the physician supports abortion rights.

Mandatory 24 – 72 hour waiting periods after seeing a physician, but prior to terminating the pregnancy.  This can be financially difficult for women who have to travel across a state (many states have only one abortion provider), then spend 3 nights in a hotel prior to ending the pregnancy.  She would also be forced to miss work for those 3 days, which only adds to the financial burden.

Making demographic information available on-line regarding every woman that has an abortion, including: county of residence, age, marital status, educational level, number of children she has, and how many pregnancies she has had.  They also want to require that the physicians’ name be made public. 

Requiring a woman who uses birth control for reasons other than contraception to prove to her employer that she is using it for medical reasons in order to be reimbursed by her employer-sponsored insurance.  Women often use the pill to treat endometriosis, regulate periods, relieve pain from heavy periods, control the growth of ovarian cysts or to treat severe acne.  Requiring her to show her medical records to her employer would be a violation of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).  This is a federal law, which among other things, protects the privacy of medical records.

Texas recently lost Medicaid funding for family planning due to Governor Rick Perry signing a law that takes Planned Parenthood off the list of agencies that a woman can choose for her health care services.  Medicaid law prohibits states from limiting a woman’s choice of providers, simply because that provider offers separate services (such as abortions), even though abortions are not paid by taxpayer funds.  Because of this, Medicaid has removed their funding from Texas and now low-income women will have birth control restricted.

Some states would like to ban abortion, even in the case of rape, incest or to save the mother’s life.  In discussing the possibility of allowing abortion in the case of rape Bob Winder (R-Idaho) said that he wonders if women truly know when they’ve been raped.  He also said that when a woman sees her physician about the issue of rape and pregnancy, he hopes the physician would question her about her marriage and ask if the pregnancy were really the result of a rape or of  “normal marital relations”.    This is as offensive as the statement of some male legislatures who question whether a woman truly understands what she’s doing when she terminates a pregnancy.

Fortunately, as of March 22, many of these proposals were being reviewed by the legislatures who wrote them.  I believe this is a result of the outpouring of anger from American women who do not want to lose their reproductive rights.  Ironically, the reason many of the men who wrote these proposals are giving as the purpose for reviewing them, is “I didn’t understand what that would mean.”  Apparently, it’s the men who don’t understand the reasons for birth control and the right to a safe, legal abortion.  Women understand all too well.

I can’t help but believe that many of these efforts are an attempt to “shame” American women into giving up their reproductive rights.  The creator of Doonesbury recently ran a series of comic strips about these issues.  He referred to the waiting room as the “shaming room” and the trans-vaginal probe as the “10 inch wand of shame”. 

What will be next?  We are barely past the stage of blaming a woman for being raped.  Do we want to be like Pakistan or other countries, where the woman’s family is shamed if she is raped?  And the only way for her to bring honor back to her family is to marry her rapist?  It sounds far-fetched for America…but it’s a slippery slope when you start taking away the rights of half of America’s citizens.

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09 Mar 2012
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Do Women Need Birth Control and Safe Abortions? The Story of Emma Brown Carmack

EOM Staff EmmaBrownCarmac

Several states are making it more difficult for women to obtain an abortion.  Some states only have one abortion provider.  Some states require a 24 – 48 hour waiting period after seeing a doctor before he will perform an abortion.  Now some states are requiring trans-vaginal ultrasounds prior to an abortion.  Some states won’t even allow abortions to save the life of the mother. Additionally, there are forces out there trying to ban birth control.

Please take a few minutes to read about Emma Brown Carmack and what her lack of birth control and a safe abortion meant to her family.

Emma Carmack was my great-grandmother.  She lived in Tennessee and was married with six children.  Her husband was an alcoholic who seldom worked and when he did earn some money, all of it went to alcohol.  Emma and her children were incredibly poor.  They had to rely upon the kindness of neighbors for food and clothing.  They often went to bed hungry.  In the early 1900s, when Emma’s oldest child (my grandmother) was 11 years old, Emma discovered she was pregnant again.  This was in the days of “marital rights” for husbands and women could not legally say “no” to a husband.  There was also no form of reliable, effective birth control, or any way to safely terminate the pregnancy.

Emma was desperate.  She didn’t want to bring another child into the world only to face starvation.  She had no hopes of providing a good future for her children and another child would just mean even less for the children she already had.  We’re not talking about fewer toys…we’re talking about less food, less hope.

So, Emma did what thousands of other desperate women did.  She tried to end her pregnancy with knitting needles.  She sent my grandmother and her older boys off to school.  She sent the younger boys to a neighbor’s house.  She left her three month old baby in his crib.  Then she laid down on her bed and tried to end her pregnancy.  Emma bled to death in her bed.  She must have had a few minutes to realize that she was going to die and leave her children motherless.  Can you imagine how helpless and desperate she felt?

My grandmother came home from school to find the baby crying in his crib and her mother laying on a blood-soaked mattress.  Now she was faced with the prospect of caring for all her younger brothers and she was only 11 years old.  Her father appeared long enough to bury his wife and put his children on a bus to Arizona.  A young girl, caring for a three month old baby and four other young children, all the way from Tennessee to Arizona.  They moved in with a spinster aunt who raised them.  They still lived in poverty with very little hope of a decent future.  I’m proud to say that my grandmother raised her brothers well.  She worked hard and sent them to school and one of them managed to go to college.  One joined the military and died in Germany during world War I.  But my grandmother’s opportunities were very limited by the circumstances of caring for her siblings.

I have a very old picture of Emma sitting on a lawn in a long dress and surrounded by friends and sisters.  Sitting in front of her is a blonde haired toddler who I believe is my grandmother.  Emma looks very happy in the picture.  When I look at this, I often wonder how long she was happy.  She must have been worn down by having a baby every year and the poverty that overtook her life.  I can’t imagine that her happiness lasted very long.

Studies have shown that women who control how often and how many babies they have are much healthier and happier.  So are their children.  I have never believed that abortions are good.  But I do believe they are necessary at times.  Desperate women take desperate measures and those measures shouldn’t have to include knitting needles, back-alley doctors, infections, bleeding, and death.

If you have a mother, sister, wife or daughter, please consider their circumstances.  They should have every right to plan their pregnancies and control the size of their families.  If their life is in danger, would you want them to die rather than have an abortion?

The goal of both conservatives and liberals is to reduce the number of abortions performed in this country.  But making them illegal won’t do that.  It will just mean that more women will die.  Banning birth control will only increase the number of abortions performed whether they are legal or not.

If there is a woman in your life that you care about, please join her in her fight to retain the right to birth control and her right to choose what is best for her and her family.

Please consider this important issue when you vote and remember what happened to Emma Carmack because of her lack of choices.  My grandmother and her brothers had to grow up without their mother.  Their children all grew up without their grandmother.

We can stop this from happening again, but only if we stand together.

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04 Mar 2012

BIRTH CONTROL, CHARITABLE GIVING, SNOBBERY AND FAITH

By EOM Staff

Chris Wallace, of Fox News, questioned Rick Santorum on Sunday about his position on birth control, his charitable giving and his comment that President Obama is a “snob” for encouraging young people to go to college.  Apparently, Mr. Santorum has forgotten that he went to college and I’m sure his children have or will.

When questioned about his beliefs on birth control, he tried to steer the discussion away from contraception and toward the issue of religious liberty.  Remember, President Obama has already allowed religious institutions to have an exemption to providing birth control coverage in their insurance plans. This is no longer a religious freedom issue, this is a women’s rights and women’s health issue.  Mr. Santorum believes birth control is harmful to woman.  He ignores the fact that 99% of sexually active women use birth control at some point in their lives.  He is certainly free to have his beliefs which are based upon his religion, but he is certainly NOT free to force the effect of those beliefs onto all American women.

President Obama and Mitt Romney both gave 14% of their 2010 earnings to charity.  Mr. Santorum gave 1.76% of his earnings to charity.  When questioned about his low charitable contributions, he contributed it to the expense of caring for a disabled child.  He explained that providing care for her is very expensive and his insurance doesn’t cover it.  His daughter Bella is very fortunate that her parents can provide the best possible care for her, however, Mr. Santorum fails to understand that there are very few families who could provide for a disabled child as well as he can.  For most families, the cost of caring for such a child would result in limited educational opportunities for other children in the family and reduced funds available for basic needs such as food and clothing.  For most of us, this financial burden would drive our families into abject poverty.  How do you care for a disabled child when your water, electricity and gas have been turned off because you couldn’t pay the bill?  Very few women have an abortion without given serious thought to the consequences for themselves and their families.  For many families, terminating a pregnancy involving a disabled fetus may be the only realistic option.  But remember, Mr. Santorum is against pre-natal testing because he feels it leads to abortions involving abnormal fetuses.  Again, he forgets that we can’t all care for a disabled child like he can.  And, Mr. Santorum has said that birth control shouldn’t be allowed.  So he would condemn many, many families to poverty to pay for disabled children, when the pregnancy could have been not just terminated, but prevented.  Very few women terminate a pregnancy without giving serious thought to the consequences for themselves and their families.  This is a decision best left to the mother, the father and her doctor.  Not to Rick Santorum or our government.

Chris Wallace also asked Mr. Santorum about his recent comment calling President Obama a snob for saying that “everybody in American should go to college.”  Mr. Santorum had to acknowledge that he “might have made a mistake” when Chris Wallace pointed out that what President Obama actually said was to encourage “all Americans to have at least one year of higher education or some kind of vocational training or apprenticeship”.

Part of Mr. Santorum’s problem with higher education seems to be his belief that people who start college with a strong faith seem to come out of it with a lesser faith.  But then, he seems to equate true faith with regular church attendance.  I believe you can have a strong faith and never step inside a church.  The church is just a building.  Your faith is shown in how you live your daily life.  And frankly, some of the comments I’ve seen on blog sites by people who claim to be Christians and have a strong faith, are the most hateful things you can imagine.

But, Mr. Santorum, the bottom line is that we are all free to follow any faith we choose, or no faith at all.  But you are trying to force your faith and your religious beliefs into our government.  Remember when John Kennedy was running for President, people were afraid that if he won, the Vatican would control our government.  And that’s exactly what would happen if Mr. Santorum were president.  It would not matter what faith individual Americans have or if they have no faith.  We would all have to live by the rules of the Catholic Church.  How un-American is that?

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03 Mar 2012
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Are Your Mothers, Wives, Sisters and Daughters all “Sluts and Prostitutes”?

By EOM Staff

According to Rush Limbaugh, Sandra Fluke is a “slut and a prostitute.”  Ms. Fluke is a University of Georgetown law student, who recently gave testimony about contraception.  Ms. Fluke was denied the opportunity to testify before the Congressional panel formed to discuss contraception, because it was deemed she was “unqualified.”  This determination was made, of course, by a man.  So, Ms. Fluke gave her testimony to an unofficial group of politicians, and Mr. Limbaugh jumped right into the fray.

Because Ms. Fluke thinks contraception is basic heath care for women, and feels that it should be covered by insurance, Mr. Limbaugh has declared that she is a “slut and a prostitute.”  He has also said that “she wants to be paid to have sex.”  I’m completely confused as to how he came to believe that.  He seems to think that she wants taxpayers to pay for contraception, when what she was requesting was that insurance cover contraception.  His next comment was that “if she wants us to pay for her birth control pills, we want something in return.  We want her to put the video of her having sex on the Internet so we can all enjoy it.”  Makes you wonder what kind of porn collection Mr. Limbaugh might have, doesn’t it?

And the great Mr. Limbaugh doesn’t have a clue how the pill works.  He has said for three days that Ms. Fluke and Georgetown coeds “are having SO MUCH SEX they can’t afford all their birth control pills.”  Here’s a biology lesson for you, Mr. Limbaugh – women on the pill take one pill each day of the month, whether they are going to have sex or not.  They don’t take one pill for each sexual experience.  If they are going to have sex fifty times in one day, they just take ONE PILL.  If they aren’t going to have sex that day, they still take a pill.

Now, some people don’t understand how expensive the pill is.  The average American woman spends 30 years trying to prevent pregnancy.  The pill is the most commonly used and most effective form of birth control.  Without insurance coverage, a woman would spend $67,000 over those 30 years, on birth control pills.  That’s a hugh expense that occurs month after month after month, when you are trying to feed and clothe your children, buy a home for them, or save for their college education.  Low-income women can go to Planned Parenthood for their birth control pills, but remember, the Republicans are trying to defund Plannd Parenthood.

Republicans are suggesting that insurance coverage should not include contraception.  Think about it….you pay a monthly premium for your medical insurance….your medical insurance coverage prescription drugs….birth control pills are prescription drugs.  What could possibly be wrong about expecting your insurance to cover your birth control?  After all, it is a basic health care need for women of reproductive age.  Insurances cover that little blue magic pill (Viagra) that men love so much.  See the lack of logic here?  Cover the pill that helps men function sexually, but don’t cover the pill that helps the women they have sex with prevent pregnancy.

Fortunately, Mr. Limbaugh is not in an elected position.  But it’s downright scary that men such as he are out there spouting their hatred of woman, and they don’t understand how the pill works.  By the way, Mr. Limbaugh recently married for the FOURTH time.  He is 59 years old.  His wife is half his age.  Which puts her right in the midst of her reproductive years.  Funny how Mr. Limbaugh is on his fourth marriage, but has no children.  Is he impotent?  Is he sterile?  Is that why he hates women so much?  Or have all of his wives been “SLUTS AND PROSTITUTES” who used birth control?

Unfortunately, Mitt Romney, who would like to be President, seems to have the same misunderstanding of how the pill works that Mr. Limbaugh has.  Mr. Romney has said that if he were President, he would sign an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, declaring a fertilized egg to be a person.  That would effectively eliminate hormonal birth control (IUDs and the pill) because they don’t prevent fertilization, they prevent the fertilized egg from implanting itself in the lining of the uterus.

At a recent speech, a young woman in the audience asked Mr. Romney if he believed a fertilized egg was a person.  He responded that he did.  She then asked why he was against birth control, and he said he wasn’t.  You can’t have it both ways, Mr. Romney.  Learn how birth control pills work before you go making executive decisions that affect approximately 62 MILLION AMERICAN WOMEN.  According to the Guttmacher Institute, that’s how many American women are in their reproductive years right now.

So, women of America…..do you feel like a slut and a prostitute because you have used contraception?  Mr. Limbaugh thinks you are.  And Mr. Romney, who would like to be your President, doesn’t have a clue how the pill works.  Scary, isn’t it?

GET OUT THE VOTE – OBAMA 2012!!!

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26 Feb 2012

How Much Does Birth Control Cost?

By EOM Staff

President Obama’s health care plan was intended to make health care more affordable and more accessible to all Americans.  The Republicans have attacked that idea and turned the discussion to whether or not insurances should cover birth control.  We are not talking about religiously affiliated employers….we are now talking about any employer.  Republicans would like to make it so your employer can choose not to cover birth control because he may have a “moral objection” to it.

Some GOP hopefuls have recently stated that birth control isn’t very expensive.  The average American woman will spend 30 years of her life trying to prevent pregnancy.  If her insurance doesn’t cover contraception, here are the estimated costs….

A shot 4 times a year for 30 years = $32,000

An IUD that has to be replaced every 5 – 7  years = $17,000

The pill (the most effective and most common form of contraception) = $67,000!  

That’s almost $2300 a year, for 30 years!  Not very expensive?  Imagine being a low-income woman trying to prevent pregnancy and having to spend almost $200 a month for contraception!  It’s expensive even for a professional woman with a good income.

Contraception is basic health care for women.  Allowing insurance companies and/or employers to choose not to cover it, will only result in even more unplanned pregnancies, more children and families living in poverty, and fewer opportunities for education for those children.

It’s all part of the continued war on women.  Take away our reproductive rights and we are kept out of the workplace (it’s hard to hold down a job when you have a baby every 18 months) and our ability to support our families is drastically reduced.

Apparently, the GOP didn’t pay attention to statistical analysis of the voters in 2008.  Almost 2 million more women than men voted that year.  And we will be out in force this year….voting against anyone who wants to take away our rights!

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18 Feb 2012

Senators, You Work For Us! Now Let’s Talk About Healthcare

Senators Roy Blunt and Mitch McConnell are proposing an amendment to the Affordable Health Care Act that would allow ANY employer to deny coverage for ANY treatment that the employer has a moral objection to.  Not just employers that are religiously affiliated, but any employer. That means your boss could deny treatment for mental illness, HIV treatment, drug and alcohol treatment, pre-natal care for an unmarried woman or even say he has a moral objection to cervical cancer treatment because it is caused by HPV, which is transmitted sexually!  Actually, it’s transmitted from men to women, yet the woman could be denied coverage.

What these fine gentlemen are forgetting is that they work for us!  We are their employer!  Now, gentlemen, let’s talk about your health care coverage.  The insurance we provide for you covers everything!  You don’t have to purchase this insurance, it is provided free of charge, for the rest of your life!

I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling that I have a moral objection to what you are trying to do to health care coverage.  And I have a particularly strong moral objection to what you are trying to do to women when it comes to contraception!

Copy and paste the address below to add your voice and make your opinion known:

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/mitch_hypocrite/index2.html?rc=LA_Mitch_02162012_e1

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17 Feb 2012

Who Should Testify About Birth Control? Apparently Not Women!

By EOM Staff

Funny how birth control has become such a hot political issue lately.  We’ve had the pill for almost 60 years now.  Abortions have always existed, legal or not.  I just can’t help but think that if birth control were the responsibility of men we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

Now there is a five-member panel to hear testimony about birth control.  The five members are all male.  Not one woman to hear testimony about the need for birth control!  On top of that, these five men are deciding who is an “appropriate witness to give testimony” to them.  They are excluding women from telling their personal stories about the need for birth control.  On The Ed Show last night, there was a young college student who had been scheduled to give testimony to the contraception panel.  At the last minute, these men decided she was not an appropriate witness to give testimony.  So she went on the Ed Show and told the story of her friend, also a college student, who took birth control pills to prevent cysts from growing on her ovaries.  The pills cost her $100 a month.  Month after month after month.  The expense finally became too great to bear, as she was working her way through college and had tuition, room and board and books to pay for.  She stopped getting her pills.  A cyst grew in her ovary, ruptured and landed her in the hospital.  Now the ovary has been removed, but her medical condition has caused her to go into early menopause.  For some unfathomable reason, the male panel did not feel this was appropriate testimony!

Additionally, there is now one more reason to call Mitt Romney “Flipper”.  Prior to becoming governor of Massachusetts, his predecessor signed into law a mandate that insurance companies in Massachusetts provide birth control coverage.  Once Mr. Romney took office, he never attempted to repeal this law.  His only clash with lawmakers in Massachusetts was whether Catholic hospitals should be required to dispense emergency contraception to rape victims.

Now that he is running for President, he would actually like to ban hormonal birth control methods.  That would include IUDs and birth control pills.  He is up in arms over President Obama’s proposal that insurances companies provide birth control coverage, even though Obama’s proposal exempts churches.

Yes, many of the GOP contenders state that women can get their birth control from clinics instead of through their insurance.  But these same men would like to eliminate funding for places such as Planned Parenthood.  If that happens, where would women get their birth control?  The pill runs between $60 – $100 a month, IUD’s cost about $1800.  How could college students or low income women afford this?

The most appalling thing of all was the interview given by one of Rick Santorum’s biggest financial contributors last night.  He said, and I quote, “back in my day birth control was inexpensive and easy to use – the gals just held an aspirin between their knees!”  Obviously this man has no consideration for the plight of women of child-bearing age, gives no consideration to the pressure men put on women to have sex, and sees contraception as just a woman’s issue (the gals), even though we are about to lose the right to said contraception!  This man belongs back in the 1800s, not in 2012!

If women don’t get out in force in November, we will lose the right to birth control and the right to safe and legal abortions.  What will be next?  The right to own property, vote, hold down a job, have credit in our own name, serve on a jury, run for public office?  These are rights that women have won over the last 150 years.  All of these things were once illegal for women.  We can’t let that happen again.

Come on women – register to vote and get out in November!  Don’t let men control our lives once again!

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15 Feb 2012

More on the War on Women….

Remember in 1960 when so many people were upset that John Kennedy, if elected, would be controlled by the Vatican?  Their fears were unfounded.  Ironic, that now so many people are upset that our current president refuses to be controlled by the Vatican, isn’t it?

The state of Virginia’s republican super-majority has passed two of the most restrictive anti-abortion bills in the country. These bills will now to go to the Senate.  One bill declares a fertilized egg a person.  The egg is fertilized prior to implanting itself in the uterus.  Implantation is when medical science considers a woman to be pregnant.  Many eggs are fertilized, but never implant themselves, are these to be considered people, too?

The second bill requires a woman wishing to obtain an abortion to undergo a “transvaginal ultrasound” prior to having the abortion done.  This is a medically unnecessary and painful, invasive procedure.  Who will be forced to pay for this procedure?  The low-income woman?  The insurance company that doesn’t want to pay for medically unnecessary procedures?

The GOP is outraged that President Obama wants to require insurances to cover birth control.  They say it is an intrusion by government into our personal lives.  I can’t think of anything more intrusive than a woman having to put her feet into the stirrups, a doctor inserting a probe into her vagina, pushing it through her cervix and into her uterus.  But the GOP in Virginia is going to try to require this.  This is the (supposedly less intrusive) government telling both a woman and a physician what they have to do before the woman can choose to have a legal procedure done.

The republican controlled House and Senate in Virginia has also declared that the state has no business urging young girls to be vaccinated (HPV) against a virus that can later cause cancer, but they have no problem with the state telling women and physicians what they HAVE to do.  Am I the only one who sees the hypocrisy here?

Del. Todd Gilbert had to apologize for his remark concerning abortions, that “in the vast majority of these cases, these are matters of lifestyle convenience.”

I have known a few woman that had abortions.  They each had their own individual reasons.  They did not make the decision lightly.  And not one of them did it for “lifestyle convenience”.

 

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