Jack Cafferty: Viagra Is For A Medical Condition, Birth Control Is A “Lifestyle Choice”

This is a really outdated post, but when I saw it I was shocked and angered and wasn’t yet turned on to feministing. But I digress (here’s my rant, hopefully I’ll feel better afterwards). On July 17th, following planned parenthood’s release of a McCain interview about birth control and viagra, Jack Cafferty  commented on his Cafferty file that insurance companies are ok to not cover birth control while covering viagra, because birth control is a life style choice.

CAFFERTY: Well, you know, the answer is Viagra is used to treat a medical condition, erectile dysfunction. Birth control is a lifestyle choice

Give me a break. Keeping aside the fact that birth control pills are in fact used to treat medical conditions, this statement from Cafferty is just a reflection of society’s view of female sexuality. Evidently only male sexuality is something of pressing medical importance, and women don’t deserve their own right to sex without concern for pregnancy.  I was really really mad when I saw this on CNN. I’m sorry if some men are uncomfortable with the idea of female sexual freedom, but if we’re ever going to over come the stereotypes of sexually active women, the sexism that permeates our insurance health care system (run by men shockingly enough) needs to be addressed. NOW.  Health insurance companies are denying women who have have cesareans insurance.   People who were previously treated with depression can be denied, a disease that affects women twice as much as men.

The fact of the matter is, Cafferty only echoed the belief that many in the health insurance industry share; women’s health concerns just aren’t important.  We need this issue to come up in this election. With all this talk about health care, now is the time to take care of it