Birth Control 101 For Idiots
This is hormonal birth control.
As you can see on the box, you take exactly one pill per day. To make sure it works, you need to take one pill every day at the same time, or it stops working. You take only one pill, and you keep taking them regardless of what you are doing that day.
Hormonal birth control can be used to treat a lot of different diseases, like anemia caused by excessive menstruation. It is a prescription medication that can cost around $15-50 a month. Because it is a prescription medication, it should be covered by insurance, as it treats legitimate health problems.
This is Viagra.
It, too, can treat legitimate health problems like altitude sickness and pulmonary hypertension, but it is usually prescribed for erectile dysfunction. Unlike the Pill, Viagra is taken every time you want to have sex. A lot of health insurance companies cover Viagra, so it costs about as much as your co-pay.
This is a condom.
It is not a prescription medication, and has no health benefits (besides the prevention of STIs and pregnancy). Like Viagra, you must use one before you have sex: indeed, before each sex act. They cost about a dollar per condom.
This is Sandra Fluke.
She testified before a small, Democrat-led hearing after she was cut out of the actual birth control/insurance discussion. Her testimony was about a friend of hers who, because her insurance did not cover birth control, lost an ovary due to an ovarian cyst.
This somehow translates into “I, myself, personally, am having so much sex I can’t afford birth control, and so I want the government to pay for it.”
This is wrong for multiple reasons.
- It was about a friend, not her. To say her testimony was about her personally is factually incorrect.
- Sex had nothing to do with the testimony - her friend lost an ovary because of medical condition that was left untreated. A medical condition that was completely treatable, but wasn’t, because her insurance wouldn’t cover it. To say that her testimony was about her being “a slut” or “a prostitute” is factually incorrect.
- Even if she was having loads of sex, she would still only have one pill a day, not one pill per sex act, so to say “I’m having so much sex I can’t afford birth control” is completely erroneous. The Pill is not Viagra or condoms. To say that she is such “a slut” that she constantly needs more pills is factually incorrect.
- The current political debate is not “should the government pay for birth control?” The debate is “should insurance companies, that people and their employers pay for, on their own, be required to cover birth control?” To say that Sandra Fluke wants the government to pay for her birth control is factually incorrect.
- Religious organizations do not want to have birth control covered by their insurance, even for employees not of their faith, even if their employees never actually use their insurance to cover birth control. By this logic, they should also not pay their employees, because they could use that money to pay for birth control out of pocket. To say that this issue is about religious freedom and not about women’s health is disingenuous, as Ms. Fluke’s testimony demonstrates.
Hopefully this makes things a little clearer.
It’s extremely clear, but we are dealing with the war on women, as raged by the right wing.
(via rosalarian)
Best Reader-submitted posts from Better Book Titles.
Credits: Alex Grabie, ThatDarnCass, John Molina, Elihu Dietz, Django Haskins, and Mike Lacher of Wonder-Tonic.
(via mattbors)
Tennessee Mayor Defends Cross On Public Property, Calls ‘Non-Believer’ Objectors ‘Terrorists’ »
After months of complaints, the small Tennessee town of Whiteville will finally remove a cross placed atop its public water tower, but the town’s mayor isn’t happy about it. The Freedom From Religion Foundation, the nation’s largest association of atheists and agnostics, asked the town to take down the cross on behalf of a resident who was offended by its presence on public property, citing the Constitution’s Establishment Clause separating church and state.
Still, he’s not pleased. “Whiteville is a religious town,” Bellar told WREG. “I just think it’s a sad day when people in a small rural Western Tennessee town like Whiteville have to be the object of attention for non-believers.” “They’re the terrorists,” Bellar said to the Jackson Sun. “It’s not us.”
“I’d just tell this one person that’s got a problem with it, that they just need to go ahead and pack and move. If anybody else has got a problem with the cross, they just need to pack and move also,” a resident told WREG. The mayor plans to move the cross to private property on the highway, “where it will be more visible than ever and no one can make them move it.”
It’s like the mayor doesn’t seem to get that it’s not that there is a visible cross, but that it’s on public property. I’m afraid of my fellow Americans.
(Source: richwhitelesbian, via exploding-zombies)
Jesus would support this bill (the American Jobs Act)… Ask the wealthiest to contribute so that ordinary families can get back on two feet again.”
—
Brandon Nessen of the Spirit of Truth Faith Community
These folks are apparently going to be protesting Michele Bachmann’s HQ. This is all very fascinating, I’ve never even heard of a “religious left/progressive christian” organization before this.
-Joe
(via stfuconservatives)
(Source: skepticalavenger, via techsgtjenn)
Right-wing hypocrisy at its finest.
For an excellent take-down of the dumb-ass hillbilly owner of The Comics Conspiracy, read this.
Yep, every natural disaster is somehow connected with god’s disdain for American politics or hatred of ‘the gays.’
By: Matt Bors
(Source: bringtheruckuss, via techsgtjenn)
From ‘not racist’ to ‘stormfront member’ in 6 hours
Is It Bigotry To Not Vote for a Mormon? »
It is definitely worthwhile to read the entire article, but the best segment that essentially sums it up:
Do you really want a president who could launch a nuclear attack… who also believes he/she will be in “God’s glorious presence” in the afterlife?
Do you really want a president who can appoint important positions in the field of science like the head of the National Institutes of Health… who also believes the Earth was created about 6,000 years ago and that evolution is a lie?
Do you really want a president who has the power to veto legislation regarding women’s health care… who also believes abortion is equivalent to murder and that life begins at conception?
I wouldn’t feel comfortable voting for those people. It has nothing to do with the labels they give themselves and everything to do with what they will do with those beliefs. I want a president who makes decisions after hearing from experts on the issue, not after hanging up on a conference call with a group of pastors.