"It's about the whores who use contraceptiion"

"[It's not about contraception,] It is about the whores who use contraceptives!  And dancing. Its about dancing!  It ALWAYS begins with the dancing.  And the face paint. And culottes! Oh those culottes.  Oh garment of temptation, you are the devils pantaloon!" 

- Jon Stewart

I don't often re-post from other blogs, even when credit is given it seems a little bit like thievery.  However, with the misogynistic tactics (my words) that lawmakers across the country seem to be taking in the "debate" on birth control coverage and mandating additional medically unnecessary procedures before having a 100% legal abortion, I feel like it's important that other  voices be heard, even if it's just here on my little corner of the inter-web. 

Clearly, if you've been paying attention at all, and even if you just tuned in, you can probably guess where I stand on this.  Unfortunately, nobody is required to agree with me (as is evidenced by the fact that Rush Limbaugh is still on the air spewing hatred) so I'll just stick to the facts. 

According to a recent study funded and supported by the CDC 98% of women in this country who have ever had intercourse have used contraceptives at some point in their lives. 82% of these women have used oral contraceptives.  Before 1980, only 43 percent of women (or their partner) used a method of birth control at their first premarital intercourse. By 1999–2002, the proportion using a method at first premarital intercourse had risen to 79 percent.  Do you suppose there's any coincidence that during this time the teen pregnancy rate also fell? 

I thought I could limit myself to facts but I can't. When politics and religion begin to intervene between a woman and her doctor, women will get hurt.  Whether it is physical injury, emotional injury or "just" the violation of their civil rights, it is injury all the same. To continue this discussion in support of these laws, knowing full well that women will be marginalized, degraded and injured, is misogyny.  Plain and simple.  


My favorite entries from Men Who Trust Women tumbler:


 "The idea that a pregnant woman choosing to terminate the pregnancy doesn’t know she’s got a fetus in her womb is just so infuriatingly insulting. And as a father of two girls, I feel invested in this issue in an extra-strong way, too. The idea that one of my girls could be forced into unnecessary medical procedures by the state government, because she’s a girl, is just so angering to me. My girls deserve better."


"In fact, the hard thing for me is to conceive of how anyone, male or female, can believe that they are in a better position to decide about any health care decisions than the patient in consultation with her doctor and friends/family.
So yes, I trust women to make their own decisions on health care, and anything else!"

"Trusting women is the bare minimum. Believing that women are human beings capable of making decisions about their own bodies makes you a decent human being. And being a decent human being is the bare goddamn minimum. You don’t get a cookie for being a decent human being...[but] this is not about cookies. This is about changing the conversation."