What about taking personal responsibility?
3
That this president - philanderer, grabber, cheater - would align with the Christian right to impede women's access to birth control is further disgusting evidence of his moral depravity. #resist
10
I wonder if that's what Stormy Daniels used when.... just an aspirin between her legs (after all we are in the Republican World, no?). And # 45, in spite of his "grabbings heroic deeds", in spite of his denigrating tweets, racism, insults, and what not, keeps destroying everything. And, in spite of his "love" for women, # 55 wants to destroy women's reproductive rights.
2
"Yet the Trump administration appeared to accept the conservatives' retrograde thinking...."
I am constantly perplexed by people who proudly proclaim that they are "conservative". It seems rather like walking around with a sandwich board sign trumpeting the fact that they are stupid.
7
I seem to recall a photo from the early days of this administration of a meeting where issues important to women were being discussed. It was all men in that photo.
It may be 2018 for the rest of the civilized world, but it's still the 1950's in America.
That old slogan still rings true.
Get your laws and your religion off my body!
It's International Women's Day!
Go kick some donkey!
7
Re: "...These have long been preferred by the religious right, but are notoriously unreliable..."
Unlike the (Republican) Pro_Life_Jihadists, I am NOT, 'notoriously unreliable', either in my B/c method-/-use, (vasectomy-/-permanent, respectively), NOR voting habits: I've NEVER voted Republican since I initially, voted; (Jimmy Carter)!
That will remain my personal_voting policy for at least '18, 'N, '20!
1
this is news? Everything about this administration is backwards.
2
I bet Donald Trump made sure Stormy Daniels used contraception before he never met her.
5
So girls should say no, and then when boys rape them it's because the girls were provocative. And then the girls get to be teenage moms.
Genius.
6
And how may illegitimate children might our president have fathered if not for women's contraception. Oh, I forgot, he's only concerned with low income womem obtaining it.
5
Lysistrata, was a Greek comedy, but I'm sure if women withheld sex until they get the birth control and family planning information they deserve, it would be no laughing matter! I do not want my hard earned tax dollars to pay for men's Viagra. It is infuriating that men determine what a woman can do with her body.
8
Oh, the hypocrisy of the least abstemious, most priapic president in our history privileging abstinence only "methods" of birth control.
Since Trump only produced four offspring, we have to presume that, romping through New York and Beverly Hills in his salad days, he was availing himself of contraception, or insisting that his bimbos were.
Let he who doth abstain cast the first prohibition!
1
Why doesn't Melania Trump have more kids? Certainly without birth control she could have at least 4 children by now. Or is the Trump attitude simply that rich people are the only ones who deserve birth control. Or maybe it is an "abstinence after marriage" administration with Donald dabbling around with Porn stars and Playboy bunnies and not his wife.
This is the same smelly arrogance typical of rich Republicans. They live in their own aloof little silos with very little contact with the real urban lower class society, or understanding of the economic consequences of imposing their 18th Century rural farming family morality on 21st Century single urban women whose husbands have left them with the task of raising and paying for children.
5
There is a lot of misinformation being advanced by Liberal trolls that claim that there is federal funding for Viagra. There is no federal funding of Viagra unless you are in the military.
Medicare Parts A and B do not cover Viagra; neither does Part D. Besides, even if some new plans such as part D cover Viagra, you are PAYING PREMIUMS toward it. But there is no plan other than Pentagon that covers Viagra for men. So, Liberal women, let us stop this war on men right now, shall we?
https://www.senior65.com/medicare/article/does-medicare-cover-viagra
2
Trump will harm Trump voters, then blame liberals for the increased poverty in Trump voting States.
Blue States will keep delivering family planning services and Blue States will continue to be overcrowded and expensive, with conservatives claiming they should be like Red States, depopulating and poor with little opportunity for children those conservatives consider a taxpayer burden.
2
'We're on site at refugee camp, and young girl has spinal injury so we are taking her for treatment'. What happened? The mother has too many children and beat her child. No access to Planned Parenthood, this is one case among millions and if you think that this Administration does not care, you are 'right' and a beautiful winner.
'You were an accident' from my Red Queen on a visit to Paris. I tell my parent that in America there is a 'Dr. Spook', who does not believe in telling one's offspring such revelations. Nonsense, she retorts, and one of our wars begins because I still take myself too seriously.
What is this problem about giving access to birth control to women in America? Over 530 million children in emergency situations wandering our planet, and there is ongoing talk about the reality of Overpopulation.
Perhaps women are supposed to breed like spring rabbits. Awful Ads to be seen of how to medicate one's unruly child come as no surprise. The visiting Republican who explains that the more children women have, the more 'The Government' subsidizes these. Looking into her eyes, I see she believes this; hoping it is not true.
Don't mention 'Climate Change', a fabrication on the part of Liberals. Keep it simple, no fancy words, just refer to Mother Nature. The Deer-Hunter, shoveling snow, 'got them tied', drawing a blank on my part, 'got my tubes tied', he clarifies. Maybe more men should pay heed but they won't. A dismal and irresponsible Administration.
3
Among the many sad things about this recent move is the fact that not one but two women from the administration have advocated for it. When oh when will we stop being our own worst enemies?
2
Given the “ libertine “ way of life of the occupant of the Oval Office , mixed with sexual scandals of undetermined number , it’s appalling that this administration is shifting to reverse gear regarding women’s reproductive rights.
The global myopia of this government with total ignorance and disregard of the exploding demographic numbers in the world and in particular in Central and South America , is a nonsense behavior given the dramatic number of immigrants at our southern borders.
American women have to join and protest “ en masse “ and have to form a solid coalition this coming November to vote out of office this misogynistic and deranged politicians.
3
Vote in November. Vote as if your lives depend upon it, because they do. Vote for women’s rights, reproductive rights, for gun control, for climate action, for environmental protection, for health care, for criminal justice, for education, for bridges and tunnels that don’t collapse. Vote for a sane foreign policy. Vote for free and fair elections.
7
It is worth remembering that effective birth control is a sure way to prevent abortion. There are some who are opposed to both. Perhaps it is time for them to choose the lesser of the two evils and get behind universal access to birth control.
5
Most of the impetus behind the anti-family-planning movement seems to be coming from the backward, fundamentalist, paternalistic religious community. . . and Republicans in the state and federal legislatures.
3
The Republican party is structurally opposed to most freedoms for women, and yet millions of women vote for them in each election. If progressive women want to achieve equality with men they should address the reasons why so many other women seem to like being subjugated and controlled by men.
3
Ironic isn’t it that the GOP, the party of “taking personal responsibility”, are trying to make it more difficult for women to do just that.
4
Last weekend I participated in a pro life event in front of an abortion facility and there were over 150 men and women in attendance. Do you know how many pro abortion folks were counter protesting? 35. Yes that's right. Only 35. We had a police presence due to an earlier innocent of violence on the part of the pro abortion crowd.
The pro abortionists are the ones who shout and scream profanities and make nasty comments to the peaceful prayerful pro life crowd. Why? Because we are winning the pro life debate and are seeing abortion clinics close and fewer abortions taking place. Former pro abortion advocates are joining are ranks and it infuriates those who believe in abortion. It was only a matter of time before pro lifers would make a difference and that is slowly but surely occurring.
The pro abortion people accuse us of harassing women. That is so funny. They harass those of us who are pro life but we have strength in numbers. The previous month we had about 65 on our side. This time we had over 150. Hopefully we will only continue to grow. Why is that? It is because people are finally beginning to see that abortion is murder and the taking of innocent human life. It has taken decades but we can thank the Trump administration for finally being our advocate. The Obama administration was not a friend to pro life people but President Trump and his cabinet are. We have them to thank for being our friends.
2
Trump has a lot of kids from his various marriages and his own children also have big families, ie more then 2 kids per couple. Many people in this admin also have very big families...what's up w/ that? How about some actual family planning and not having more then 2 kids per couple? I find this big family trend to be disturbing.....we don't need so many people reproducing in such large numbers. Birth control is a wonderful thing and women need to know their personal choices are protected.
2
You can get 100 Trojans for $35 on Amazon........35 cents each.
Even the poorest among us can afford that.
2
Wait a minute - don't all the repubs that want to get rid of health care tell us that they don't want government in the doctor's office?
Oh, but that's only if a woman's body is not involved with (gasp) obtaining birth control. Then it's a whole different story.
See, when it's a fetus, then it's a protected object. After the baby's born, then it becomes a taker - and we certainly don't need anymore of those!
Do the people who advocate for this have kids? Did they use the abstinence method, the rhythm method? I think they should have to tell us if they're going to force their dogma on everybody else. Pray tell us what you used and why you think you have the authority to tell other women what to do.
A disgusting group of people all around.
4
the Trump administration is guilty of retrograde thinking on everything except ways to scam tax payers and voters.
1
Gee, do you think Trump recommended this policy to Stormy too?
1
"“Back in my days, they used Bayer aspirin for contraceptives,” the Republican donor Foster Friess said in 2012. “The gals put it between their knees, and it wasn’t that costly.”" .... "the safest and most effective form of birth control for women might cost considerably more than a bottle of aspirin. "
My, talk about tone deaf.. Friess was not really advocating for aspirin, he's advocating for abstinence!
Women have a right to have sex without getting pregnant. And, considering 1 in 6 women will experience sexual assault in her lifetime, women have the right to exist in the world without having to fear getting pregnant as a result of assault. Unfortunately, women don't always have the power to choose whether to have sex, or to compel men to use condoms. And, when we do choose to have sex, we have a right to choose not to bear children. Restricting women from being able to control our own bodies and our own lives comes from a political and religious belief that women don't have rights or a purpose beyond being baby factories. Time's up for that way of thinking.
4
Sadly, it is not “mind boggling” that people want to stop women’s progress. The people like Pence and Huber who populate this administration are driven by their personal religious beliefs that women are subservient to men. They seek to impose that misogynistic tenet on all of us. Anyone who does not fear, reject, and work against the power the religious right is naive as to how dangerous it is to a free, democratic society. If he could, Mike Pence would be the Grand Inquisitor, not vice-President.
13
In addition to the obvious concerns--seems like there's criminal intent in the Trump administration as evidenced by his and his appointees actions to dismantle the very government, relations and programs we've invested in and come to expect. Research and programs we the people have paid for and technically own--be damned! Trump et al (backed by a minority party), is a malevolent virus now infecting the host body; it's wrong, out-of-control, and dangerous. How to respond?
10
Ridiculous! We need to get politics and religious beliefs out of women’s vaginas!!! Stop it TRUMP.
12
Time to put a halt on the viagra girls. If birth control is recreational [and we know it is not], then viagra, cialis for the boys to get the staff up is definitely recreational.
29
OK, girls! Get out the aspirin, close your legs and let the guys wait it out.
10
Let's get real here, folks.
Republicans, both male and female, want to "get rid of birth control and abortion". How many times have they told us that? Hundreds! Thousands!
I'm 70. I swear, I heard it in my crib!
That said: What's the reality?
The reality is: Right-wing women take birth control.
Right-wing women have abortions.
Only Catholic fanatics use the rhythm method. That's because there is a joke that's been around for years. It is, what do you call Catholic couples who use the rhythm method? Answer: Parents.
So, let's call their bluff - for, bluff it is. No woman, left-wing OR right-wing, is going to give up her birth-control. Ditto for abortion. Ditto for the men in their lives. Those men do not want 10 kids. They don't want any more than 2 - and that means, birth control and abortion.
There is a whole industry of whack quasi-Puritans out there and, yes, they ARE coming for you. But what you don't realize is that the numbers on this is 100 to 1.
You don't believe me?
Look around.
How many women do you know who have 20 kids? 15? 10? 5?
For every 100 of us - there is only 1 of them.
Sure, they have the megaphone, but there are only a handful of BC&A nuts.
And.... not one of them has more than 2 kids.
Check out the numbers for the Republicans.
Not one has 20.
Not one WANTS 20.
It's like the NRA. There's only 5 million of them... and 320 million of us.
Ditto for reproduction, folks.
Hear me: The last thing the righties want is to have their BC&A rights gone.
30
Rosa,
I guess you could call me a right-wing woman who opposes abortion. Pro life and proud. Abortion is the slaughter of innocent fetuses/babies in the womb. Why is that so difficult for you to understand? Do you have children? It sounds as though you do not. I do and I could never have conceived of killing my own flesh and blood. The pro abortion crowd does not even flinch at this intrinsic evil. They want more abortions and on demand. Isn't that right Rosa?
It is called natural family planning. The term rhythm method has not been used in years. Where have you been? It is hard for you to fathom that there are women who use this method today but they do. And young women at that. They do not want to keep pouring chemicals into their bodies and harm themselves. Many of the men and women who use NFP are Catholic but are far from being fanatical. It is your narrow mindedness that makes you say this and other non sensical things about Catholics. These people happen to be very happy and content in their lives. Just ask them.
It is none of my business or yours as to the number of children a couple has. Today you do not find many couples having a dozen children but you may find some having five or six. As in a previous post to you, I know some and they are wonderful, loving families. It may not be right for you but it works beautifully for them.
We in the pro life movement have made great strides in reducing abortions but we still have much to do. We will.
3
But those "Righties" can afford BC/abortion. They just object to paying for some one else's BC. They just prefer to eventually locking up the unwanted offspring.
1
Why am I not surprised to learn once again that the Trump administration has taken steps to marginalize women. Based upon Mr. Trump's admitted behavior toward women, it simply follows that women's issues will never be taken seriously. As Mr. Trump would say: "So sad!"
9
I think I finally get it. Trump hated his mother, and we all have to pay for it.
10
I find it interesting the anti abortion crowd are against something that would prevent unwanted pregnancies. I don't think it is about the unborn but about power and control and "this is what God wants me to do to get my ticket to heaven", and if women die in third world countries because of back street abortions like they did during the Brush years, or if they elected someone who lied us into a war, killing thousands of our forces, thousands of the coalition forces, and the death and carnage that the Iraq people have endure the good Christians could care less the important thing is those passes to heaven.
12
Time to resurrect the ERA amendment.
On March 22, 2017, the 45th anniversary of Congress's submission of the amendment to the states, the Nevada Legislature was the first to ratify the ERA after the expiration of the original deadline.
6
These people want a theocracy. This is all religious nonsense.
16
So who is going to care for all these babies. My daughter has done a rotations for the last couple of years in the local Children’s hospital. She tells me that they are told as nurses they are taught to not be judgemental. She has seen the results of the 5 th child born to a mother who continues to use drugs. This child has major heart defects and will not live but the drug addict mother is acting like the child is going to make it and is pumping her breasts and handing them breast milk ( which they trash). The first 4 babies have been removed from her custody and her rights have been severed, all have been born addicted. She either should have had Norplant court ordered until she was clean for at least a year and we would save a lot more paying for a year of intensive drug rehab 6 month rehab plus 6 month sober living. Then what we spend with ICU and foster care of each baby. This one is 27/7 of the highest level NIU and won’t live do to damage caused by maternal drug use.
She has seen case after case where parents of all races, mostly young, early twenties and under low economics have zero parental desire. Child is born then is diagnosed with something that is now very curable. Might take a little bit of treatment and effort. But has a 99% cure rate. They check out and no longer desire the child. Social services has gone though and then tries to find a family placement with a Relative. They spend months and months trying to do that.
7
Barbara Harris, founder and figurehead of Project Prevention, came up with program that paid drug addicted women to get a tubal ligation. It was successful--and would be a great program to go national. "What they do at Project Prevention is, according to Harris, "work to get drug addicts and alcoholics on long-term birth control so they don’t conceive while using." How they get them on long-term birth control is, they pay them $300.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/nnq747/project-prevention-compulsory-...
4
The liberals always want someone else to pay for their birth control specifically the government. Buy all the birth control you want but do not ask others to pay for it. We have enough that we are responsible to buy at a cost to ourselves.
2
universal health care
1
What does trump care- he has multiplied with each wife and is now done. (I would think at this point Melania wants nothing to do with him).
9
Some things are so wrong they leave you speechless.
11
I spent 4 hopeful years in medical school, and another 3 completing a residency program to become a Board Certified Family Physician. During my years training years the horrors of illegally obtained abortions ended, but not before I had cared for women who died from them. These years for me were followed by 33 years practicing Family Medicine in Iowa and Virginia, where initially it was possible to refer women to a community colleague who was qualified Obstetrician-Gynecologist for a safe abortion provided in a comfortable setting. It was also easy for my patients with health insurance and for women in the community without health insurance to obtain contraception at community health centers or Planned Parenthood clinics. Today in many parts of the United States , abortion access has become practically impossible for poor women and difficulty for all women of all socioeconomic in rural areas. Community Health Centers and Planned Parenthood Clinics are being forced to close their doors all over the country. Not only do we need the #Metoo movement to grow, we also need a movement just as righteous, loud, and big to stop those who have have the power and the will to make sure that abortions and effective contraception are not available.
26
It amazes me that Trump and his keebler elf AG don't want to mandate IUDs for all of those distasteful women whom are of color (i.e. not orange or white like Trump or Sessions). Such a policy would hold down the numbers of people who might sully the environments that these two bigots might have to walk through.
6
To clarify.... I ABSOLUTELY AGREE that women should have access to all forms of contraception. I just know some people who prefer to use NFP. It’s not always a “crap shoot.” Although, when the purveyors of NFP claim that this method is highly effective in preventing pregnancy, they often do not admit to the fact that it is highly effective when only the post-ovulatory phase of the cycle is used for sexual intercourse. There are also times in a woman’s life when this method can be difficult, if not impossible, for a woman to use effectively, such as the post-partum period and peri-menopause. Anyway.... My main point was that Ferility Awareness methods are not “rhythm.” And I do object to the Catholic Church putting the onus of sin on those women who choose to use other methods. That is a true injustice, indeed.
10
Someone should tell David Dennison, AKA Trump, if he kept his pants zipped, he would not need to worry about Peggy Peterson talking about his potential illegitimate children, referenced in Paragraph 4.1 of his non-disclosure agreement.
Besides, $130,000.00, plus the additional cost of Michael Cohen's services could buy a years supply of birth control for several hundred women.
15
What should we expect of religious zealots who want to impose their values to everyone in America? Contraception is a no brainer as a proven reducer of abortions...but trump appointees don't care about any facts. Or any science.
Want to try the rhythm method, endorsed by the Catholic Church as their only approved method of contraception and referred to in this article as endorsed by these trumpsters?
You will have lots of unplanned (and perhaps unwanted) children that you cannot pay for. Oh, and the trump republicans are cutting medicaid, food stamps and anyother kind of help for the poor with too many children.
We are going back in time, to a place republicans have previously only dreamed of, where women are barefoot and pregnant. Oh, and powerless too. They are joyfully awaiting this "second coming".
7
How about the Lysistrata approach?
14
How ironic that an administration headed by Donald Trump is pushing abstinence.
14
isn't it ironic that d.t. would sponsor this, with a straight face--the height of hypocrisy.he is a human wrecking ball VOTE!!!
7
At the next press conference, someone should ask Donald Trump about his personal history in terms of brith control & abortion.
Fair is fair.
9
These conservatives with their wilting brains need to retire and just spend time watering the plants in their backyards. Women have progressed too far ahead form the 60s and will not go back.
5
A. It's a wedge issue used to divide the US population into unreconcilable camps.
B. It's all fun and games until the Republicans realize they will have to raise taxes to pay for all those unwanted newborn citizens.
C. It's the reason I stopped voting for Republicans in 1988.
6
As long as we are talking about "an aspirin between the knees" cliche, how about the old feminist saying by Flo Kennedy, "If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament." Mike Pence would go along with that because it uses the word, "sacrament".
9
Trump wants to promote abstinence until marriage? Trump?? I mean, Trump believes he's the government, but "abstinence" is in neither his vocabulary or nature.
Anyone who believes Trump never covered the cost of even one abortion in the past 50 years will believe any --and I mean ANY-- thing.
6
Maybe the Trump Administration does not understand the difference between I.U.D.s and I.E.D.s. Really, the folks that work in Trump’s Administration do not strike me as the sharpest tools in the tool shed. So let met help them. I.U.D. - good. I.E.D. - bad.
3
"Conservatives — often male ones — like to argue that Title X improperly uses tax dollars to subsidize women’s sex lives..."
Don't women need men for their sex lives? Especially when it involves conception?
If these wise men are worried about all these unwed young women having sex, we need to remind them that there must be quite a few unwed young men participating in all that activity, and even worse there may be some married men too!
10
There is an easy and equitable solution for the payment of birth control. Let the party of tax and spend (Democrat) come up with the money for birth control. Since they are the ones who want this provision, it can be paid for by them. They have found other ways to pay for things let them come up with a solution. I do not want to pay for it out of my pocket. Period.
2
But you will be paying for it when the government has to fund care for unwanted babies born to poor women who did not have access reasonably priced birth control.
3
Then we won't pay for your prostate cancer and other such problems as you age. Just die--painfully.
3
no surprise here: the Trump adminjstration has a backwards looking take on practically everything.
except the top marginal tax rates.
3
Abstinence until marriage Huber. Has she watched HBO lately? Since when do supposed public servants not serve the public? I guess everyone in this nightmare administration.
1
To those that don’t want your tax dollars to subsidize birth control, well I don’t want my tax dollars to subsidize your child tax credit. No one told you to have children. You should have thought more about your ability to support them on your own without government assistance. I don’t want to reward you for having children you can’t afford.
See how that works? It’s just as idiotic an argument as the ones against birth control coverage. Birth control is used for far more reasons than contraception.
18
Anyone who opposes family planning should spend a week touring a country where it is unheard of.
It is not a future you would want for your own country.
8
Given Trump’s own attitudes towards children - didn’t want to deal with raising them, and only agreed to let Melania have hers if she could retain her figure, one would think birth control should be a personal high priority (we know abstinence is out of the question for him)
2
Okay, except why no mention of the Catholic church, which espouses this attitude on steroids globally.
4
The men who control this know they and their sons will not get pregnant. End of story.
4
Birth control means female have control over their own lives and can make decisions for themselves. Males can just walk away but still want that power and control over something they will always be incapable of doing. Getting pregnant, going through the emotions of pregnancy, understanding the responsibility, giving birth. Men lack these basic human traits and are jealous of it so they seek to control it.
To determine that females are birthing machines at the will of the male and government equates it to slavery.
Males would change their tune if pregnancy could happen to them.
4
The discussion of birth control/abortion "rights" as "health care" antagonizes me. I'm diabetic and I need lots of "health care" that is really "health care" and not a lifestyle preference. And the government is very slow in providing health care benefits for diabetes.
The best standard for insulin-dependent Type II diabetes includes an insulin pump, a continuous glucose monitor, and all the related supplies for these. Proper ( "tight" ) control of blood glucose is Necessary to avoid long-term serious complications.
There should be equal protection under the law for diabetics, for all the same reasons that are stated for government provided birth control and abortion support services.
And, the government plans specifically deny benefits to men for "lifestyle" drugs to treat erectile dysfunction -- some strong gender discrimination going on here, as well.
2
I am empathic about your type ii diabetes situation which occurs in both sexes. Gestational diabetes occurs in pregnant women not men.
Pregnancy can be prevented by the use of birth control. The lack of access to ED medication can in some consideration be thought of as mother nature's birth control for men.
1
As I have said numerous times in the last year or so, can someone please invite these policy makers and their supporters to join the rest of us in the 21st century?
6
The median age at first marriage for women in this country is now approximately 28 years of age. It is absolutely ludicrous to suggest that women wait till marriage to engage in sexual intercourse. How about a quick survey of all the (mostly) men pushing these policies to find out the age at which THEY forsake their own virginity? Perhaps more importantly, the fact that the current version of the Republican Party wants to INCREASE unwanted births while at the same time pushing for the elimination of virtually every possible social safety net is really hard to comprehend. Very anti-woman, very anti-life, only pro-birth. Quite a party.
7
It is simple. Stop voting in Conservative Republicans and then you get access to birth control for all, health care for all, gun control, et cetera. Until that time, this country will continue lurching backwards.
7
So we agree that Viagra should be paid out of pocket too, right? Because right now, ED medicines are covered by all insurances. Who will be on your - "We Shouldn't Pay for this Medicine Committee"? How about anyone who isn't a wealthy, white, straight man or evangelical woman? I'm surprised that you don't see the narrowness of your opinion. What is $10 to you is clearly not $10 to a single mother who lives in a dangerous neighborhood because that's all she can afford. A place where rape is not as rare as your neighborhood, I'd imagine. And, it was incest or rape or lack of abortion services, or expensive birth control that led her to be a single mother in the first place. And, being a teenage single mother and sky high childcare costs that led to her poverty in the first place. This plan will only start another round of out of control welfare, more childhood poverty than the 25,000,000 kids in poverty now, and unhappy mothers caught in a generational cycle nearly impossible to escape from as services are cut that help the nation's impoverished. You do know that WHO has warned us of our unruly poverty for several years, right?
5
While i agree with your sentiment, almost no insurance drug plans cover viagra or its cousin medicines.
1
By all means, stop the availability of contraception and watch the abortion rate plummet. NOT! When men stop having sex, women will stop getting pregnant. Somehow I don't see that as a preference for these controlling men.
6
I kinda think we should let republicans run with this ...
If abortion rates actually go up under Trump and republican leadership, where they had previously been going down under Obama. Then Trump and republicans get credit for incurring MORE abortions than Democrats. Republicans really will become the abortion party. And yes it's true, data shows that abortions have been declining under Obama, not that any red voter wants to give Democrats any credit. Not that Laura Ingram or Rush ever mentions these annoying facts.
... but morally it's wrong of me to think this way. I would hate to wish an unplanned pregnancy on anyone.
6
Any pious believer considers disobeying the doctrines of their faith to be contrary to God’s will and the surest path to eternal damnation. Tolerating any such sinfulness would be allowing transgressors to lose their souls. The First Amendment does expect that the freedom of conscience guaranteed will result in people respecting and tolerating what their religions may insist is damnable. But the principle of leaving individuals to their own beliefs is the only way to permit religious freedom. Trying to impose religious principles through government policies violates the spirit of our country’s liberties.
4
Why did the evangelicals line up and vote for a thrice married persons with adulterous affairs?
It is for the Greater Good. Trump must pay back this base as he has done for steel workers.
Trump is, to quote an expression from parliamentary democracies, a "rubber stamp president"
4
You want to force morality on everybody?
Here's the most effective birth control known to man. Man, literally.
Make fathers responsible for their ill-gotten offspring. Seriously responsible.
From conception to twenty one, a man who conceives a child is responsible for food, clothing, housing and healthcare. For education and entertainment (within moral bounds). And responsible for supporting the mother should she become ill or choose to work.
Christmas, birthdays, Valentine's all on Dad.
Failure to put out means garnishment, seizure of Beemers and such, jail time, public notice of lack of human decency.
Because these stern fellows don't want government subsidizing sex, no benefits of any kind, including tax breaks, accrue to these cads for their parental largess.
There will be important societal benefits. As birth rates take the inevitable plunge, immigration will no longer cause controversy. We'll be so dependent upon the labor of others that we'll build tunnels to encourage them to sneak in at their convenience.
God, especially Evangelical God, will smile upon a nation devoted to its children so there's that, too.
Should something untoward befall a wayward Pop, we'll make a church's tax exempt status dependent upon their volunteering to take responsibility for a child, in equal measure to what we would have expected of the father.
If bad Dad is married, his wife will take the child in and raise it as her own.
Problem(s) solved. You're welcome men.
6
The cheapest and most effective form of birth control is abstinence. Not just for women, but let's say men are required to abstain as well. How else could it work? I think certain powers that be might be willing to revisit the birth control issue in pretty short order.
5
This administration is against the funding of Title X because the $286 million allocated for this program funnels money to Planned Parenthood and other groups that promote abortion which should not be used for these services. This little known fact is against the values in which many Americans approve and has been used to perform abortions for many years. Finally members of President Trump's cabinet have the courage to speak out against this intrinsic evil.
Maybe if this money was excluded to these abortion facilities the administration would not be ending this long-running program. This money was never intended to be used for abortions and finally something is being done to end this killing of innocent embryos/babies in the womb. Stop providing funds to Planned Parenthood, a major abortion provider, and other abortion facilities and maybe the money can once again be used for the necessary services for needy women. The ball is in the liberals court. They decide the fate of this necessary program.
1
Government money has not been used to fund abortions for many years.
3
Contemporary American "government," the perfect marriage of increasing authoritarian repression, burgeoning theocracy and financial licentiousness for oligarchs while slamming those of limited means. Tell me what that all adds up to, folks.
"We all too often have socialism for the rich and rugged free market capitalism for the poor." - MLK, Jr.
6
There was a study a few years back out of Wisconsin which linked access to birth control to healthy babies. This makes sense since a planned pregnancy is a wanted pregnancy and the woman is more likely to be taking the needed steps to insure a good outcome.
6
I say, it’s time for men to have control of their own bodies and reproductive outcomes. Why must responsibility for limiting conception fall only to women? We have condoms and vasectomy available; surely it is possible to develop a reversible, reliable male contraceptive that can be implanted or tinker with male hormones etc.? Also, in this age of DNA sequencing, perhaps any man who fathers a child should by law be responsible financially for one half of the child’s and the mothers expenses until the child is about 20? This seems fair, given how pregnancy and motherhood limit earnings. For the most part, two partners are required for conception, or not. Time for men to share the burden!
I’m all for bodily autonomy for men and women. If men want to stick an inhibitory aspirin somewhere on their bodies, that’s ok too.
9
There used to be a joke that was circulated back when I was in high school in the early seventies. "Question: What do you call people who use the rhythm method. Answer: Parents." It is hard for me to believe that we are still having this discussion. But then again, there are schools in my neck of the woods that are still honestly debating Evolution vs. Creationism. Sad. Very sad.
5
I remember when a friend in the 80s said that anti-abortion extremists would come after contraception too. I didn't believe him because I thought contraception was too widely accepted, too much a part of American life. How could anyone object to something that benefited all of society and hurt no one?
I was wrong. It really is all about sex.
4
I just thought of another good idea for the payment of birth control. The taxpayers should be allowed to vote on this provision provided by the government. If the American people are willing to pay for IUDs in the way of higher taxes, let this proceed. If they are not willing to have their taxes increased, there can be a fund set up by volunteers who will contribute to the cost of another person's birth control. How does that sound?
1
My take: this isn’t about contraception. It’s about keeping women out of college and out of the workforce in order to raise job prospects for (some) men who feel that their rightful place in the family and workplace has been threatened.
If it were about abstinence before and during marriage, they would be targeting men as well. Who do they think women who engage in non-procreative sex are having it with?
It’s economic misogyny, plain and simple.
11
They don't care.
How many more ways do they have to show it?
No one matters to them but the 1%
Outrage is meaningless.
6
The radical right wing's campaign against abortion has always been a campaign against contraceptives too. Make no mistake, you can't side with them on abortion without undercutting women's right to contraceptives, because for the religious conservatives they are one and the same. They want women to live as they did in Biblical days. Only with cars and a/c.
9
We know that trump only uses women so why would he care about their well being? This is nothing new or surprising instead it is just his continued assault on women - he is just not doing it physically.
4
The reactionary economic model requires an exponential supply of cheap producers (labor) and desperate consumers (families). Denying women reproductive control extends both arms of the model. Throw in the fallacies of religion and you have the "perfect storm".
Reproductive control allows women control over their lives, allowing them to participate in the community. This terrifies reactionaries.
Humans and persons are genetically programmed to reproduce, and enjoy doing it, but in a technological world stone-age instincts are not sustainable. Instincts are hard to turn off, so reproductive control is a community safeguard against over-population. However it must be universally applied, with no "superstition" exemptions.
It must be noted, in conclusion, that the 'feminism' made possible by reproductive control is not an unalloyed benefit to society but it is a benefit.
3
The bottom line of all of this is that a certain religion feels it has the right and duty to control everyone else.
7
Both the political left and the political right have managed to conflate contraception, abortion to safeguard the life or health of the mother, and elective abortion in mainstream American political debate.
One cost of conflating those issues is the fact that the political right, when they’re calling the tune, reduces taxpayer support for making family planning services including contraception available for low income women.
I wish the political right would rethink the wisdom of letting opposition to contraception hitch a ride on the elective abortion debate. I wish the political left would rethink the wisdom of letting support for elective abortion hitch a ride on the contraception debate.
Would we even be debating late term abortions as an issue if we forthrightly considered whether legal protection for the fetus can be carried to the point that the law forces a woman to put her life or health at serious risk to carry the pregnancy to term? If I understand correctly, generally either the woman’s life or health is at serious risk or the fetus will likely be stillborn or severely deformed whenever late term abortions are considered.
It seems to me that the framing of this debate distorts our politics.
2
It is hard to imagine life as we live it today in suburban America without control of when our families have children.
Women just could not participate without this control over their own bodies.
Men's lives too would be changed if they had early and large families to support, and support alone as the wives could not work as they do now.
Denying women such family planning effectively excludes them from the modern life the rest of us know.
That is crazy. Nobody benefits. It inflicts suffering for the sake of suffering, on families and children who are denied the lives the rest of us live.
15
Trump has backwards attitudes toward a lot of things. He wants to bring back the jobs of the 1950s such as coal mining. He wants to bring back the use of coal and ignore renewable sources such as wind and solar. And he wants to take birth control back to the 50s.
Why is he obsessed with hauling the US to the past? We need a president who believes in the future. Not one who dwells in the past.
24
In the UK, where the IUD is provided free on the NHS, the IUD costs the NHS £88 per unit. Perhaps efforts in the US should be focused on preventing the providers of these simple devices from gouging their 'customers'(sorry, patients) for $1000 for a $120 device? If contraceptive devices and pharmaceuticals were actually charged at a fair (rather than a profit-gouging) price in the US, then they would be much more widely available to all, and there would be no need for Government subvention.
42
The £88 is probably for the device itself. I believe the $1000 includes the cost of procedure to insert it. However, your basic point is correct. Medical devices and procedures are grossly overpriced in the U.S. They cost far more than in any other developed country, and our overall healthcare ranking is well below other developed nations such as the UK and Japan.
20
The NHS gouges taxpayers instead of customers, but apparently that sits well with you, since you're a woman and you get something for nothing, while every male and every woman who doesn't get one is paying for something and getting nothing in return.
"Profit-gouging"- perhaps if the government interference in the US market for medical goods and services dried up and blew away, IUDs would be cheaper than BCPs. But you don't understand free markets, because you live in England where they were first invented but have since been shackled and imprisoned.
2
No. The cost of the doctor is separate.
What an assault on reason and common sense, that we men have the gall to tell women what to do, given we cannot get pregnant...while all set to, full throttle, abuse our station by placing women in that predicament, getting them pregnant even when inconvenient or unwanted. Enough of this hypocrisy. Women ought to have full rights to dispose of their body, and soul, as they please. And with the full support of society. Why is it we men insist in considering women second-class citizens? One reason, cowardice out of our insecurity and immaturity in considering women as equals, and their most special privilege to carry a pregnancy when and if the time is right.
45
They just don't care and it is a form of control. However, we don't listen to them anyway and it is a good thing we don't! I feel bad for the young people who get trapped.
Believe me, if they were the ones that got pregnant, things would be different!
Here's a true assault on reason and common sense: Forcing anyone at the point of a government gun to hand over money to pay for birth control of women they have no relationship with.
2
Indeed, They would die in the process, as the tolerance for pain is near zero. And the pushing? For losers! If pregnancy in men were possible, I can guarantee there would be no bragging.
The religious-right, narrow-minded and bigoted evangelical Christians and bishop representatives of the Roman Catholic church and their representative lobbies, have a strangle-hold on the Republican party. So long as this is the case, they will drive their retrograde agenda as it applies to women's health care in the U.S. In spite of work and support of many independent Catholic groups, health care-related and otherwise, including the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities and the National Catholic Health Association of the U.S. among others, for the Affordable Care Act and its principles, ultra conservative and reactionary political and religious groups were able to sway public opinion away from an attitude of access for all backwards to the fee for service approach. Until Americans wake up to the steady erosion of the principle of separation of church and state underpinning current governing politics and health care legislation in the U.S., our movement toward a theocratic and 'judgment-driven' society will continue.
31
The use of contraception is approved by the vast majority of Americans. Those who oppose it probably do not amount to more than a third of the citizens, if that many. But opposing tax dollars being spent on contraception and promoting laws to not recommend their use is a big issue for those who oppose contraception on religious grounds. For them, having to tolerate different religious beliefs is a deprivation of their freedom, their flavor of what religious freedom happens to be.
This group has a lot of political clout because they vote as a block and actively support those who support them. Without their support a lot of Republican office holders would never have won their elections. So the Republican Party works to impose the values of one minority amongst all the citizens upon all. Trump has evangelicals as strong supporters, he's give them anything that they want.
16
The Trump administration is not preventing anyone from using birth control but they must purchase it themselves. Why should the government pay for a service when it is readily available and inexpensive. You are not talking about a life or death medication such as high blood pressure medicine or something that will save a person's life. We all take medicines at one time or another but we do not expect someone else to foot the bill. Use your birth control if you wish but buy it yourself. It is readily available and inexpensive to obtain.
3
It isn't "readily available and inexpensive" to many. Reproductive control is integral to women's health. Maternal mortality is on the rise in the U.S. and gestation and childbirth carry significant risks. It's simply untrue that birth control isn't "life or death" when you take the time to think about it.
28
I'm always amused when libertarian types get into the fight with the argument that we could all save a few bucks if poor women would just buy their own contraception! This argument is clearly illogical as even those pushing it understand that unwanted children are many times more expensive than IUDs.
Their answer to the unwanted children? Cut food stamps, Medicaid and Head Start. Not their problem.
5
So we agree that Viagra should be paid out of pocket too, right? Because right now, ED medicines are covered by all insurances. Who will be on your - "We Shouldn't Pay for this Medicine Committee"? How about anyone who isn't a wealthy, white, straight man or evangelical woman? I'm surprised that you don't see the narrowness of your opinion. What is $10 to you is clearly not $10 to a single mother who lives in a dangerous neighborhood because that's all she can afford. A place where rape is not as rare as your neighborhood, I'd imagine. And, it was incest or rape or lack of abortion services, or expensive birth control that led her to be a single mother in the first place. And, being a teenage single mother and sky high childcare costs that led to her poverty in the first place. This plan will only start another round of out of control welfare, more childhood poverty than the 25,000,000 kids in poverty now, and unhappy mothers caught in a generational cycle nearly impossible to escape from as services are cut that help the nation's impoverished. You do know that WHO has warned us of our unruly poverty for several years, right?
6
It all makes sense. Trump has demonstrated a contempt for women, so, anything he does to demean women is within his life pattern.
25
And his current wife has payed out of pocket for her birth control ?
So, which do I tackle today:
Assaults on women's reproductive rights by religious fanatics?
Cruel and inhuman assaults on immigrant families?
My money problem with the $10,000 cap on deducting state and local taxes per married couple?
Gerrymandering?
Assaults on voting rights?
The rise of white nationalism?
Rollbacks of environmental regs?
Gun Control?
The absurdity of arming teachers?
The lack of any leadership from POTUS as regards Russian interference in our elections?
The brainwashing of my 85 year old mother by Fox News?
Citizenship questions on the next census?
The entire Electoral College thing?
Resurrecting the push for the ERA?
Just about everything Ms. DeVos represents?
The shaky state of American healthcare since the GOP is undermining the ACA every way they can?
The cost of my prescription medications?
Or the malignancy and sewerage slushing through the White House?
Just askin'
Having trouble not feeling overwhelmed by all of it.
59
Outstanding and well stated!
2
How about the fact that there are 28 million people in Texas and only 2.5 million voted in their primary on Tuesday - how could they not vote with everything going on? This will never end if we don’t all vote
2
Every day's a new adventure. sigh.
1
The idea of Trump promoting abstinence only would be laughable if it didn’t impact negatively on the lives of so many vulnerable people.This is hypocrisy of the first order, since we all know full well that wealthy girls and women won’t be impacted by these policies. I also want to point out that abstinence only programs will be of little help to a rape victim.
19
The irony is pretty rich. I wonder how many abortions Trump has paid for?
The hypocrisy of the religious right is boundless.
1
Or to a victim of incest. I had a friend who was raped repeatedly by her father and uncle. Her father was a preacher. This started when she was around 11 years old.
It infuriates me that contraception and abortion continue to be considered (and dismissed) as "Women's Issues." It's biologically 50/50! If men were somehow compelled to pay for half of *the couple's* contraception, or proactively pay for half the cost of an abortion or child-rearing, I wonder how quickly these retrograde politicians and activists would change their tune. Perhaps women should use the aspirin as directed (by Mr. Friess) to "shut that whole thing down" until their ardent partners pony up the cash.
34
They obfuscate the basic issues of birth control by focusing on unmarried minors so that they can keep the religious right riled up. Whatever one's opinion of unmarried people having sex, the idea that all women, married or not, should use the rhythm method (or, dear God, put baby aspirin between their knees) to avoid pregnancy is medieval.
23
With the GOP in cahoots with evangelicals, and in the white house, expect the war on women to ratchet up as the GOP rewards the religious right for their money and votes. Only way to stop going back to the dark ages it is to vote DEM in all elections at all levels of government.
17
1,000 $ for a IUD
WHAT?!?
In the Netherlands it's a small fraction of that. Around 150$
Why??
24
Because we're at the mercy of the pharmaceutical lobby and their congressional dependents.
3
Why? Because congress is in the pocket of Big Pharma.
2
I go to Costa Rica for almost all of my dental work. Even with the cost of the flight and a place to stay I about break even. We price people out of all sorts of healthcare in the United States. It’s about valuing the “makers” over the “takers” and is deeply rooted in our white supremacist past where we don’t believe in universal healthcare or best public health practices so that a working class white person gets to feel superior and happy that their “hard-earned tax dollars” aren’t going into wastrel behaviors of the black, the brown and the poor of our country. It is rarely noted by these people that they are spending way more on unaffordable healthcare than they would to be in a giant healthcare risk pools. Instead they use it as a political wedge issue so a whole bunch of a certain type of Christians can feel superior to “those people” who can’t control their sex drives. We have a whole bunch of people in this country willing to cut off their own noses to spite their own faces.
5
I refuse to believe that we are a nation of small minded busybodies who would obsess over creating state sponsored hardships to thwart access to contraception. God willing, the American people will self correct in 2018 & 2020.
15
Let me tell you about my neighbor who is religiously conservative: she uses the rhythm method and she has eight children (and not on purpose; she reportedly threw the positive pregnancy stick at her husband after pregnancy number 5). Enough said!
26
Ah....the good old rhythm method. AKA Vatican Roulette!
3
The fake-family values Republicans are taking us back to the 1950's when women were put on a pedestal according to General Kelly. Women's healthcare doesn't interest them nor does taking care of children once they are born. They only care about the fetus.
19
Federal funding for Viagra remains while women are fighting for birth control. Misogyny is all and well in our government.
25
I think this has more to do about race than anything else. Let me explain, Latinos and African Americans are less likely than whites to use birth control, hence they have higher birthrates than whites. This is about more white babies needing to be born to offset births by "others". I believe 2018 is the first year in which more kindergarteners are non-white vs. white. So instead of coming out and saying that's what they want, they hide it by being anti arbortion and anti birth control.
5
Some actually do come out and say that Rick santorum was one who said that white women needed to have more children so we would remain a white nation.
2
Surely Stormy Daniels and dozens of other partners of Trump used contraception. Did Donald object, insist on protection or pay for abortions? He said his “personal Viet Nam” was outrunning venereal diseases in the 70s. Maybe some of these folks and the Wives Club can give everyone the facts about this turkey.
13
Make America Worse Again: Trump-GOP 2018
Forced Pregnancies For A Brighter Tomorrow
Backwards, Christian Soldiers !
23
Religious fanatics trying to make poor women and girls have children they don’t want and can’t afford. Good plan!
If you like poverty, crime, and other social problems - and the concomitant higher taxes - then by all means support these policies.
25
Now, please tell me again how Ivanka was going to be an influence to her father regarding important woman's issues of the day, and a voice for the modern woman.
32
This administration has undertaken seriously flawed guidance on women's reproductive rights. The retrograde view held by Trump administration is going to have long lasting impact to the lives of women in United States. Congressmen (bot Democrats and Republicans) need to grow a spine and stand-up to protecting women's access to reproductive health and protecting Title X grants.
13
The last thing that our world needs is more kids. If you are serious about not leaving a giant footprint behind you, limit yourselves to one kid.
And even more so, we do not need more unwanted children. We pay a fortune to subsidize parenting, starting with hugely expensive K-12 educations. We give deductions for having kids, tax credits for having kids, day care services for kids so that mother's can work to support them. Why in the world would we not want to provide this limited funding in order to put a check on population growth.
11
During the presidential campaign many people said they would not vote - or vote for a third candidate - because they said republicans and democrats were the same thing.
It seems they were wrong.
25
Republicans claim to be for small government until it's an issue they don't agree with and then they're in your face. This applies not only to individuals, but to state rights as well. I can't wait for the November mid-terms so we can begin moving back towards the 21st century . . .
18
Whenever I read an article about birth control, I think of the original Cheaper by the Dozen movie. Mildred Natwick plays the woman from Planned Parenthood who wants Myrna Loy, the mother, to be on the board from Montclair. She goes in to tell her husband, Clifton Webb, that a woman wants to discuss her involvement with the birth control movement. In a loud voice he says birth control. It is funny because the family has 12 children and a neighbor is playing a joke on Ms. Natwick. When she realizes that the couple has a large family she is appalled and says how disgusting.
This is based on a memoir by some of the children and in truth Ms. Loy, the mother, is quite accomplished in her own right. This was during a time when families were large but it did not hinder their success. The family, the Galbreiths, were a rather affluent family whose children were expected to attend college. Times have changed and families are smaller but you still see families having more than two children sometimes five or six. It is still a personal choice between the parents.
1
How odd. I am 70 and know gobs of people from the West Coast to the East Coast and, literally, do not know of even one family that has "five or six".
The "personal choice" that I've seen has been/is 2, 3 at the most. I know of no men who want more than that. They back their wives (and themselves) fully.
13
Rosa,
I know five instances of people who had five or six children and it has worked out just fine. The children are happy and content and the parents are kind and caring to each. Just because you do not know of any families with this number of children does not mean that they do not exist. I know situations where a family had an only child and that child went on to have more than just one. It is a personal decision and what works for one family may not be good for another. There are those who would love to have had more children, but they were not blessed. It all works out for the best as those who have more find that their family size is offset by those who have fewer.
1
"It all works out for the best as those who have more find that their family size is offset by those who have fewer."
That's not how it works, wplmmt. There are already too many humans for the earth to sustain us. Try telling the starving and climate refugees "It all works out for the best".
3
The conservatives - male ones - and female ones, are on their way out. My daughters in high school and others like them across the nation will make sure that will happen in the next few years. I eagerly wait for 2020 when they will vote!
15
How many children do Teresa Manning and Valerie Huber have? Methinks it's impossible that all of the anti-contraception and anti-abortion crowd avoid these available methods their entire lives. Okay maybe a few of them, but like some women in my family, they are against contraception and abortion yet they have availed themselves of the latest methods.
10
Exactly.
What frauds they are!
1
I don't have a problem with my tax dollars paying for contraception.
For all those who take a mortgage deduction and / or child deduction, I am subsidizing your house and / or children.
People don't seem to mind their government handouts.
They just don't want to help others.
33
NYT - Please be aware that there is a huge difference between the Fertility Awareness Method and the "rhythm method." FAM is a legitimate form of birth control, and the rhythm method is not. FAM is different because it involves getting educated about your body and cycle and learning how to determine your fertility status using evidence and science. The rhythm method is based on guesses.
I am all for all birth control options being funded and available, and FAM is just one of many. It may not be right for everyone, but it should not be lumped together with the "rhythm method." I think this does a disservice to your readers, especially if they are women who are struggling with hormonal birth control and need other options. Saying it is "notoriously unreliable" might scare someone off who could benefit from it.
I thank you for focusing on the Trump administration's attacks on contraception, but please don't attempt to de-legitimize a widely used method in the process.
2
There may be a constitutional right to the use of contraception but there is no constitutional right to have your neighbors (taxpayers) PAY for your contraception. That is a complex policy issue and the various sides each have points to their argument, none of which is "backward."
The word for the libertarian argument is illogical, not backward. You are going to pay for those unwanted pregnancies one way or the other: affordable birth control for the poor, increased social services for unwanted children, or more prisons and crime. It is your problem, whether you admit it or not.
Why not choose the least expensive option?
3
It is a health care issue for women who are more than half of the population.
2
We are expected to pay for the viagra and prostrate exams that many men need. We are expected to pay for the cholesterol medicines many need because they eat healthy diets. This is an issue only made complex because one narrow religious viewpoint believes it has the right to dominate and force its views on the entire society. We are the ONLY developed nation that tolerates this. In fact, those people would be horrified if someone who didn’t believe in transplants or blood transfusions demanded that your insurance dollars not be used for those procedures due to their religious belief.
We don’t get to decide that our tax dollars won’t go to subsidize tax cuts for fossil fuel companies. Our tax dollars are given in huge amounts to fund a military that many of us don’t believe needs to be as big and as expensive as it is.
Why is this area that has been figured out in every other country different in our country? It’s not complex. It is the government weight being used to promote one grouping of specific conservative religious belief in defiance of the first amendment.
5
Trying to argue with conservatives on this point is a lost cause. This is the epitome of a logical cost-benefit argument that is directly on point with reduced government spending:
1) Spend $X on birth control,
2) To reduce costs of $X+Y on health care, day care, prison systems, and other social programs.
Simple. Clean. Efficient. Easily proven.
Doesn't matter. There has always been, and likely always will be, a push from conservatives to limit government funded access to birth control.
If any conservatives who support this theory have any thoughts on how to convince your brethren, the rest of us are all ears...
10
The term is natural family planning and it does work for many couples. The birth control pill must be taken every day and if it is missed one day the consequences may be that the woman finds she is pregnant. Putting large doses of hormones into a woman's body for an extended period of time is not healthy. You also have to be seen by your doctor on a regular basis to make sure you are in good health to continue the pill. Natural family planning costs nothing and is a safer choice. Ask those who have used it.
3
Yes, and ask all their children how successful "natural family planning" is. My parents were Catholic. Natural family planning gave them 6 children in 10 years.
16
Natural family planning works for highly deciplinces couples fun women with regular cycles. While missing a pill can lead to pregnancy, so does "just this once" for couples using NFP. It has a much highkyndaikure rate that the best methods of BC like the pill or an IUD, for women who don't want to use hormones, a hormone free IUD is a much more effective choice than NFP.
8
NFP? No thanks. You're welcome to analyze your cervical mucus every day; I have better things to do with my time.
"Putting large doses of hormones into a woman's body for an extended period of time is not healthy."
Citation needed. Thanks in advance.
7
Hello, Liberal commenters, birth control pills are NOT BANNED. You can still get them by PAYING FROM YOUR POCKET.
Awww, what a relief.
5
I think you may have missed the "to help low income women afford them" part of the conversation.
28
I don't have a problem with my tax dollars paying for contraception.
If you take a mortgage deduction and / or child deduction, I am subsidizing your house and / or children.
People don't seem to mind their government handouts.
They just don't want to help others.
You can pay for contraception or pay for welfare.
Take your pick.
13
"You can pay for contraception or pay for welfare."
I can choose to pay for neither, because both are a violation of my rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. I was not born to be a slave to some woman's reckless sexual adventurism.
2
Now I know why "The Handmaid's Tale" on Hulu was so popular. The ideas of these white men need to be pounded into the ground. They just can't stand if a women has power and a brain. No wonder women in the past suffered from "hysteria." I feel like screaming myself.
33
Ah yes the conservatives want to set back women about 70 years, keep them barefoot, pregnant and in their place. Is this really America in the 21st century?
18
Perhaps Republicans feel the poor should not have sex unless they can afford it. Another way to punish the poor.
16
Keeping women poor, barefoot and pregnant. Family planning at it’s best. This Whitehouse is a joke and I’m not laughing!
14
...but men can have unlimited access to Erectile dysfunction drugs. Try taking that away from them!
31
No one is requiring taxpayers or insurance companies to pay for erectile dysfunction drugs. These drugs are not any more available (or free) than contraceptive drugs.
1
Oh, really? https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pentagon-spends-a-lot-of-money-on-viagra/
Happy International Women's Day everyone. If this doesn't encourage women to vote these clowns out, I have no words.
19
This is the reason why the evangelicals support this vulgar, incompetent man who is antithetical to Christian values.
13
We out number them 100 to 1, Wendy.
And, even the wives of the evangelicals use birth control and have abortions.
Check out the average size of families, even in "conservative states".
Someone out there isn't popping those babies out, year after year.
And there is no way those "conservative" women are going to give up their Pills and IUD's.
And there is no way their men want them to.
Small Families: It's not just for Lefties anymore!
1
"Subsidize women's sex-lives"? That's rich! All those white conservative men really want women to keep their knees together? We "gals" really do need to boycott sex while our men-folk hash out whether or not it's ok for us to have unrestricted reproductive rights.
24
I "love" the way this article expresses an attitude from this current administration that pregnancy happens as "virgin births". It seems to me that Forest Friess has it completely wrong. The least costly birth control is for guys to keep it in their pants. See a women can't make a man have sex, so Forest there will be NO unwanted pregnancies if men do their part and keep it in their pants. There you go, Forest, solved. Let's turn this into what it really is, another problem with men not controlling themselves and then blaming, shaming and suppressing women.
30
The writer misunderstood the stupid, old aspirin between the knees joke. It was about keeping a woman's knees together, not suggesting aspirin as birth control.
2
Not just in the USA, folks. In Ontario, Canada, we today have a candidate for this week's Ontario Conservative party's leadership who comes out of the Catholic high school no-reproductive-rights for women 'school' of thought--pardon the pun. She would repeal Ontario's recent very careful school sex-ed curriculum. Candidate Tanya G Allen says kids who are dumb in math are obsessed--because of this sex-ed program--with anal sex, so can't learn math. Note that she made no reference to the kind of sex that got her "four lovely children," just sex acts more often involving--yes, you guessed it--gay men. Tanya G Allen apparently believes that removing "anal sex" from the lessons will allow young kids to concentrate, and learn math properly, she suggests. But, of course, this and other sex acts are NOT actually in the lessons. Teachers' guides--not the lessons--do mention this and other matters--to teachers, for possible use with senior students, as one possibility to mention if and when senior students ask. So, maybe young American kids are also dumb at math because they too are victims of sex-ed and obsessed, therefore, somehow, with, sigh, only gay sex.
3
The best most effective way to reduce the number of abortions is to stop unwanted pregnancies. By that measure Planned Parenthood and the other family planning services have prevented more abortions each day than all the "right to life" poitiicians have in the entire history of their movement.
But that movement has never been about abortion. It is about keeping the threat of unwanted pregnancy as a deterrent to women being sexually active. Their opposition to effective birth control is rooted in that same purpose.
26
When Bob Porter resigned because of his past record of domestic violence was exposed, Trump said he was opposed to violence against women. Amazing hypocrite!!! In the sphere of public policy, what greater violence is done against women than the policies of Trump, Pence et al? First, they restrict access to contraception and then they force the woman to gestate and give birth to that unwanted pregnancy by restricting access to abortion. Men should experience the pain of childbirth and then talk about controlling the bodies and destinies of women through their policies. Controlling women through the biological fact of childbirth is an age old practice but this is 2018. Like the witch hunts of yore, they aim at eliminating competition from women, having them available and accessible, and creating a climate of fear, intimidation, helplessness, and subservience. Ask anyone who studies domestic violence what the most frequent provocation for violence is. In every policy position of the far right where women's sexuality is the consideration, the policy considers anything and everything except the body and person-hood of the childbearing woman -- and sometimes, unfortunately, the childbearing girl. And please don't tell me that many women too are against birth control and abortion. I have seen too many Kellyanne Conways who mind meld with powerful men and further the male agenda to gain access to power and privilege for themselves.
8
Out of curiosity, just how many children does Kellyanne Conway have?
More than Pence?
(Yes,she's just such a Patriarchal Woman, isn't she?)
1
And then there is this: https://www.npr.org/2017/05/12/528098789/u-s-has-the-worst-rate-of-mater...
If men got pregnant, this would be a non-issue.
17
In reply to D Bearhead's comment - "If men got pregnant, this would be a non-issue," it would still be an issue but women would rule!
What do you expect from the GOP? In the previous election, they flaunted and praised the unwed, pregnant daughter of Sarah Palin. Her only sex education was, just say no. A few years later, still unwed, she got pregnant again. Republican men don't want to take any responsibility for their sperm causing unwanted pregnancies. It is clear that Trump makes sure that his sexual partners use birth control. He and Melania have only one. His daughter also controls her fecundity. They should realize that preventing a pregnancy is a lot cheaper than a baby. Of course, the GOP right to lifers care only about fetuses in the womb. When they turn into babies they are ignored. Are they all as ignorant about birth control as Rush Limbaugh who complained that women who have lots of sex need lots of birth control. It is time for men to take responsibility for their sperm which includes Republicans. I am sure they are not abstinent. They should realize that controlling the number of children raises the standard of living for all.
174
Yep, because what we all need are more kids nobody wants.
14
"The Trump Administration’s Backward Attitude Toward Birth Control"?
On what issues is the Trump mis-administration NOT backward, retrograde, disingenuous, deceitful and/or simply wrong?
11
It's a fairly simple, straight-lineformula: less reliable (or no) birth control results in more unwanted pregnancies which, in turn, will drive up the demand for abortions. Is that the goal theyhad in mind? AND, enough already with right-wing men judging women on their morals. Just ask POTUS!
5
Do you know what they call people who use the rhythm method of birth control?
PARENTS!
13
The modern decline of criminality in the US has been ascribed to the availability of contraception and abortion. Unwanted children seldom grow up well adjusted.
6
I wonder who all these old, white, misogynistic men think is going to change their diapers and feed them when they're in the nursing home. It's usually women who provide these most fundamental, important services, and yet are paid so little. If these same women are being forced to raise a lot of children, men will have to take these kinds of jobs, right? I doubt it...
100
You know. It's all right for churches/temples/mosques or other religious organizations to promote abstinence. It's their jobs. It's NOT their job nor is their place to be in a position to regulate those that don't follow their beliefs. Here's the deal. You don't want contraception. Don't use it. HOWEVER, if you do want it, it's not up to some religious zealot, disguised as a government official to deny it to you. I am sick of this backwards turn and the old white guys trying to control a woman's body.
298
While I agree with your original premise, don't assume that the regulation of Birth Control is caused solely because of old white guys. Trump won the Electoral College because a lot of women voted for him!
Who are these women and why did they vote for this known misogynist? It was hardly a secret. Perhaps more important, how could they be so short-sighted. Don't they care about their daughters and nieces?
Also, is it discriminatory that birth control is not covered but Viagra is covered in most Healthcare Plans? Blame the Religious right, but don't forget to include other select organized churches and anti-abortion hypocrites.
2
Nobody is denying contraception to those who want it; those who want it may go to the store and/or doctor and procure it. No one has suggested outlawing contraception.
Paula
you are absolutely correct.
But, if you, me and anyone else reading your post, wants to do something about these religious zealots who have government jobs, we need to vote out these republicans. Each and every election, at every level of government. Failing to vote allows these police of the womb to have the power they wield so mercilessly.
2
“Back in my days, they used Bayer aspirin for contraceptives,” the Republican donor Foster Friess said in 2012. “The gals put it between their knees, and it wasn’t that costly.”
That's a 100% Republican attitude. Of course, Mr. Friess must have been unaware of the future Predator-in-Chief who bragged that he routinely had his hands just north of the aspirin, no doubt dislodging it.
It's incredible that the Republican politicians who hypocritically espouse "family values" would deny birth control to women while at the same time so many of them are abusing, assaulting and sexually preying on women.
It would be wonderful if women used their votes in 2018 and 2020 to show that they won't accept second class citizenship from Republican politicians.
17
Time for the Lysistrata solution, applied to both war and reproductive control.
9
That would technically be considered abstinence. So...bit of a lose-lose.
No, it would be called a boycott. Great idea.
1
“Conservatives — often male ones — like to argue that Title X improperly uses tax dollars to subsidize women’s sex lives, and that some forms of birth control can be obtained inexpensively.”
The forms of birth control that are relatively inexpensive also have high failure rates. How many of these same conservative males want insurance to cover their viagra while denying women access to birth control? Is that not subsidizing men’s sex lives?
This reminds me of a case many years ago where an insurer denied a woman breast reconstruction following mastectomy for cancer, it was deemed cosmetic. That same insurer approved a testicular implant for a male following the surgical removal of a testical for cancer deeming it medically necessary. It was cases like this that lead to The Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Act of 1998. In short, the act states that women can not be denied breast reconstruction following mastectomy. Furthermore, it also states the non-involved breast be corrected as necessary to maintain a symmetrical appearance.
Why do women have to fight for our rights issue by issue?
14
This is a great argument against universal healthcare. The government would ACTUALLY be able to tell you what operations you can/can't have. Do feminists want "all these white males" making those decisions?
Troy, I’m neither arguing for nor against Universal Healthcare. That is a very complex issue, one I vacillate on myself.
@Troy, so you assume that private insurers are more likely to pay for breast reconstruction than Medicare or Medicaid?
On the contrary, the Women's Health and Cancer Rights Act was aimed directly at private insurers who decided they could benefit their investors if they denied women care. That private insurers pull this kind of nonsense is an argument for universal public health care.
2
“Back in my days, they used Bayer aspirin for contraceptives,” the Republican donor Foster Friess said in 2012. “The gals put it between their knees, and it wasn’t that costly.”"
And Foster Friess had a very naive upbringing "back in his days". Undoubtedly he grew up in the Bible Belt where, if it wasn't talked about, it never happened.
4
You and I have different definitions of "undoubtedly." He's from Wisconsin.
Time to contribute to Planned Parenthood. Any of you outraged by this administration should stop stewing and put your money where your values are. Vote with your money while we get ready for the next election!
10
I am not even sure these people are cavemen. In their private lives, most of them have 2, 3, perhaps 4 children. Do they want us to believe the other times with wives, and for sure non wives, they used the "aspirin between the knees method"?
It is amazing how cruel they are to women, and also to children born in poverty, with no father and with any services that would help eliminated by this "family values" people.
I thought republicans were for small government, but they became huge.
5
This would actually be small government. Their argument is that they want the government to pay for fewer things. Not sure where you get that confused with "huge government." It's also not very fair to assume they are not loyal to their wives. Or to assume that all of these advocates are men, especially since the article even lists two women.
@Troy, and yet the government would pay for more things.
As the saying goes, pay now or pay later. Either support affordable access to birth control, or support social services for unwanted children, or support more prisons and crimes. You make the problem worse.
1
"And the announcement suggests that the government wants to promote abstinence until marriage."
And what about abstinence after marriage with anybody other than one's spouse? Does the include an exception for porn starts?
5
Fine. If conservatives are so keen to keep women out of the workforce, let's include a mandate that the male parent is solely responsible for the economic support of all babies. If a minor, the male parent's own parents much be responsible.
10
And these are the same people who are anti-abortion. The ultimate inhumanity of the people who expect women and men to be obstinate before marriage is really heartbreaking when you see the results of this belief system. They really don't understand what it is to be a human being. Sad, very sad.
6
Are we all enjoying our retrograde ride on the Trump Time Machine, back to 1950? Tariffs, coal, pollution, corporate favors, lots of guns, and women in the kitchen with no birth control. Keep a list - we have to know what to reverse when America's Trump nightmare is over.
7
Millions of women voted for Trump and the Repubs in Congress so they are getting what they voted for.
4
Unfortunately, the rest of us are getting it as well.
1
As far as I could learn, Valerie Huber has only one child, a son. No mention of whether or not she is married. If she doesn't believe in birth control, has only one child, and is married, they must be celibate or very lucky!
8
The article says that Huber was an advocate of abstinence-until-marriage education programs. Nowhere does it say that she doesn't think birth control should be used.
Valerie Huber is a Christian evangelical who believes that many forms of birth control, such as the IUD, should be banned.
It is not the role of the federal government to subject its citizens to a lecture about abstinence. That should be up to your parental figures or spiritual advisers on whether or not to take that position.
6
Since Republicans are complaining they don't want to pay for women's sex lives, so where is the hue and cry about Medicare part B covering part of the cost of a pump for erectile dysfunction? Oh, that's different. Never mind. As for abstinence? "Dear Abbie" was always saying in her column that "abstinence makes the heart grow fonder". The clock is rapidly spinning backwards to the days of the 1950's.
The Republicans don't want to fund birth control, they are against abortion, yet actively seek to take away food stamps, education, and health care from children. They have no compassion whatsoever.
9
Most studies that evaluate abstinence only program show that they don’t prevent pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases but it does not prevent the Republicans to promoter this waste of money even though the current OMB director pay a lip service to evidence based policy. It is also interesting that the same crowd that pushing for contraception defunding insist on inclusion of Viagra in all health plans.
7
Ironic that the last word of your editorial on Trump’s planned upset of family planning services is “them,” implying a separation between “us”, the Editorial Board, and women. All of “us” need family planning. The International Women’s Day of Action may need a bigger voice and impact.
3
It is a question of power and money. This administration wants to take the power and money away from low-income and middle-income women. It is a matter of fear and ignorance. The politicians in power are afraid of losing votes, and they are ignorant of science. Knowledge and progress in a modern world need women. Women can give birth when they want to and not when the government wants them to. Science is not moving backwards and soon women will have the power of even greater choices in reproductive services and health care. Instead of fear of these changes, we need acceptance of the fact that women mandate control of their bodies. We are not going backwards and we will not shut up.
5
Everything you said is a vague and obvious statement, except for the second sentence, which you don't even bother to back up with any facts because it is completely false and baseless. The basis of conservative thought, for men and women, is the argument for individual responsibility. This means that whether you decide to have sex or have children or neither is totally up to you, and the consequences of your actions are therefore attributed to you and no one else. Men and women both need to accept responsibility. When they don't, that is when the next generation suffers.
@Troy, do you believe that the consequences of unwanted children in our society are not going to be your responsibility? How would that work?
Contraception is forbidden by some religious constituencies because it is seen as facilitating immoral behaviors. The quarter to one-third of the electorate who see themselves as devotedly religious believe sex to be base and a physical temptation to behavior which leads to spiritual damnation. Sex for procreation is the only way to engage with it without risking the loss of one's soul. God's will is that those who have sex will do so to have children and to raise them, not to debase themselves by doing it for pleasure. Thus contraception violates God's will and promotes people into eternal damnation. This portion of the electorate votes for it's candidates and volunteers to help them win the votes of others. It gives them enormous political influence with Republicans.
4
Casual Observer,
Please observe a little more closely: conservative Catholics who remain chaste until marriage have wonderfully rich and exhilarating sex lives. Sex is a gift and blessing from God to be enjoyed. You are misinformed about sex being only for procreation and resulting in debasement if done for pleasure. There is no ban, nay even discouragement, on a couple having sex when the woman is not fertile and could not possibly conceive; there is no ban on a couple having sex even if it is determined that one of the spouses is medically incapable of procreating; there is no ban or even frowning upon post menopausal women having (read enjoying) sex (yeah!) Loss of soul, damnation, or debasement? No! Pleasure? Yes. The context in which the pleasure occurs does matter, however.
It is not suprising that the Trump administration is trying to take us back to the 1950's. The exception is that we will have a Czar for Life instead of a President.
2
The "mind boggling" part of this conversation is that you actually think equality can be achieved! This is the same conversation we had about "tolerance". We used to "tolerate" abnormal behavior and progressive ideas, now we promote, endorse and mandate them. Its not a suggestion, its the law. We MUST promote deviant behavior as "normal" or even "better". We all know that equality is not the goal, its dominance. After "equality" is "achieved" (which is impossible to define), we will be told that women need to control everything because they are better than men.
1
Really? You're afraid that if women have equality they'll take over? Gee, what a great idea! Wish we'd thought of that sooner! Fortunately, we had a male tell us what to do. Thanks, Patrick!
2
Is it just me, or does the US seem to becoming more like the Republic of Gilead from The Handmaid's Tale with every passing day?
4
no, it's not just you
My parents did not use birth control for religious reasons, I saw the toll it took on my parents trying to provide the basic necessities for my many brothers and sisters. Living near the Hasidic community of Kiryas Joel I see these same families. Young woman barely in their twenties with several children . Rolling back the resources that women have been able to use to control their reproductive lives is alarming. The most dogmatic in society are trying to impose their believes on everyone else. What happened to the "Separation of Church and State"? Now that trump has made a deal with the religious right (in order to stay in office) our constitutional right of a government not controlled by a religion is been violated. The hypocrisy of this alliance with a man who has been accused of sexual impropriety by 18 woman is not lost on anyone.
231
My parents were Catholics, and they did what the Pope ordered them to. Be fruitful and multiply. I have 8 siblings. My parents were overwhelmed; they were clinically depressed and heavily self-medicating during my entire childhood. My siblings and I were largely ignored. I have almost no memories of doing anything with either parent. I'm not sure I can recall them smiling. Ever. I'd have to hate someone a lot to wish such a childhood on them.
5
I’m gonna argue that the irony *is* lost - it’s lost on his base. No one who voted against him could or should fail to miss it!
Amazing that a political party that has the most to fear from the young, black, Latinos and other minorities is adopting reproductive policies that force lower income women to risk unwanted pregnancy, resulting in many more future voters from those demos who sure won't be voting for the GOP!
92
This is probably why the Republicans are doing voters suppression against the young, Black, Latinos and others minorities. They know that those unwanted pregnancies could result in voters who will not vote for the GOP.
1
Also amazing that a political party that has the most to fear from women of any color, ethnicity or marital status are advocating the elimination of accessibility to abortion and are against the use of reliable birth control. Don't they realize that when women have more children, the fathers of these children have to spend more in terms of child care costs, child support payments and the cost of raising their children? You would think that they would be completely behind the idea of limiting the number of their offspring by whatever means necessary!
1
Unfortunately these future voters, the children of young, poor, and minority women denied access to birth control, will be disenfranchised by the GOP. This is another aspect of their policies. Every election cycle they work to denyaccess to voters who don't support their kleptocratic theocracy.
1
And why aren't more news organizations making this an issue? Why aren't you regularly highlighting the damage this administration is trying to inflict upon a full 50% of the population of the US? If Trump is eventually pushed out, based on demonstrated positions, how much worse do you think Pence will be in this area? Sound the Alarm, NYT - not just push out a tidy little editorial on National Women's day.
152
Because there are no "news organizations" anymore. They're all partisan rags, to include ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and CNN along with "newspapers" et al.
1
Although I'm all for pro-choice, I find the opening of this editorial to be outlandish and to show a lack of knowledge on women's history: "Women’s progress in America has been inextricably tied to the availability of birth control. Landmark Supreme Court decisions in 1965 and 1972 recognizing a constitutional right to contraception made it more likely that women went to college, entered the work force and found economic stability. That’s all because they were better able to choose when, or whether, to have children." There clearly were other factors at play as well, especially since in the early days of the republic, contraception as well as abortion were both legal, and yet women did not go to college in the numbers they later did in the 20th century. We must know our history better otherwise we are making anti-intellectual claims; we will never be able to fix the true inequality issues that women face if we do not understand their true causes.
Huh? That statement is absolutely correct. Just because access to birth control wasn't the only factor at play (no one said it was) does not mean that it was not critical to the outcome. In the early days of the republic women did not have meaningful control over childbearing.
6
Right. When in the early days of the republic only landed gentry males went to college and women weren't allowed, they didn't go. When they finally won the right to attend, mid--20th century, they did so. When they were allowed contraception in the mid-60s, they gained more control over if and when to get pregnant and so were yet more able to pursue an education. If only men got pregnant...
1
The administration advocates severe limits on immigration on the basis that immigrants use resources making them less available to citizens. Unwanted children also use resources and the lack of parental involvement which results from the inability of the parents to provide for their children lead to adults lacking the skills needed for leading productive lives. Isn't forcing the native born to have children while prohibiting immigration blatant racism?
7
As always, it appears that those in charge think only single women use birth control. How, exactly, is "abstinence-only" going to work for a married couple? Shouldn't married people be allowed to plan their family (or lack thereof) through the use of contraceptives? The lack of critical thinking in these decisions is appalling!
24
For those god fearing christian men who want women to assume all the responsibility for family planning, may I suggest that is is at hand several options including a fool proof method of birth control that involves the potential father. One is available from most drug store, convenience or bar; the other can be easily provided by your local M.D.
I can't remember anything in the bible about male abstinence, and that's another "fertility awareness" program that the boys at HHS might want to encourage.
One of my favorite quotes:" It takes two to tango."
4
It is exhausting keeping up with all of the ways in which this administration continues to whittle away at the rights of women, along with its attacks on minorities, the environment, health care, civil liberties...and the list goes on. I am increasingly disheartened by the GOP and their willingness to go along with such a travesty of a president. Even when (not if) Mueller produces the "smoking gun," will the GOP have the courage to do the right thing?
10
What price tax cuts?
4
if you want to subsidize others' birth control write big checks to non profits that offer such services. Don't respond to this post without disclosing checks you wrote.
But please don't ask government to hand out entitlements to enhance your sex life or control your reproduction. That's way beyond what government should be doing.
4
So Joe.....7 billion humans, 8 billion humans, 10 billion humans, 15 billion humans raping the planet's delicate ecosystems for precious resources....just let it rip, I guess ?
Birth control policy and assistance is a important role for both governmental and non-governmental organizations.
21
@Joe yohka: I write a $1,000 donation check to Planned Parenthood every year.
Although I'm past reproductive age, I'm also happy to pay taxes to help young couples obtain birth control and other reproductive health services.
Contraception is healthcare. It's just as much healthcare as erectile dysfunction drugs are. Taxpayer-funded Medicare pays out millions of dollars every years for these drugs. Their sole purpose is to "enhance" men's sex lives. Have you ever complained about that, Joe?
16
It's called "family planning," and it serves the interests of all of society.
Grownups can appreciate that.
6
The GOP wants to punish poor women for having sex without their permission. The revelation that their "pro-life" stance is actually nothing more than "pro-birth" has left no doubt as to what their motivations are.
Because any normal person would think providing oodles of free birth control would take away the need for those darn abortions. But noooo, can't have that.
Let's start jailing men who father children via unprotected sex. Nine months minimum. Let's see how available birth control would be then.
We need to turn this into a male problem in order to solve it.
Or easier, quit voting GOP.
37
Just to share my actual experience here, over the 2 decades I've used birth control access has a nightmare and our federal government must help make it accessible. When I was in college in upstate New York I had to get a doctor's prescriptions EVERY TIME I wanted a new batch of birth control, each of which lasted 3 months. How many times does a healthy young man have to go to the doctor's every year? Maybe once? I was going every 90 days for a dumb slip of paper for a medication that I would definitely need for the foreseeable future. Over a year that adds up to about 2 days wasted on the phone and in doctor's offices and $120 in copays. After having kids I finally got an IUD and am so grateful that it's an option available to me. BIRTH CONTROL IS ABOUT WOMEN'S RIGHT TO SELF DETERMINATION AND HEALTH. Just because women have wombs and get pregnant our sexuality is judged and monitored by complete strangers with value systems that demonize and undervalue our needs and experiences. I'm a middle class white women. I can't imagine how much more difficult it is for people with less money & time. Access to birth control is a must.
Oh and P.S. rhythm planning is a ridiculous idea that works for like 5% of women. A bunch of my hyper organized friends were able to pull it off before they had kids but with 2 kids now, a household to run, and a job there is absolutely no way I could handle a form of birth control that requires so much planning. What a joke of a proposal.
22
I remember those days! But I must be a little older because in my college days contraceptives weren't covered by insurance. You had to pay out-of-pocket, and it wasn't cheap.
Birth control pills: $11.00 per month at Wal Mart. Not breaking anyone's bank. Besides, when are women going to start managing their own lives? Does anyone really need to depend on the government for that? And if they do, they have bigger issues than unprotected sex.
6
It's clear that you're not poor, with none of the problems poor women face just getting through the day.
Nor do you care whether government does what is best for society. Subsidizing contraception lowers the rate of unwanted births and abortions. Proven.
5
Err--well aren't you lucky to be able to use the specific generic strain that works for your body. Birth control, like any other hormone, impacts every body differently--and MANY women can only take VERY EXPENSIVE strains that are upwards of $100 per month. So naive.
9
Sure, $11 bucks, but without Planned Parenthood, the yearly exam and labs to get those $11 pills costs around $1000 out of pocket. Plus, that's only if that particular pill works for you. Not every woman can use the same pills.
And hey, instead of women being judgy towards other women, how about men? Takes a man to make a baby. Maybe they need to start managing their lives. Maybe men need to be forced to pay child support. Maybe then they'd use condoms.
2
I wish the Times would run less hit pieces on conservatives over the issue of birth control.
I would venture to say a solid majority of conservatives I know — and I live in Idaho — support the government funding access to IUDs and other long term family planning. Maybe they don’t support the affordable care act, but there’s a difference between those two that is conflated in this (and most other) articles.
I think if a staff writer were to sit down and talk to people in the heartland with out assumptions about “rural rubes” what they would see is a deep conflict in people over the issue and a willingness to accept the logic that reducing abortion — the real issue for most people I know — means funding birth control.
Ya, there are a lot of quotable old white men who say sexist things. But, I would emphasize their age as why. Give it ten years (or so, Orrin Hatch stuck around forever and a half after all) and a lot of these issues will have proved to be generational.
I’m sure we’ll still be fighting over abortion, but I think we’ll largely have accepted that birth control is not something we need to have scorched earth politics over.
1
Anti-contraception bills are being introduced now.
We don't have ten years to wait.
3
If that's the case stop voting for right wing zealots who want to deny women proper health care.
2
it is their constant desire to legislate women's health care that is the problem. Vasectomies or Viagra are not on anyone's legislative schedule.
4
It is no longer a comfort to think that many of those hurt by GOP policy are people who voted for the GOP. One must remember that real americans, not just goobers, suffer of their adherence to the party that does the most harm to the most people.
Let's remember that the mean and the ignorant will always out number thinkers and those concerned with more than their own. The GOP have learned to channel the energies of those who know nothing to the detriment of most (98%?)
The "press" is subservient to a small handful of right wing corps that were able to "corner the market" on news when consolidation was pushed under our first fascist president Reagan.
The "press" has ceased real reporting on the "other party" aside from noting it's pitfalls, challenges,and short comings. The far right wing press calls the merely right wing press"liberal media". And the obvious is never pursued.
This is just clean-up, taking care of the very few agenda items they missed on the way to supreme power.
The "press" should inform americans and goobers that the game is over. The side that refused to vote or fight lost, which cant be a surprise for any
The Trump etc. thrust might be called "non family planning." Big bucks for loss of control over our own lives.
3
There are a number of medical conditions for which women are prescribed "birth control" pills. Moves like the Trump Administration on this issue are so clearly ignorant and anti-women. It is inexcusable in this day and age that women have to fight for basic health care. But we will.
10
During the campaign Trump addressed a group of African Americans, Latinos and other minorities stating they should vote for him and "what have you got to lose".
This is just the beginning.
14
Only one way to stop this outrageous assault on human rights and decency.
Vote every republican out of office at every level on Nov 6, 2018.
16
Roe V. Wade upheld abortion until a certain point in pregnancy on the grounds that the woman has Constitutional right to PRIVACY.
If it is your privacy right, why do YOU want the government to know that you are getting an abortion? Do it privately and with not a word spoken.
Ditto for Birth control. What you do privately with your body parts is your private business. Don't expect ME to pay for it.
2
Interesting. But I'm supposed to pay for some overweight right winger's heart surgery or diabetes medication after they've indulged in too much junk food and beer?
7
All medical information is private under hiipa.
3
Again and again, through every way possible, these men try to thwart women's progress and this oldy, but goody of keeping them pregnant with a passel of children to care for and spend all their money on, is tried and true. It is simply sickening the callousness displayed by these people.
7
Birth Control pills have been freely available since 1964-5; tubal ligations since the late 60's. The debate has been done & dusted for 50 yrs. Especially with the MeToo movement gaining speed, strength & volume, isn't this all bizarrely anachronistic?
1
Calling this “retrograde” thinking is a journalistically professional way of saying that Trump’s policy administrators are primitive boneheads. The greatest American political glitch of the past 100 years continues to roll on and over those with the fewest resources to fight back. The next democratic administration will unfortunately need to begin by implementing an all consuming clean up on isle 1600.
4
This is part of the republican agenda. The fewer women in the workforce, the better for the men. Conservatives would like to see the women back where they "belong"--having babies and in the kitchen.
11
Before advocating abstinence until marriage, these men need to practice abstinence outside of marriage!
18
This is a NYT editorial I can support (almost) without qualification. However, the sense of outrage perhaps is a bit overdone.
By 20 Jan. 2017, he had snapped all political dependencies to any interest, save two: himself, of course, and his most retrograde base, consisting significantly of Christian evangelical excessives. He may or may not approve of his administration’s moves to endanger women’s reproductive rights (as it happens, I believe that he does NOT personally approve of them, based on more than forty years of Trump-watching), but he’s got one more election to win. Until Wednesday, 4 November 2020, he’s going to cherish that interest or risk taking the curse of Jimmy Carter to his grave.
Now, some might pillory the cynicism of such a resolve, but the same people probably allowed Obama to skate on the unwillingness to consider efforts to assist the private sector to maintain and generate jobs at the height of the Great Recession – until he began his OWN re-election efforts, when he merely started TALKING about taking such efforts (which he never actually did). This is a political disease to which all politicians are susceptible, and particularly presidents.
Yet, if Trump is re-elected, he snaps that last dependency, and this is one of the issues on which I believe we’ll see a vast moderation. So, my advice to the left is to deploy creative and effective holding actions on birth control and related issues, in the hope that I’m right should he go the full eight.
So, in other words, Mr. L, "he'll 'straighten up and fly right,'" huh? Where have I heard that before?
3
The single most important issue controlling the fate of women across the globe is access to birth control.
Without the ability to control when they bear children, women are sentenced to limitations on the course of their lives as well as the lives of the children they produce.
I am enraged by the restrictions placed on birth control by government and religious organizations. How is this happening in 2018?
22
I wish some of these editorials would talk more about the fact that contraception isn't used just to prevent pregnancy. For many women like myself it's used to treat a variety of medical problems and without it we would be facing painful and expensive surgeries.
15
These organizations use so little of the money they are awarded toward the needy or their supposed cause. Most of the money goes toward administration and hefty salaries. If you look at their benefits programs for the paid employees of such organizations you will see things like 401Ks matched at 125% and salaries that these employees could not possible obtain in the private sector for lack of talent. Why is this always ignored? Maybe because the people screaming the loudest have never actually tried to obtain services from one of these outfits? The have a few poster people they can point to having received help, but if you dig deep and tear away the facade you will see clearly the deception.
1
Please state the source of your facts about how organizations spend the awarded grant money. Federal grant funds are very strictly control and can only be spent on its designated purpose. It can only be spent on the services it is to provide. 125% of 401k funds would be against the law. Grant money can be spent on salaries but not 401k funding! If you read the annual report or review the audited accounts you will realize you very unaware of the facts.
1
The Good Old White Boys club may appear to have political or religious motivations to return the contraception debate to the 19th century, but that may not be the case at all. Rather, it may be a desire to keep the club intact.
Worldwide, in all developed countries, birthrates are in decline. As such, industrialized economies, as we currently know them, are unsustainable, especially as the average age of the population increases. Japan is in the worst shape. Europe, to counter the effects of these trends, opened its borders to foreign workers long before the current refugee crisis.
Birthrates in the United States are also down, especially among whites. The GOWB club's hidden agenda may be one of self preservation.
4
I love how some men act as if they don't benefit, too, from having their partner on birth control. They same men who rail against 'paying for it' through taxes are the same ones who would try to control their partner (whether trying to force her to get an abortion or force her to have it.)
173
and the same men who want, expect, and get their insurance to pay for erectile dysfunction medications.
4
I agree, it's amazing how few men realize how birth control benefits them, too. Not many men would enjoy going back to the days of being the sole breadwinner of a large family.
Here are two hypothetical ideas to get conservative men off the case:
1) pass legislation the men have to bear all financial costs associated with pregnancy and parenting. Enforce.
2) Enact a new tax on individual and companies to benefit single mothers.
They will become the pill's biggest proponents.
Done.
20
We've known for a long time haven't we, that the right wing really doesn't care about fetuses or children? They care about the subjugation of women, so any time you hear someone talk about the right to life, understand that they are talking about taking away women's rights to determine their own futures.
22
Elections have consequences. Perhaps it will take the repeated pain of significant losses of civil rights and basic freedoms to reacquaint the left-wingnuts in the Democratic Party, who couldn't move themselves to vote for Hillary, with that very simple truth. Democrats always find a way to throw the baby out with the bathwater. As far as I can tell, they are getting ready to do it again by contesting viable Democratic candidates because they are "too conservative." Good luck with that. Maybe another 4-6 years in the wilderness will convince them to take a better path forward.
4
The disdain for women that is reflected by this administration is maddening and even frightening, but the heck with them.
20
“(Grand Old) Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”
― H.L. Mencken
GOP 2018
42
I have never been able to understand how a woman can be against birth control. Where do they find these women?
334
....in the church basement... bound, gagged, abused and brainwashed into walking Stockholm-Syndrome religious robots by Grand Old Patriarchs from the 12th century.
Nice GOPeople.
32
They find them in homes with overbearing men who usually control the purse strings. I'm related to a number of these women.
8
Seriously? You must not get out much. If there's one big huge problem that many women have, that problem is : other women.
4
Imagine, rich old white men don’t care about women, kids, the environment, immigrants (unless they can make money by paying them less than others). They also no longer seem to care about our deficits or democratic institutions. Since their future is limited they want to stick it to everyone else. SAD!!
24
So what if you are married, and want to remain child-free? Abstinence before marriage and in marriage?
44
That and various forms of birth control.
I always thought the "safest and most effective form of birth control" was having a bean burrito for lunch.
4
Oftentimes, HH Bear, one's personality is a 100% effective birth control method.
19
Or something with lots of garlic.
Almost half of all babies born in the US are born on Medicaid. Want to save the federal budget? Provide long term birth control for free to all that ask.
50
National health plans provide free contraception because it is saves lots of money.
1
How does one administration manage to get it so wrong on just about every single thing? This isn't a conservative agenda. It's a regressive agenda. There's absolutely no reason for this nonsense.
43
this has been the GOP agenda since Nixon
if you didn't vote in EVERY election since then
you helped them do it
4
More combat soldiers for the war.
10
Population growth in the United States is excessive and unsustainable. We need every measure available to mitigate it including wide access to birth control and (as a last resort) abortion. We may even need a one child policy if these environmentally destructive trends continue.
11
The population in the US is headed for an implosion, as the Boomers and their offspring age and die.
I would understand Trump's position on birth control and abortion if he were a true believer like his Vice President. But Trump switched sides shortly before aspiring to the presidency and had the utter gall to suggest to Chris Matthews that women who have abortions must face some sort of punishment. I don't think for one minute that Trump is an ardent pro-life proponent but, like everything else, he will say whatever it takes to gain approval from his ultra-loyal Evangelical base, who happen to overlook all of Trump's unethical and immoral behavior simply because Trump talks the talk of pro-life advocates. As long as Trump preaches pro-life, he, in the eyes of the Evangelicals, has a carte blanche to misbehave and gets a "mulligan" for any illicit or immoral act he commits. The essence of hypocrisy.
36
Definitely. I will go even further and bet that he has paid for a few abortions in his time.
1
Evangelical activism is the biggest threat to freedom and democracy in this country. This continued insertion of their backwards, hypocritical, chauvinistic, faux-Christian religious beliefs into our secular society needs to be halted before it is too late for the rest of us. Who among us does not believe there are paid-for abortions in Trump's sordid past? Time for a few more women to tear up their gag orders from him.
3
I honestly wonder how long it will take this country to recover from the damage of this administration. I’m relieved to have lived most of my life in a pre-trump world, but I dread to see what havoc is ahead. A so-called leader who says he likes chaos and enjoys observing the infighting. It boggles the mind and pains the heart.
49
Sad to see how punitive and short sided our leaders have become about womens health. You would think they would anticipate increasing pregnancy rates and provide the unborn with pre natal, delivery, and post natal care.
18
I work in a Title X-funded family planning clinic which employs a number of people who voted for Trump. They voted for Trump and his merry band of Republicans because for some inexplicable reason they believed no one would ever try to end legal abortion or infringe on birth control. When the layoffs begin, I can only hope they are among the first to go. Perhaps then, at last, they will understand what they have done.
54
We are constantly told that contraception is an absolute matter of privacy and that the state should not be in the bedroom. Neither, then, should its wallet in the form of taxpayer subsidies.
7
I don't consider tax expenditure a subsidy, but a means means of creating society. As such, Title X is no more irrational than money spent on, say, schools, or road surfaces, or anything else that serves the common good. Contraception may be used in the bedroom, but its impact reaches far beyond and we all benefit from that.
36
The state shouldn’t be in the doctors office either. Contraception is a medical treatment, and patients are legally and morally entitled to privacy. Does that mean we should stop paying for medicare?
10
If health care is a right, then so is birth control.
It takes two to tango.
3
Why not just reintroduce chastity belts and get it over with?
23
I think it is men who should have the equivalent of chastity belts.
6
Don't think Pence isn't working on that very idea.
2
Since Trump and his supporting cast of rich white male characters at the WH can’t get pregnant, they couldn’t care less about birth control, especially for poor women.
34
And they seem to believe one becomes pregnant through mental effort. If a woman can “shut down” a pregnancy she doesn’t want, then she should also be able to avoid pregnancy and get pregnant at will.
Too bad men don’t have the same superpower. Ha ha
1
Welcome to 1950 and brazen, backward attempts to keep women under men's boot-heels. Could conservatives and the religious right be more backward?
42
One step closer to the 'Handmaiden's Tale'...
3
#MAGA at work.....
I'm surprised they didn't throw in a requirement that women have to cook and do housework in a party dress, pearls and heels...
Keep standing up and protesting American women - know the rest of us stand firmly behind you.
40
The IUD costs roughly $2.00. It is safe and long lasting and can be removed when conception is desired. It does require a competent physician to implant it, but the $1000. price tag is a scam perpetuated by the manufacturer. That being said, there are so many things wrong with Foster Friess' idiotic statement, it barely warrants a response. Simply put, it takes two to procreate. Women historically carry the burden of contraception and always of childbearing.
According to Stormy Daniels, even Trump the serial philanderer doesn't use protection. Maybe Friess should think of that?
21
Another reason to consider Trump a first class fool.
2
You'd think that with his alleged social life that Mr. Trump would be very much in favor of widespread access to contraception.
20
Certainly, his dislike of using condoms would make it imperative for his "companion" to use her own, otherwise he would bear the burden of paying for more offspring.
1
We should all be aware the the Evangelical Religious right is trying to ban all birth control. They they will start first to the poor women and students by getting rid of the funding for it in the clinics and planned parenthood. Then they will try to redo the laws itself with this insane republican congress to where all form of birth control are banned. This is the Theocracy that they want. We must all be like Pence and call our wife's Mother and be afraid to be alone with another women. They want us to return to the backward days when the Church decided how we should live. This is no joke people, wake up. These people have a plan to sent us back to the dark ages when families had ten children because some God say it had to be.
42
The real objective of repealing Roe vs Wade is to go after Griswold vs Connecticut, the privacy case behind contraception and married couples. ...
4
No one as long as I am in my right mind is telling me what I may do or not with my body. If they try, I will try my best to hurt that person.
2
Here we see the truth that is hidden under all of the RTL cant about the lives of the unborn. Abortion is only the last resort form of contraception, and traditionalist religion hates contraception as such because it separates sex from reproduction and treats female sexuality as intrinsic good instead of a necessary instrument. The logic of the administration's position is that women must either be chaste or married and maternal.
16
Why is everything this administration does a rejection of the knowledge we have gleaned from the study of the natural and social sciences? Magical thinking that conception is preventable by wishing away sexual behavior among the young or poor, is medieval. I'm expecting to see blood-letting as a cure for the vapors next.
31
Good thing Ivanka is nearby in the West Wing to moderate and inform her father's retrograde stand on women's procreative health. She probably talked him out of bringing back chastity belts.
12
Along with the disdain for science, this is the most destructive policy of this administration. Nothing contributes as much to the degradation of society as unwanted children and women unable to control their fertility. While in Muslim countries, even theocracies such as Iran, women are finally taking control of our bodies, the US is passively allowing its takeover by the Christian sharia. And for those Puritans who insist that abstinence is the best way to avoid unwanted pregnancy: you wouldn’t know it from your own pitiful existence but normal people have sex for pleasure and it is an important component of a happy and fulfilled life. Science has given us the ability to live as human beings rather than brood mares. Religious fundamentalism is trying to take this gift away.
27
The Rhythm Method? Growing up catholic I can't tell you how many girls were named "Joy" whose closest sibling in age was at least 10 years older than them. Only in America would republicans lecture the country about how cheap birth control is, condemn any government support for it and then bemoan all the poor women getting pregnant. John Calvin is alive and well in republican circles.
23
This is the Trump administration's idea of the ideal American woman:
Barefoot, pregnant, without healthcare, education, or other social services and, as we now know, _silenced_.
What's not for Trump, Valerie Huber, and their evangelical supporters to love?
19
When a Trump policy references "innovative services" it means services which would have been innovative in 1776, like birth control, like free black citizens, like women with the right to vote, etc.
12
In 1968, Pope Paul VI, in affirming the Church's teaching against artificial contraception wrote "... a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection."
2
What does a pope know about sex? Or for that matter, normal male-female relations? Also, America is not ruled by the pope or any religious group. Or else, it ought not be.
13
The Pope's message is offensively patriarchal, reducing women to the role of passive object and ignoring her right to the sexual freedom afforded by contraceptives.
10
That's the opposite of what he said. He said we should be partners. Far too many women today feel coerced into taking a level one carcinogen in order to have sex with men they don't want. That's not freedom or empowerment.
1
Not all men, but:
Men in general will not take any responsibility for birth control.
Men are not ever held accountable for the unintended children they create.
Men have unlimited access to ED drugs.
Men continue to subjugate women both in obvious and subtle ways.
Men fight back against equality efforts with "MGTOW" movements.
Women need to do better. If women have men in their lives that are not actively doing anything to improve inequality, then it is time for "WGTOW."
8
I disagree that "men in general" have been guilty of those things.
Backward men, including men in power, have been guilty of them. I place all those men in the minority.
The rest of us are firmly committed to equality of the sexes.
1
The NYT would be more credible on this subject if it occasionally acknowledged some of the negative consequences of contraception, both for society and for individual women: debilitating side effects and serious medical problems; a warped sexual marketplace where sex is incredibly cheap, women are treated like objects and expected to be always sexually available; and many more children conceived in circumstances incompatible with healthy parenting, circumstances that lead to either abortion or single motherhood (because all contraception fails, leaving women with uncommitted sexual partners with difficult choices, and their children often suffer for it). How does the NYT account for the fact that over the decades the government has spent promoting and subsidizing birth control for low-income women, abortions and single motherhood have gone way up in precisely this targeted group?
Oh, and the NYT would also be more credible in its claims to be "scientific" if it would cease conflating fertility-awareness based methods with the "rhythm method." FABMs do not rely on counting cycle days, like the derided rhythm method, but on tracking fertility signs like basal body temperature, cervical fluid, and others to identify a woman's fertile window. It's proven to be as effective as the pill. It's also free, without side effects caused by synthetic hormones or devices implanted, and many women find this approach an empowering way to better understand their bodies and health.
3
"debilitating side effects and serious medical problems;"
This is appropriate for a conversation with one's doctor.
"a warped sexual marketplace where sex is incredibly cheap,"
Lol- "sexual market place." This is a term that lingers on men's rights forums. Take that conversation there.
"women are treated like objects and expected to be always sexually available;"
Is opposed to the 80s when women couldn't get credit cards without their husbands' permission and marital rape was still legal? I dunno about the men you hang out with, but the ones that I hang out with have never expected me to 'be sexually available' to them simple because of hormonal contraception.
"and many more children conceived in circumstances incompatible with healthy parenting,"
This is a side effect of *not* having access to contraception.
4
Almost any advance in freedom and equality can be accompanied by some kinds of "negative consequences."
But that's usually, as in this case, a poor argument against them. Your laundry list is nothing but a rant against sexual freedom.
You would enslave women to a bothersome and time-consuming ritual in the name of "liberating" them.
Modern methods of contraception are the true liberators.
4
Noelle--
The point is that this article is about another attack on women's healthcare, which happens to be focused on contraception, and that those attacking contraception are only focused on that. Those perpetrating this attack on women seem to have NO understanding of the many other reasons women use oral contraceptives that have nothing to do with contraception--my 16 y/o daughter was in regular excruciating pain for five years from the point of menarche; I tried every possible way to help her manage it without hormones, but finally realized I didn't have a right to keep her in pain--oral contraceptives provided her immediate relief in the first month after she started them, & her school attendance improved dramatically.
2
Women deserve what men have had from the beginning of time - the joy of sexual intimacy without the risk of an unwanted child.
18
Happy International Women's Day!
13
Scientific studies have shown that providing women with free long-acting birth control reduces the rate of abortion by 70%. That number, again, is Seventy Percent!
It appears that it is more important to the Administration to avoid providing contraceptives to poor women and teens than it is to decrease the abortion rate. I'm starting to suspect that they don't even want to reduce abortions; maybe they want to have the abortion issue active to motivate part of their base.
516
their goal is control of every aspect of your life. when they install the cameras in your living room they will tell you "nothing to hide nothing to fear"
2
I think they feel all women should be barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen.
Seriously, cut back on availability of birth control and the need for more abortions is going to rise. You don't need major studies to realize that.
But the current government wants to make access to both birth control and abortion more difficult. It is hard not to see this as an attack on women.
I just hope the government has a plan to feed, clothe, house, and education all the children who will be born because their parents did not have access to birth control.
1
Oh, I'd welcome cameras in my living room - I'm kind of an exhibitionist and would revel at the thought of agents watching me parade around nude in my old wrinkly saggy skin. On the other hand, if out government has money to spend on that kind of thing, they can surely pony up for contraception.
2
MAN, the time machine whiplash is ROUGH.
21
The thing is, it's such a non issue in light of all the other actual problems that legislators need to solve. Why can't they spend all this time and energy working on the opioid crisis? Gun violence? Safety?
But no. For some reason birth control is being made into a problem that for some reason is in need of solutions.
If one was truly conservative they would embrace birth control and make it free. Conservatives don't want abortion, the solution to that is birth control. Conservatives say they want to save public money, tax payer dollars... well guess what birth control does? It saves a lot of money. Its much cheaper to not get pregnant than to have an unwanted pregnancy or children you can't afford.
Sounds like birth control IS the conservative solution to many problems. Which only tells me that these so called conservatives are con men and phonies.
Oh, and Stormy Daniels!
25
This is an administration that believes not in women but is using women. Women however are not about to be controlled by the likes of such users.
17
Nancy--
RE: "Women however are not about to be controlled by the likes of such users."
Except for the philosophical descendants of Phyllis Schlafly/Anita Bryant/et. al. who in this generation are named Conway/DeVos/Manning/Huber/the FOX News apologists/etc.
1
That crack about holding an aspirin between your knees? That was a common joke in the 1950s, when I was a teenager (those were the days before the pill). I didn't like it then, and I don't like it now. It's unbelievable that someone is still seriously (?) saying this.
467
The world is full,of fools and many of them are old white men. Mr. Trump,made sure his associates used birth control, on a regular basis since he seems to have no self control. Every week another one of his sexual associates shows up. The GOP is the poster political group for there sexual escapades with women other than their wives latest is the Missouri governor.
The world is moving on in regards to health care and birth control for women,and despite a new confusing rule Rex Wilkerson and his state department may think they are hurting women and they are in the short term but in the long term big picture women are not going backwards but moving forward with or without this administration.
5
What's also unbelievable is how much influence Foster Friess continues to have in spite of a comment like this. I guess it's easy to overlook comments like this from a donor with money?
3
Republican donor Foster Friess dreams of his 'good old days' and how wonderful everything was supposed to be back then. Naturally he would be a Republican.
2
I don't like this change, it is not a positive thing for our citizens.
9
If you oppose abortion, you should favor eliminating unprotected sex. Birth control prevents unwanted pregnancies. It's that simple.
140
If you think contraception "devalues families" then you don't have to use it.
But if you believe in a free and equal society your tax dollars should be used to help empower women to make that decision for themselves.
Of course, it is idiotic in the extreme to believe that family planning "devalues familues," when in fact it strengthens them, as you would know if you ever bothered to think about it seriously.
5
NO, Centrist, I believe a nuclear family composed of two healthy committed adults (please, no firestorm, I am *not* specifying the gender of said parents) is "...the best possible "system" in which to raise children..." but I *want* the "...government transmitting messages about..." science and critical thinking skills & how people can use both of those to make good personal decisions. I "...oppose government transmitting messages..." about pseudo-science/non-science/magical thinking and preventing people from making informed decisions for themselves and their families.
1
They don't want women having (enjoying) sex.
2
The Times seems to think that journalistic responsibility requires that it see a manic laughing man with a gas can and matches and say only that he seemed to take an inordinate interest in the burning house.
The Evangelicals want women subservient. They want to a higher version of citizenship for hypothetical Americans than they do for female Americans. So they want to reverse Griswold, re-criminalize contraception, and restore themselves to supremacy in making their religious beliefs into law. If they cannot achieve that openly they'll do it covertly, quietly, incrementally.
Trump's praetorian guard is the Evangelicals. They're his protection against the GOP Establishment, the press, the Mueller investigation, and the rule of civil law. They have a devil's bargain together. They will defend each other in the foulest hypocrisy so that each gets what he wants.
Hence a serial adulterer is viewed as a Biblical fulfillment; hence the moral crater at the heart of the Right; and hence these policies. "Backwards"? "Unscientific"? That's the point of it. "Harmful to women's health and self-determination"? That's the fun of it.
98
"Ms. Huber landed that post in January, after the resignation of Teresa Manning, who vocally opposes abortion and contraception."
You can bet that Huber believes as Manning that contraception is morally wrong, she just doesn't say it, thereby "landing that post." I'm so sick of the promotion of backward, so-called Christians, getting power in this administration. There is no real concern for the lives, the health, the well being of mostly poor women by these people, only a fanatic's belief in their own moral superiority. Election time can't come soon enough.
63
The out-of-pocket costs for I.U.D.s, other medical devices and procedures, as well as many prescriptions, are way out of reach of most people. Profits, middle men, insurance schemes and inefficiency have made a mockery of medical care for the people. Women are leading not just the fight for their own reproductive freedom, but the battle to provide high-quality, affordable health care for all.
53
I wonder how many children Trump would have fathered if his ideas on contraception had been operative all along AND if you can believe all he has said about his exploits. Assuming the stories of his irresistability to women are true, there would likely have been quite a few, none of which he would deign to support, I suppose.
41
John Raymonda--
RE: "... how many children Trump would have fathered if his ideas on contraception had been operative all along..."
Might have been like the late Derrick Thomas of the Kansas City Chiefs who fathered children indiscriminately, did not provide for them (despite all the money the Chiefs paid him), & died in a reckless carwreck speeding in a blizzard, leaving nothing to support his progeny.
1
If politicians (Republicans) were truly committed to stopping abortion, they would support birth control fully. The fact they do not support it, proves their concern is more about politics than "protecting unborn lives". An increase in access to birth control would undoubtedly drop the number of abortions. How is this not a win-win for all? Secondly, Republican thinking ignores the man's role in procreation. It is not solely up to women to act correctly. Men have an equal share of the responsibility.
87
Another example of Trump's high regard for women.
I wonder whether Ivanka would think it "inappropriate" if someone asked her what she thought about this, too.
43
Presently, the government encourages people to have kids that many cannot afford or are equipped to take care of. It's well past the time when we should not only stop paying people to have kids (of which by any measure there is an extravagant over supply currently), but actually pay people to not have kids. This should include free birth control that does not need parental consent for under age kids. Stipends for kids who stay in school and do t get pregnant could be included as well.This is not to encourage early sexual activity but acknowledges the fact that many of these kids are going to have sex anyway, no matter how many bibles we throw at them. Any measure to reduce access to safe birth control only encourages unwanted pregnancy and the need for abortions and is a huge step backward.
28
Contrary to what you say, the US is facing a population implosion.
The goernment should be doing more to support the raising and educating of children.
Unfortunately, the government is run by children.
1
This all makes complete sense once you realize that the goal is it to eliminate a particular left-leaning voting bloc. Of course they don't want women to to have the time, money, or energy to be civically engaged. Strapping women down down with children is more effective than dismantling unions or passing voter suppression laws. Brilliant.
29
Access to reliable contraceptives is fundamental to a basic human right, self-determination. Anything that interferes with this basic human right should be considered unconstitutional. It's long since been time to stop interfering with this, if anyone doesn't choose to participate based on personal belief, that fine....for them. They have NO right and NO justification to limit these rights.
One more point...... Rights are NOT income dependent. It is the task of this nation to ensure all have access to whatever tools necessary, contraceptives, education, opportunity to achieve self-determination.
27
Every day I grow more and more baffled. Aspirin? How old are these guys?
32
And what will Congressional Democrats do with this information? Probably nothing. Yet, from just a voting perspective, women are at least 50% of the electorate... and I expect much more likely to vote against any candidate who supports a lack of funding for contraception.
20
Uh, 52% of white women voted for Trump, including 44% of white, college-educated women. Our black sisters are a LOT smarter--only 6% did.
Many white women voted for Trump even though they had issues with his character (how could one not?) or his policies. According to an article in the Washington Post, a 22-year-old in New Hampshire said, “His degrading language toward women bothers me, and his views on global warming are a problem for me. I do not 100 percent love Trump, but I am convinced he can lead this nation. I was part of the silent majority.” (I don't know why she thinks Trump voters were either silent or a majority.)
1
Excellent piece. I would like to point out, though, that Natural Family Planning is nothing like the out-dated “rhythm” method of decades past. Fertility awareness methods, though much more difficult to use than most forms of contraception, involve teaching women the signs of fertility, such as cervical mucus and basal body temperature changes. This can be a good option for some people, although a lot of abstinence can be required when one is attempting to avoid conception, and certain life events can make the signs of potential fertility more difficult (if not impossible) to interpret. So, while I want effective contraceptives to be affordable and available for all women, and I strongly oppose the position of the current Administration concerning women’s health issues, I am also tired of references to the obsolete “rhythm” method. People who are interested in promoting women’s health & wish them to have access to the full spectrum of family planning methods would do well to update their knowledge of current fertility awareness methods.
11
So, to recap: women should be aware of their fertility. It’s a crapshoot if you don’t want to be pregnant, and cannot, by any means, substitute for contraception.
6
Marla:
".. though much more difficult to use than most forms of contraception..."
More difficult to use equals less effective.
15
Do you have evidence that “fertility awareness” works? What’s the scientific basis for this? Many women have irregular menstrual cycles.
9
Why would the people who claim to be pro life and anti abortion advocate for a policy which would make unplanned pregnancies more common, thus leading to abortion? These same people want to cut health insurance, negatively affecting pregnant women, and the women and children once they are born. Nor do they care if the child is killed by a gun. If a gunman with a AR 15 entered a hospital and killed a newborn, her mother, the doctors and a pregnant nurse, they’d bemoan the loss of the fetus and over their thoughts and prayers to everyone else. For some reason the fetus is sacred, whereas the lives and wishes of everyone else doesn’t matter at all.
41
Because for "right to lifers" life begins at conception and ends at birth.
11
In the 1970's my husband had to also sign the consent form for me to get a tubal ligation.
Let that sink in women born in the 1980's and beyond.
55
I am so dismayed that this administration continues to favor wishful thinking over scientific approach, and it will be women, and in particular low-income women, who will suffer for it. And by proxy, their children and families in general.
21
I am sure Ivanka and all of his wives and women use the rhythm method. Funny how so many politicians have been so successful at family planning using the rhythm method. Oh, forgot, they have money and can pay for what they are denying to those without money. I am sure they have their speeches prepared criticizing women for having children out of wedlock or without the financial resources to raise them.
32
Birth control isn't just about the sex in in Foster Friess' mind--but about love, family, and responsibility.
2
I'm trying to figure out where women do not have full equality in the United States, as the editorial states. Anyone?
2
neal--
RE: "...I'm trying to figure out where women do not have full equality in the United States..."
Well-- according to the 2011 census, women made up 50.8% of the 311 million counted.
There's nowhere near that number in Congress/state legislatures/city councils/etc., so there's obviously not parity in political representation, nor is there parity in most professions (Silicon Valley/Hollywood/Wall Street/journalism/medicine/etc.)...much less in the boardrooms/upper management of those professions.
Just thinking back to the Founders' cry of "No Taxation Without Representation" women are not equally represented--in any way close to their numbers in the population--across the board in the United States.
16
Just for starters, women do not have equal pay. Women are far more likely to be sexually harassed. Women are expected to be far more involved with raising children which lowers their earning potential. Men do far less housework and cooking than women.
11
California. I have more experience and took on more responsibilities than my male counterpart and was paid less.
5
All I can say is:
How come you never read about some rich Republican congressman or Senator's daughter keeping the baby while she is unmarried?
These senators and congresspeople's female children and male children must be great at following abstinence from sex.
35
The Palin family.
The Con Don and his Robber Baron brethren want to put women back "into their place" - you know, the one where women shut up and do as they're told.
Sorry Con Don. WOMEN, collectively and around the world, have found their voices and WILL NOT BE SILENCED.
Women will not go back to the 5th/15th centuries - or the 1950s in America. Blacks will not go back. Other minorities will not go back.
WE THE PEOPLE will not stand by while you try to start WW3 to put the world into chaos so you can steal OUR lives, and those of OUR children and grandchildren, and/or OUR wealth/resources for your stupid, demented, socially unconscious power wars.
Not now. Not ever again.
143
The war on women keeps moving ahead. We must protect our freedom , rights, equal place in our society. Vote like your life depended on it. It does.
123
Tim c--
RE: "The war on women keeps moving ahead."
It's time for a revival of Aristophanes' Lysistrata on Broadway & national touring productions--LOL, those Greek women figured out an effect plan to end a war...
3
Yet another absolutely ridiculous policy by the Trump Administration. It is not surprising that findings from a number of credible studies are not taken into account, but rather regressive and repressive approaches are adopted.
One policy shift at a time, US democracy is eroding aggrieving millions of US Citizens. We all know that President Trump does not understand that public policy should be evidence-based and for the greater good. My question is where are elected Republicans in speaking out against these catastrophic decisions. Only when their own states are affected do they speak out (tariffs on steel and aluminum).
The World is watching with bewilderment as US leadership and influence around the world is waning. US President Trump can't even travel to the UK where he would be met with protests.
America, you must overcome. Get out and vote against in Nov.
56
Why are these retro folks so afraid of women? That's not hard. They are also afraid of blacks. And for much the same reason. If you have abused people, and in both instances, these men have abused women and blacks over centuries, and they cannot, without facing the monsters in themselves, acknowledge that they were wrong to do so. Few of us can face our monsters, we are neither brave nor honest enough to. To give people like this any power at all in a culture is to doom that culture and its vulnerable citizens.
59
Title X grants to providers of family planning services — including contraception, cervical cancer screenings and treatment for sexually transmitted infections....
------------------------------------------------
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop right there.
Why is birth control pill in the same list as cervical cancer screenings and STD treatments?
Nobody is stopping women from having access to birth control pills or having the men they sleep with from using cheap and fairly effective condoms (which can also reduce STD's). The government should not be in the business of paying for contraception.
Liberal activists like Tom Steyer who waste their millions of dollars by running ads seeking impeachment of Trump should instead donate those dollars to entities like Planned Parenthood and enable them use the dollars for all kinds of services that the Title X restricts or prohibits.
Why are the editors not calling for such worthwhile gestures?
27
If you care about taxpayer dollars, unplanned pregnancies are more expensive than distributing free birth control. Both the mere act of giving birth, and the cost to society afterward. If the government is in the business of paying for health services surrounding newborn children when parents are unable to manage alone, which it is, the government should absolutely be in the business of paying for birth control. Because birth control decreases the the total cost to the healthcare system by a larger amount than what is spent on it.
So, either give hospitals the ability to throw out pregnant mothers about to give birth if there is even the slightest chance they will be unable to pay. Right onto the streets. Live or die, not our problem anymore. Or stop pretending your stance is fiscally minded and has the taxpayer's best interest in mind. Because you cannot have it both ways here.
79
"Why is birth control pill in the same list as cervical cancer screenings and STD treatments?"
Because BCPs are medical treatments. They do more than prevent contraception. They can regulate periods, reduce menstrual cramps, reduce acne and the risk for certain types of cancer. They are also effective and low cost. Title X has improved the lives of countless American women.
Why bring Steyer into it? He can spend his money as he likes, much like the Koch brothers.
78
You realize insurance covers Viagra, yes? By your argument, why should insurance cover that?
102
Limiting women's progress is the Republican goal. Make no mistake. They're starting with poorer women, knowing that they have less power already. Listen, up, nice white ladies: they are coming for us next.
150
Arrrrgh!
28
I just read an interesting novel that takes this backward thinking about contraception linked to the religious zealots who are trying to usurp our country. It explores some very interesting and devastating results when these ideas are pushed to the extremes that this administration seems to endorse. "The Age of the Child" I highly recommend. The picture it paints bears a painful resemblance to the backward thinking our libertine leader seems to endorse.
18
I read one too. It's called "The Handmaid's Tale" and I'm pretty sure it's a secret favorite among the GOP. Only difference is, they think it's inspirational.
23
bklynteech--
RE: "The Age of the Child"
Author? Googled title & found nothing but The Age of Orphans by Laleh Khadivi.
Thx
1
White men who can't stand the thought of women having power, power over their bodies, any kind of power in their lives... Wonder how their wives, daughters, mothers, aunts etc. sleep at night?
45
Rich women have always, and will always, be able to access whatever birth control options they need. Funny how these GOP dudes have exactly 2-4 children apiece. Not 8, 10, 12...
19
And rich women in modern times have always been able to access safe abortions, too.
5
It's all about power and control over women and children, the hallmarks of domestic violence.
74
It's not just that abstinence programs are "considered to be less effective than comprehensive efforts" -- they've been proven to be so. This summer, a review of the scientific evidence (https://goo.gl/M8K291), published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, demonstrated that abstinence-only-until-marriage programs are "ineffective, stigmatizing and unethical." Laura Lindberg, review coauthor and Guttmacher principal research scientist, said: “While sexual abstinence can be a healthy choice for some adolescents, abstinence-only-until-marriage programs are highly problematic. These programs withhold important sexual health knowledge and provide medically inaccurate information that compromises young people’s healthy sexual development.”
493
I had sex education, first in 5th grade and then again sometime in high school. It was VERY informative. While I learned all about the different forms of contraception and how babies are made, the instructors ALWAYS said, no matter what form you use, the ONLY way to 100% guarantee you won't get pregnant or get a STD was through abstinence. What is so controversial about that? Raised Catholic and my parents happily signed the permission slip for me to learn about my body.
6
There's nothing controversial about abstinence, Bridget.
It's just that it's an impractical idea when you're dealing with a sexual species.
Welcome to the world.
13
ladybaltimore...science is for thinking people, not for radical religious regressives who want to punish women for their humanity.
11
"It is mind-boggling that anyone would want to thwart that progress..."
Seriously?
When hasn't right wing America wanted to thwart equality for women in the workplace and elsewhere, and to restrict their access to contraception and abortion?
Never.
The Republican Party and its media mouthpieces have been pushing right wing patriarchy and radical right religion's anti-choice, anti-family planning dogma since the 1980's and the Trump Administration is channeling it along with most of the rest of the right wing agenda.
Yes, its priorities are unscientific and backward, in this, on the environment, on criminal justice, on nuclear disarmament, on a whole host of other issues.
Surely, we knew that. So, what are we going to do about it?
166
And yet the Government pays for Viagra. SMH
288
But those male Christian people must certainly abstain from sex, since we never hear of any of them having caused the pregnancy of their girlfriends!
15
How?
Medicare does not pay for Viagra or Cialis.
1
No, the government does not pay for Viagra, and neither does private health insurance.
1
More proof that Trump does not care about promoting laws that help or protect women.
47
A better move on birth control would be to allow most forms of birth control to be obtained over the counter without a prescription. That would get employers, insurance companies, etc. out of the business of deciding whether women should be allowed to control their reproductive destiny.
Women could still consult with their health care provider to discuss the best means of birth control for themselves, but such discussions and decisions would be only between the woman and her doctor.
94
That would make total sense if birth control were in a different category than health care.
Since it is healthcare, it should be covered by health insurance. If it's not, it's gender discrimination. Uniquely female health needs would be excluded from coverage even though men provide 50% of the requirements for creating a pregnancy.
Ignoring the substantive contents of the article, which note that the most effective contraceptives are implants and IUDs, which require a provider to insert, pretending some libertarian idea of contraceptive access is a solution is really just advocating for institutionalized misogyny.
22
OTC does not mean affordable. An IUD must be inserted by a medical professional, thus requiring a visit to a health care provider (such as Planned Parenthood).
8
The problem with that is that no insurance pays for over-the-counter medications. Your proposal would leave women on their own for paying for these medications. Good luck to poor women.
12
On this issue, like so many others, Trump is still living in the 1950's. Sadly, so is much of the GOP which continues to support him no matter how little sense his "policy of the hour" makes.
36
"...found that by the 1990s, women who had early access to the birth control pill had wage gains of up to 30 percent, compared with older women.
It’s mind-boggling that anyone would want to thwart that progress, especially since women still have so far to go in attaining full equality in the United States."
No, it's not mind-boggling, considering the (mostly) men doing this view that "progress" as a threat and want to keep women "in their place."
60
This is incredibly short sighted. When you can't control your fertility, you can't control your life. This is true for men also.
When will these conservative policy makers view reproductive health as just that - health - not subsidizing sex lives? When will it be viewed as a public health issue? When will women be free agents to make medical decisions for themselves? No longer forced to have risky pregnancy and childbirth?
Is this really 2018 and we are still talking about this?
82
One of the unspoken elements in the birth control discussion is the false notion that all women are in control of when they have sex. Many women, unfortunately, are in abusive situations where a husband or partner will demand sex as a condition of support for her or her children, or even with the threat of violence. So for women in these situations, the idea that they should refuse sex to avoid pregnancy is not a real option.
However, the idea of "women choosing to have sex" is often portrayed as indulgent and lascivious, and so it gives the illusion that by restricting contraceptives, we can reduce women's lascivious and immoral behavior. Nothing could be further from the truth.
345
Marjorie, thanks for pointing this out: this was my mother's experience being married to my father--an abusive alcoholic. Many decades later, it's criminal that other vulnerable women are being subject to the same abuse and shame-based thinking.
4
It is not "the Trump administration." Nor is it "conservatives." It is the Republican party that fights against family planning.
95
It's all of the Republicans, and you can count Trump and the conservatives among Republicans, like it or not!
11
Unfortunately, Trump and those politicians who call themselves "conservative" are Republicans.
4
It's not JUST the Trump administration or conservatives. But the Trump administration is definitely taking the side of right-wing religious zealots in this fight against women's freedom and equality. (Presumably, this is at least in part Mike Pence's influence.) And the Republican party is squarely in the camp of the right-wing religious zealots and woman-haters.
Women, especially young women, absolutely must vote in huge numbers in November to express our extreme displeasure with this administration.
VOTE!!!
9
Liberals need to give up on the federal government. It has been captured by the enemy. Just lobby for a big cut in blue state federal taxes and fund our own programs. Sending our money to the federal government will just empower all the wrong policies.
17
Simply giving up will make the Republicans even more emboldened, and will worsen the situation in the United States!
11
Unfortunately that abandons the disadvantaged who have poorly chosen where they were born.
18
Maybe when they finally hit bottom the duped right-wing working class voters will finally see that Republican policies are killing them. But, it's been 50 years at least and they haven't woken from their Fox News-induced stupor yet...
7
The denial of access to contraception is inevitably linked to the denial of access to abortion. There is a phrase that describes those who would deny women access to contraception and abortion: that phrase is "Woman Hater."
175
The denial of access to contraception is also the denial of science, medical and public health promotion facts, and the evidence of what works.
4
Nothing displays the GOP’s lack of cogent thinking better than their interest in making birth control less accessible. They hate abortion, but the best way to prevent it is to allow all women, especially the low income one’s, access to birth control. Republicans don’t want to give health care to kids once they are born, so why not prevent unwanted pregnancies? On this National Woman’s Day, women need to think seriously about voting this anti-female party out for good. I’m so tired of profligate old white men making decisions about women’s health. We can do better in this country.
246
Perfectly cogent, they want more women having more babies, the way to do this without the women wanting it? No birth control and no abortions.
2
More birth control to cut down on unwanted pregnancies which will reduce abortion rates.
We need a psychologist to explain why people who are against abortion want to restrict birth control.
We need mass therapy for the right for the good of the country.
64
You're using the wrong frame of reference.
It's about keeping women down.
6
@Centrist
Valuing children and families over careers and material things is great.
But that is not the question.
The question is unwanted pregnancies.
Let's stop unwanted pregnancies.
9
Are you serious?
Most working class women have jobs as well as families.
Are you suggesting that people should have to choose between working in order to eat and starving in order to have a family?
Puleeze.
7
This ruling is not just a "direct assault on family planning," it is a direct assault on women. You open this article by pointing out that with inexpensive birth control, women have grown slowly in wages earned and positions acquired. These so-called conservatives would like nothing better than to control women's lives in a pernicious way. Left to them, women without "bread-earners" will sink into oblivion, where I'm sure they believe women belong. It is a frightening concept. What say you, #metoo advocates? March for this. Refuse sex until it is settled in our favor. Boycott businesses that comply. Vote these flat-earthers right out of office.
670
SFR--
RE: "Refuse sex until it is settled in our favor. "
Agreed! Perhaps it's time for a revival of Aristophanes' Lysistrata on Broadway and some national touring productions, too.
9
It's a direct assault on families, women, children, the environment, society.
With current health standards and life spans, a healthy married woman could have what 6 or more kids over a normally active marriage. Remember the Catholic families of the 1960s with 6,7,8,9 kids .. moms finally leaving the church to get their tubes tied.
With late marriages caused by low wages, college debt for men and women, poor job prospects, premarital pregnancies also are likely. These have gone way, way down with access to good contraception, dropping the abortion rate too.
Women are a major source of income in most families, and if they are having babies all the time, expenses rise and work load keeps rising too, making working difficult. Are these conservative men going to be model dads or stay home and take care of the brood because their blue collar jobs have vanished?
Women have enjoyed reproductive freedom for at least 50 years .. and so have men.
Our earth does not need unwanted babies, our society does not need unwanted babies. Adoption maybe should take kids from poor countries or maybe we can let in more legal immigrants (egad!).
Catholic church has a lot to answer for here with their guilt policies (pope has agreed to disagree with Melinda Gates). Evangelical hypocrisy too, people can't have sex without guilt. And for both, what about the 25 years of marital fertility ?
20
"Refuse sex until it is settled in our favor."
Brilliant--and classic, like the old Greek play, Lysistrata by Aristophanes. And even more apt, more of a direct connection between the strike and the goal, which was in the play, as I recall, the men stopping war.
8
Everytime I think that Trump and the Republicans can't get worse, they get worse.
150
Maybe Valerie Huber should be giving contraceptive advice to Stephanie Clifford. The irony of Trump appointing an abstinence-only advocate is too much for me to grasp.
44
And how many of those who promote abstinence have unmarried daughters using birth control and having sex.
What does that mean?
28
You are missing the point. Nobody objects to a woman using birth control pills. The objection is to the demand that the government give you free birth control pills.
Get it?
1
@PISonny
You're right I don't get it.
The objection I see is birth control.
They object to insurance companies paying for it.
They object to government paying for it.
They preach abstinence.
At the same token, if you have a mortgage and children, and take a mortgage deduction and / or child deduction, I am paying for that.
Somehow, people don't mind their government handouts. They just don't want to give others any help.
In the end, it is cheaper to pay for birth control than to pay for welfare. Take your pick.
13
PISonny, why shouldn't the government pay for contraceptives for those who don't have insurance and can't afford it? It's far cheaper than paying for Medicaid (or should government not pay for health care as well?).
5
It is not difficult to see that the person that Mr. Trump appointed to head the Title X Office - Valerie Huber, a traitor to her own gender - would do anything in her power to deny women access to contraception. Ms. Huber's misguided and misogynist ideas about sex are so patently ridiculous that she should be ridiculed in polite society. But in the twisted world of the self-styled "evangelicals" - who on the one hand promote abstinence while they embrace their sexual predator leader - Ms. Huber passes for a serious policy maker. Another one of Mr. Trump's fearless wonder appointments. It's too bad that Ms. Huber's parents didn't take a cue from their daughter and practice abstinence themselves. The nation would be better off.
73
This is what you get when religious dogma trumps reason, and theology dictates public policy.
46
"A 2012 study from the University of Michigan found that by the 1990s, women who had early access to the birth control pill had wage gains of up to 30 percent, compared with older women."
Or, women with more money or a wealthier family were more likely to have access to birth control. Or even that women who were more forward thinking, and therefore more likely to succeed professionally, prioritized access to birth control.
169
Or they don't have to worry about an unexpected pregnancy forcing them out of the labor pool at a prime working age?
174
Increase the access to birth control, to create a new class of women who can prioritize access to birth control. It upsets the social apple cart resting on the backs of women too tired from work and family to fight for their reproductive rights. Unless, of course, you think women should know their place.
27
QED--
RE: "...women with more money or a wealthier family were more likely to have access to birth control. Or even that women who were more forward thinking, and therefore more likely to succeed professionally..."
The article says nothing about research parameters regarding economic status or professional involvement. Your deflection from the point of the article is typical apples to oranges.
In the '70s when I couldn't afford private care and used Planned Parenthood as I prepared for my wedding, it was a matter of economics & that we were not ready to be parents. Later, working in a rural community mental health center, it was my low-income clients who needed the services of the regional family planning center--I was at a point (as were other women I knew) where I could afford private health care & prescriptions. Fast forward to 2005, after being laid off from the Dept. of Corrections in a privatization move & no insurance, I took my 16 y/o daughter to the regional clinic because the cramps she'd had from menarche on had gotten worse; I remembered that oral contraceptives had helped one of my HS friends & a cousin but had wanted to put hormones off as long as possible for my daughter. The clinic staff was really helpful (especially given my daughter's inexperience), prescribed a low-dose contraceptive & my daughter was finally free of the cramps that had made her miserable for five years. I could not have afforded private care or prescriptions at that point.
33