So have you lot heard the hype as of late. I know I've heard some very dramatic statements like today, "Kansas seems to be ground zero for the Republican war on women this year". While dramatic, from the research I have started it's not a wholly untrue statement. Just recently Kansas passed a bill that would allow pharmacists and doctors to deny a woman birth control if it conflicted with their religious beliefs. This bill was particularly targeted at the morning after pill and what shocked me the most was the ignorance about birth control that is being brought to light.
As little as forty percent of women get on birth control to Only prevent pregnancy. Pregnancy isn't the only reason you'd want to start a method of birth control. Birth control can regulate your cycle as well as help control and reduce the symptoms a woman suffers during her time of the month. If they called it the anti-pms pill would men still be trying to ban it so actively? What I don't understand is why ban birth control if you are ok with Viagra? I think that is what has a bunch of panties in a bunch. Men are making choices about reproductive health they don't understand. If a woman has severe cramping and heavy bleeding well then that's part of being a woman. If a man can't get it up well then someone call 911 we have a real problem. I don't think people should be encouraging men to get a hard on if they want to deny their women a way to pay for prevention of the consequences. No one is naive enough to pretend that Viagra is bought only by married men who want children just as no one believes that every woman on birth control is an out of control hussy. The world doesn't work that way.
What has my panties in a bunch is that the state is slowly moving toward allowing religion to dictate what could potentially be me. What if it was my state? You are Catholic so I don't get to have birth control? If you don't want to sell it to me I get it but don't tell me you won't give the prescription to the guy that will. You not personally selling it is your business you using your religion to enforce this on me is wrong and unconstitutional. Religion slowly creeping into the government actually worries me quite a bit. When candidates win things they thank God. When they want their people to follow them blindly they rally the people in the name of God.
I don't identify with their God with the capitol G. I believe you should live a good life for it's own sake not because someone is holding Hell over your head. I know that is an awful over arching statement to make but I have heard a little too much fire and brim stone the past few days. So my point being why should Your God preside over my life? I don't understand how a country that brags about its religious freedom is trying so hard to enforce the rules of one Religion. I am honestly surprised that no one has made a move to try and pass a national religion. We have a national language, food, birds. We have something to represent just about every aspect with the except of a few constitutionally protected rights. Yet the constitution doesn't seem to be cracking the whip like it used to. I have heard it called out dated on more than one occasion and maybe it is.
We have come so far from where our country was founded. Some part of my mind says it might not be a bad idea to rewrite the constitution so that we have a more updated blanket of write and wrong. However I am afraid that if someone tried to undertake this then it would fall into squabbling and everyone's own personal agenda. I think any attempt to modernize it would end up removing a lot of protections that the constitution offers such as the freedom of religion.
I did hear a valid point today though despite all the bickering. There should be better sex education and birth control education. There is a difference between abortions and birth control and not all birth control does the same thing and I've met a lot of people who don't know the differences. For example some birth controls mean you just don't drop any eggs because it prevents ovulation and I think men should be the primary ones informed of this. So many men hear the word period or woman issues and they stone wall then have the audacity to think they have enough information to chose for women. America really needs to stop being such a prude and start talking about sexual health and not just their own but that of the opposite sex as well. If you are with a partner you need to know what you are looking out for and how various forms of birth control work and how diseases are transmitted. That's just the basics.
I think I've had all the ranting I have time for right now.
I would love some perspectives from people on other countries at this point.
Corset disappointed,
signing off.
I can't agree with you more. I hadn't quite thought about comparing Viagra like that, mainly because I don't need it ^^;
ReplyDeleteHere in Sweden, sex ed is mandatory in school. I had two occasions of it; once in 4th or 5th grade (~10yrs) and once in 8th grade (~14yrs). The first time was, of course, more basic, with information about how the human body looks like on the inside with reproductive system and such, and that time our class was split up into boys and girls. The second time went more into depth on STDs and various forms of birth control, was co-ed. While most of us already "knew" all that (or thought we did) from talking to each other, I'm glad our schools bring the subject up. We also had a one-year course on childcare, but I have no idea if that's still in.
As for birth control and abortions, birth control is as easy to get as talking to a gynaecologist or midwife and saying you want it, and you get a prescription. Different counties subsidize birth control to various degree, with some having you pay full price all the way to some giving it to you free (not sure if that has changed now with our more conservative government). Day-after pills can be bought over-counter at pharmacies. Condoms can be bought most everywhere in shops, and free samples are given out to youths below 25 at special youth clinics (who often specialize on the sexual health of youths 15-25).
Abortion is legal before week 18, or week 22 if you have medical reasons. After that, the foetus is legally deemed as "fully functional".
Abortions are free if you're below 18, after that you pay a fee for meeting with the doctor (~$45 with current conversion rates) and a little more if you have to stay over-night in the hospital (~$10 per night).
If you're below 15 (age of consent here), they're legally obliged to inform your parents/legal guardian. If, however, the girl absolutely doesn't want her parents to know, the health personnel can decide it would do more harm than good to tell them, and the girl is instead offered to talk to a counsellor. Between 15 and 18 you're allowed to make the decision yourself, but you're advised to discuss it with your parents.
So, from this perspective, having doctors dictate what you can or can't use just because their religion states it shouldn't be used is just WRONG. I can agree that it's fair that they should be able to say, "I'm sorry, but I can't prescribe this in good conscience. You'll have to go to someone else." But I also think that if your religion states that abortions (or birth control) is wrong and you agree with that, you shouldn't work in that particular area of health care.
Thank you so much for the well thought out reply! <3
DeleteNow in Sweden to parents have the right to sign a form so parents can opt their child out of sex ed? That's what the schools I went to did. It was 'mandatory' unless your parents found it offensive. Then you just had study hall that week.
It is good that they sat down and determined what the country would say is fully functional. While it won't stop bickering about it, it shows the careful thought so people know it's not going unchecked and it stops third trimester abortions.
I am in absolute awe that you can stay overnight in the hospital for $10 a night. My health insurance isn't that good no matter what the cause. When they give an abortion to a person under 18 do they put them on birth control? I know in at least a few states over here if you get an abortion you're not leaving the clinic until you have been informed and chosen a birth control you can use effectively. They try desperately to keep repeats away. Also a vast majority of the clinics here do a quick psych evaluation on those who come in requesting an abortion and a half hour of counciling.
See I have mixed feelings about that last bit. If a catholic wants to be an OBG and help women I think she should be able to or if someone wants to be a pharmacist they shouldn't have to violate their moral code but I think there should be some sort of balance. Unfortunately the more of the religious I've talked to about this issue the less likely it seems. I've spoken to several people now who have said that even if they don't personally do it directing them to someone else is still enabling it and still a sin. So while I don't like saying if people are going to be self righteous about religion to stay out of certain fields I also strongly feel that something needs to change.In medicine I am strongly of the opinion that when you go to work you put aside your views for the greater good of the patient. Just like I know people who are against blood transfusions but if they went to work in an ER I'd expect them to do their job first and be self righteous second.
Thank you so much for the information. <3 I know I could Google it but I prefer to hear from people who live in the country rather than people who may or may not but happened to write a report.