After Rush Limbaugh's recent explosion over birth control it is clear that Rush Limbaugh thinks we're all sluts. The controversy that caused the explosion: law student, Sandra Fluke's testimony on behalf of women. Yes, women. She argued that birth control should be covered by insurance even if you are working or attending some sort of religious institution. The vast majority of Republicans are going after birth control coverage in the same way they bullied some insurance companies into removing abortion coverage. Rush responded to Sandra Fluke's testimony with the following statement, "So Miss Fluke and the rest of you feminazis, here's the deal: If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch."
It is interesting to note that Fluke's argument was not based on the birth control's contraceptive properties -- but the health issues the pill is also used to treat.
This is war: war on women. This last move, an attempt to remove birth control coverage from major insurance plans, proves it. They want us to be barefoot and pregnant or just plain poor from having to buy birth control without insurance coverage. Men can walk into a gas station and buy condoms. Condoms are $1 each. Women have to first make an appointment with an OBGYN (which without insurance is $250 before tests are added to the bill) and then they must get a prescription, bring it to a pharmacy and get it filled. Even with insurance, the co-pay for birth control is often $20 or even $40 for a one month supply!
I just called my local Rite Aid Pharmacy to get some prices. One of the safest birth control pills to take (safe because it has less hormones in it than the other ones) is $114.99 per month! That is without insurance. With insurance it is probably still expensive, as we know each year co-pays go up, not down.
There are other options like Planned Parenthood, which will provide you with affordable birth control for $35, however, their selection of pills are limited and they do not carry the low hormone brands. Ladies, you better get your affordable birth control at Planned Parenthood quick, because the Republicans in power are trying to defund them, too.
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You wrote: “...this means that not one single one of them knew what a condom was... That has to be it; it certainly can't be that people see a condom as more of an inconvenience than an abortion.”
Then you wrote: Again, I object to Ms. Horzepa's tone. I think progress can only be made in this country if we stop making the very worst of assumptions about those we disagree with.
You suggest that most women have abortions because using a condom is too inconvenient. Can't imagine a worse assumption about anyone than that.
You should speak more softly about abortion, Anthony, because I am pretty sure you have never had one. Abortions are not convenient. Most women agonize over the decision and have some regret no matter what choice they make. It is not a choice made easily. So to suggest that women toss it off as an alternative to easily obtainable birth control is insulting in the most paternalistic, patriarchal way.
Many women, especially younger women have abortions from a failure to use birth control or the failure OF birth control. And yes, sometimes people, men an d women, are irresponsible. That is a far cry from what you suggest.
Take your own advice, Anthony, and remove the mote from your eye before judging your neighbor for the speck in hers.
This is why political dialogue is in its current state here in America. It is the "Two wrong DO make a right" theory, whereby if my opponent demonizes anyone who disagrees, I must do likewise.
Ms. Horzepa - you clearly are smarter than Mr. Limbaugh. Please don't continue to imitate him.
When you are discussing hormonal birth control, you are talking about an ESSENTIAL component of women's health care--and I mean health care for women of ALL religious beliefs. I realize that many people do not understand how critical and life-saving access to this medication can be for many women.
This writer seems to assume that men in general, and legislators in particular, would know this fact. She is quite incorrect. They do not know it; when informed, they refuse to accept it.
Again, I object to Ms. Horzepa's tone. I think progress can only be made in this country if we stop making the very worst of assumptions about those we disagree with.
It is always pointed out that the Republibans are the party of "small" government. However the truth is that across the country Republibans have passed laws allowing their state governments to enter private businesses to enforce a mandate that disallows the right of privacy between a physician and a patient; mandating that a patient be forced to undergo unrequested and unnecessary medical testing, and they have considered mandating testing that would require a physician to forcibly insert a probe into the body of a patient. Now, in Arizona a law is under consideration that would enable (or force) a doctor to withhold or lie regarding information about health problems of a fetus and would then protect the doctor from any resulting malpractice suits when the child is born with debilitating health issues. This is "small" government? No. It is about a "war on women" and their control of their health issues and bodies.