Not to sound immature, but "duh!"
Today's "no shit" headline of the day: Unwanted Pregnancies on the Rise. To further add to the "let's point out the insanely obvious" aspect of the article, it points out that poor women are almost four times as likely to get unintentionally pregnant as affluent women. No way! Get out of here!
On a totally unrelated note, if you have not heard Band of Horses yet, you must. That is all.
On a totally unrelated note, if you have not heard Band of Horses yet, you must. That is all.
9 Comments:
How much does it cost for the state to support these kids when they're born? Wouldn't it be a lot cheaper to give out free birth control pills? The pill would allow the girls/women to have a least some control. Wouldn't have to put up with the whole "I can't feel anything with a condom on, I'll pull out" crap.
Yes. Or at least subsidize them. Or at the very least approve them for sale over the counter (which is, I think, the one thing France does right). But that would be thinking rationally, and in this case, thinking rationally would deprive government of a golden opportunity for moral imposition. So it's not gonna happen.
Ever read Kurt Vonnegut's short story "Welcome to the Monkey House"? The birth-control pill debate reminds me of that story. Read it.
Mike, you beat me to this one. Bastard.
Wait wait, I'm sorry, I'm gonna have to interject. I'm sorry, Jeff, but I have to call bullshit on you: There is no way France has done something right.
Seriously, OWM suggests an interesting idea, and I think Jeff hits the nail on the head: when things like sex are involved, the government's desire for "moral" imposition holds the trump card.
The next Vonnegut on my list is "Sirens of Titan", and then I've promised myself I'll finally finish Tim Sandlin's GroVont trilogy (which is hilarious, btw). After that, "Monkeyhouse" it is.
And finally, I just noticed my word verification is "nydodo", or "N.Y. Dodo", if you'd prefer. I find that insanely amusing.
it would be too hard to make the stuff over the counter. Different levels needed for different women, but its not like a 30 min doctors visit once a year at a free clinic is going to cost much :-P
I thought I'd comment as a woman who takes birth control. The whole arguement that only a doctor can determine the correct type of birth control for a woman would be valid--if that was what they did. But they absolutely don't. So that is a bullshit excuse. From talking with my female friends, I had the most comprehensive talk about birth control--and it wasn't very much, and only because I asked a lot of questions to a very patient nurse. I was lucky in that the Vandy nurse practitioner actually told me what the side effects of each form was (most women are not told this). I chose what I wanted, not the nurse or doctor. My other friends chose what they wanted before hand and just asked for the prescription (or shot) and received it. When I see a new doctor, I just tell them what I want and they give me the prescription. I haven't even been physically examined since I left Vandy (spring 2004). Which is okay, because the real reason they examine women is not to see if there have been harmful effects from birth control. It's to check for cervical cancer (which is usually caused by HPV).
So basically, these doctors (and nurse practitioners) do absolutely nothing that a pharmacist couldn't do when it comes to doling out birth control.
Each woman reacts differently to different forms of the pill/shot/etc. Don't really think a 16 year old should be sitting in a store deciding which is right for her if she has health problems. I also am going to take a guess and think most 12-20 year olds aren't gonna just stroll up to the pharmacist and start asking questions in public. "yeah, I'm bipolar..which pill is right for me" "I have very heavy periods and they don't follow a set schedule, which form of BC is best" These girls(and guys for that matter) have a hard enough time buying condoms at the store. Besides, if they go to the doctor then the nurse can take a few minutes and explain things to them, again its not like they're going to figure it out from box(people don't read directions). Too many people have a hard enough time figuring out how to use a condom correctly and thats about as simple as you can get.
If a girl goes to a doctor and he doesn't check her medical history and just gives her what she wants then he's a quack. Seems there are a few different choices in the pill form alone that would depend on the persons medical history
http://www.mydna.com/health/sexual/contraception/the_pill.html
just fyi for anyone that doesn't want to read that. The three lines that stood out were
"Walker says low-dose estrogen pills contain 20, 30, or 35 micrograms (mgs) of estrogen. The exact dose of estrogen may have an impact on the kind of side effects you experience"
and
Different brands of the Pill may contain one of five progestins, says Walker. Because women differ in the kind of progestin found naturally in their bodies, McCarrick says, one variety of progestin can have different side effects on different individuals
and finally
"Work with your doctor to figure out which one might be right for you," suggests Holly Hughes, RN, a staff nurse at the Brigham Ob-Gyn Group in Boston. "Just because someone else had a great experience with a certain kind of pill doesn't mean you will."
That last one is actually a great quote because too often uneducated people just go with what a buddy tells them. Better to speak to someone that has a clue.
Leah, I think the difference is that you (and I imagine your friends also) are intelligent, well-educated individuals who have access to resources that can help you determine on your own what method of birth control is best. That works fine for you, and as you say, essentially eliminates doctors from the process. Unfortunately, women in low-income communities (by and large) don't have the same background. If doctors aren't generally helpful to women seeking birth control, that's unfortunate, but I still think it's better to involve them in the process rather than have many women enter into it blindly.
Of course it'd be best if the doctor did ask the woman the appropriate questions to figure out the best prescription for her. I'm just saying that in my experience, and from what I've been told by other women, that simply does not happen. I'm also not suggesting that birth control be on the counters next to Asprin or something. I think it should be handled by the pharmacists. They can have a protocol where they have to ask the customer a series of appropriate questions, and also give the customer the appropriate literature on the side-effects and risks of each type.
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