Vasectonomics

"Why are we suddenly having an explosion in guys asking for vasectomies?" This is a question Dr. Steven Jones' staff asks him a lot lately, the Cleveland Urologist told CNN. Dr. Marc Goldstein, a New York-based urologist in practice for over thirty years, told the network, "I have never seen anything like this. When things started to go south in the stock market, then the vasectomy consults went north." The folks over at vasectomy.com no doubt were pleased for snagging that most awesome domain name. Little did they know a bad economy would provide their payday; the number of appointment requests through their site spiked 30 percent in January.

It's not just men who are suddenly concerned about their family's future. Consumers are spending more money on all types of contraceptives, according to the Nielson Company. Indeed, the embrace of family planning appears to be a critical step in financial planning. Nielson said sales of over-the-counter contraceptives jumped a dazzling 10.2 percent in the first two months of the year. The company reports that, while other retail sales slip, condom sales jumped up 5% in the fourth quarter of 2008 and 6% in January, compared with the same time periods last year. Sales of Essure, a non-invasive, irreversible birth control method for women were up also, 28% over last year's sales.

Planned Parenthood clinics, the leading provider of contraception in the country, also report increased traffic over the past several months, according to Tait Sye, spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "There's no question we're seeing increased traffic at most clinics, and many clinics report an increase in new patients as well," Sye said. A spokesperson for Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa told the local TV news the number of women in the state asking for access to birth control is up nearly 40 percent.

So much for contraception being a non-sequitur in discussions about the economy. Just a couple of months ago, Congressional Republicans, fresh from their first meeting with Obama, stood snickering before the press about the inclusion of a family planning provision in the president's emergency economic plan. What does birth control have to do with the economy? they chided, suggesting Obama might be trying to sneak a liberal social program by them. Minority Leader Representative John Boehner protested, "Regardless of where anyone stands on taxpayer funding for contraceptives and the abortion industry, there is no doubt that this once little-known provision in the congressional Democrats' spending plan has NOTHING (emphasis his) to do with fixing the economy and creating more American jobs. " It was lost on the Republicans, many of whom oppose contraception for 'moral' reasons, that rational people facing hazardous economic times need to control the number of children they have to support. And, by the way, that kind of responsible behavior is good for the economy which can hardly afford the social programs to support families who can't make it on their own. (Republicans are supposedly for responsibility except...when they're not.)

Boehner might want to check in with that Joe the Plumber demographic who, if recent trends are any indicator, not only considers contraception a great form of protection against uncertain times but is opting for the permanent form at that. (And for any Joe without insurance that vasectomy will cost between $500-$1000, probably twice as much as his tax cut. The contraception provision in the stimulus package would have extended coverage for this kind of contraceptive and others to those earning above 200% of the federal poverty level. So Joe, when you lay out that stack of cash don't forget to thank Boehner who thinks your decision to prevent an unaffordable pregnancy is too silly to cover.)

The Salt Lake Tribune recently interviewed a local couple in their twenties who see pregnancy prevention as key to their family's survival. They have two kids, 2 years old and 3 months, and were attending a state insurance fair to sign up for health insurance. He works two part-time jobs and she stays at home caring for the kids. Money is a constant worry-- he foregoes medications to pay for diapers and the electric bill. She explained that they are being "way more careful" about preventing pregnancy. The couple is hoping to qualify for government insurance in order to get birth control. "I just worry if the economy is going to get worse. I would starve myself before my kids [go hungry]. What if it gets so bad I don't have food for them?" Cut to eye-rolling Congressional Republicans.

Family planning is nothing less than a foundation on which many Americans build sturdy, responsible lives. Regardless of political affiliation, that's exactly what many are struggling to do right now. Those who have lost their jobs and health insurance are in great need of family planning. They're also, alarmingly, the ones with the least access to it. Meanwhile Republicans openly mock attempts to include family planning as a part of the economic recovery, actively work to defund Planned Parenthood, promote policies that encourage health care workers to deny patients access to contraception, and defend programs that withhold basic information about contraception to sexually active teens. (Then they're baffled to find the number of teen parents spiked during the Bush years.)

Family planning is an American family value and, as national data indicate, something we rely on in our greatest times of need. Attacks on our right to plan our families shred the social safety net. The Republicans are welcome to titter and heckle the next time a proposal to support family planning crosses their desks. Doing so will only reveal how astoundingly out of touch they are from American's real lives and needs.

Comments

[keepemhonest]

Don't vasectomies prevent "life" ... where are all the GOP rightwinged nuts trying to stop a man from getting a vasectomy?

[MajorKong]

Don't they realize that we'll need all those kids to be workers in our rapidly growing economy? Oh wait......

[liecatcher]

Here is another example of how the BUSH GANG controlled women's reproductive freedom.

Inside Bush’s War on Birth Control

Truthdig :Posted on Mar 26, 2009

By Marie Cocco

For those whose nostalgia for the Bush administration is unfulfilled by former Vice President Dick Cheney’s snarling television appearance, there is a new window into the soul of the old regime. It is the brutally frank account of how political operatives and ideological helpmates of George W. Bush violated the law in their efforts to keep birth control away from American women—particularly teenagers at the greatest risk of an unplanned and life-altering pregnancy.

The broad outlines of the case against Bush’s Food and Drug Administration for trying to block the approval of over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill, or Plan B, are widely known. For more than five years, the loyal Bushies at the agency blocked action by subverting science, overruling medical professionals and abandoning FDA standards that have long governed how drugs are switched from prescription-only to over-the-counter availability.

It was done, of course, at the behest of anti-abortion zealots who consider many commonly used birth control methods as equivalent to terminating a pregnancy. When the FDA finally approved over-the-counter sales in 2006, it restricted them to women 18 and older and tried to impede the pill’s use by insisting that pharmacies keep the drug out of plain view.

[liecatcher]

Brilliant title !!!

If in doubt always follow the money trail.

Who benefits from a runaway puppy mill population ?

The short answer is WALL STREET. Consumption without income yields maxed

out credit cards currently near 1 $trillion and considered the next economic time bomb.

Usury is the express lane to enslaving a population.

Until 1980 Usury Laws in the US regulated the amount of interest banks

could charge. Jimmy Carter was installed to give away

the PANAMA CANAL and deregulate interest rates.

The interest on the ever increasing humongous debt that

the FED / WALL STREET is collecting from MAIN STREET

with our jobs and manufacturing globalized / outsourced,

makes it impossible for AMERICA to climb out of this economic abyss.

It's no wonder that Europe is terrified by the U.S. meltdown and

WALL STREET's "solution": MORE DEBT.

[AlabamianForObama]

Excellent post!

[tiznow]

While I am a proponent of family planning, birth control, and the availability of abortions, I feel it is a stretch to say that taxpayer funding of contraception for those at 200% of the poverty level will have a significant effect on the economy. The problem with the stimulus bill is that so much of it goes to placate special interest groups such as Planned Parenthood. Cristina Page would have made a stronger argument if she had cited facts and figures rather than emotional anecdotes. Bill Maher, an opponent of government funding of the NEA, has described such spending as "mission creep." I believe that increased government funding of contraception is not "stimulus," but mission creep.

[tom ellison]

"Then they're baffled to find the number of teen parents spiked during the Bush years."

Yeah, and the number of abortions dropped, too. In fact, W. Bush presided over the lowest rate since abortion was legalized in the U.S. If we're going to link a spike in teen pregnancy to Bush, should we link the drop in abortion rates to him as well?

[j.gold]

Pro-birth control. Let's keep both numbers down!

[BN2112]

Sane family planning and contraception is the bedrock of the future of human sustainability on this planet. Only a fool can't see a provider, whether it be the head of a household or the planet itself has limits on how many mouths it can feed. It's just too bad it takes an economic crisis to prod society into doing what's necessary for the best interest of future generations. Unfortunately there are still those who mock and condemn family planning---GOP and Vatican hierarchy.

[corwin]

You know I've done a few "vas" in my time.also a few tubals.I don't understand several things about the post and especially some of the commenters."Left Texas" sets a new level in the "I 'm a victim" sweepstakes in her account of the difficulties of getting sterilization as a nullip.When a patient sees me-or most other docs-it's not Mc Donalds.We discuss things;you donm't place an order.I was taught to do my sterlizations so the patient was sterile.Every doc has the stories of a previos 'certain' patient who now wants things reversed.Even the good microsurgeons have low reversal rates.I think the docs handled it just fine.Hope I always did so.(And on a PS;a vas is easy money.As is a Tubal.Maybe you should thank people who consider the individual before just trying to make a buck.
Now,as to someone else paying for the sterilization.Don't really care.

[dragonfly2x]

I think all males who oppose a woman's right to CHOOSE should be banned from having a vasectomy. Afterall, that would be killing a potential baby now wouldn't it???

Like how that sounds boys???

~wink~ YOU BETCHA

[BN2112]

"Every sperm is sacred
Every sperm is great
If a sperm is wasted, God gets quite irate"
Monty Python

[alwaysthere]

so why would i go out and get a stinky oiled up newspaper ?

would i get a laugh like this...

no

[Shaddup]

Idiocracy anyone? My wife and I probably might have kids, but unfortunately have never been able to afford them. Once again, the brainiacs of the right wing defeat their own purpose.

[BroccoliObumble]

Unfortunately, it's the smart, responsible people we could use more of who tend to be the big nonbreeders.

[daffey]

Ah, 'the too many of them, not enough of us' philosophy that has served humanity so well over the last 150 - 200 years.

[Rynox]

Unfortunately, in the long run this might be counterpro­ductive...­. or... eh... counter-re­productive­... har har... Seriously, though, more consumers is better for the economy.

[isis]

That is if you don't make anything new and innovative and need more bodies to buy the same old stuff. We need a new way to look at the economy other than just numbers reflecting consumerism. It's like recruiting based on just stats and then wondering why half of your team is in jail.

[CrumptyJack]

Actually, a lower population means a smaller potential workforce. Thus, when the demand for labor is smaller than the supply, higher salaries for workers are the result. More buying power due to better wages is better for the economy.

[LeftTexas]

In the very early 80's when my husband and I decided to marry and on the condition that I would not have children, I consulted with my doctor. Maybe things have changed but back then I had to literally do BATTLE in order to ensure that medically I had zero risk of pregnancy.

I asked my doctor to tie my tubes. He said that I was "Too young to know how I really felt about having children". Mind you he was talking to a grown married woman! He added that surely my husband would never approve of such a decision. After talking to my husband himself, MY doctor suggested a vasectomy for my husband. Maybe he thought no man would ever really do such a thing and gave us the name of a doctor for my husband.

We went to this "vasectomy doctor". He told us both that again, I was simply too young to know my own mind and that my husband would be wise to keep his options open. He pointed out to them that he already had a son and that was all that he wanted. He basically had to push the issue and finally the doctor performed the procedure.

I hope it is much easier now than it was.

[wltdnfaded]

In the late 90's, I went to a doctor to discuss an IUD. She said I was only 30, unmarried, and I should wait. I raised an eyebrow and said, "Yeah, I'm 30. Don't you think I've pretty made up my mind by now whether or not I want children? I'd get a tubal ligation, but I can't afford one, so this is my next best option. Now either give me an IUD or I will go somewhere else."

She gave me the IUD.

[aliceinthewater]

Last year I gave myself a tubal for my 30th birthday.

In certain areas of the country it has gotten easier. However, I think if I was near the Gulf Coast or in Utah it would have been much more difficult.

[dzuh]

I'm in my late 30s, and got a vasectomy about a year ago. I was expecting the doctors to call my decision into doubt and try to change my mind, but they actually didn't. For the most part, the hospital staff treated it like a standard medical procedure.

Beforehand, I was nervous about going under the knife, but now that I've been through the experience, I can vouch that the actual surgery is fairly straightforward. They put me under during the procedure (which takes about 30-45 minutes), and I spent the next week or so somewhat sore but not in any significant pain. Plus, it wasn't even financially painful. I have insurance, so it was very affordable: well worth the $200 price tag!

[j.gold]

I tried to get my tubes tied too when in my 20's and was told the same thing. If I was old enough to raise a kid how then was I not old enough to decide I didn't want any. I was so pissed. It is my body and my life and my decision.

[gorideabike]

It is only natural for Repubs to oppose birth control They need a steady supply of Other People's Children to fight their wars for them.

[JimBozo]

No, they need a steady supply of Stupid People's Children. No one else will buy into their talking points; be it for deceptive wars, tax cuts for the rich, or any other of the stock Republican agenda items.

[isis]

Private religious schools need this as well and they need vouchers to pay for it.