Tag Archive for "Contraception"

Posts Tagged Contraception

CPCs: We’re protecting women as “an adult tells a child not to to touch a hot stove.”

Over the course of the three days of the conference, I chatted with a few dozen pregnancy center workers. Multiple women told me it was their job to protect women from abortion as “an adult tells a child not to touch a hot stove.”

By Physicians For Reproductive Health • 9 years ago

Busting myths and calming fears: A doctor answers questions about the IUD

Ed. note: This piece was originally published on the Community site.

So you’ve heard about the IUD (intrauterine device). You’ve heard some of your friends say, “I love it! No pills, no periods, no fuss!” You’ve had other friends say “Ew… something foreign in my body? No way!” As an obstetrician/gynecologist, I hear a lot of truths, but also a lot of misconceptions about this birth control method. So what is the real deal with IUDs?

Ed. note: This piece was originally published on the Community site.

So you’ve heard about the IUD (intrauterine device). You’ve heard some of your friends say, “I love it! No pills, no periods, no fuss!” You’ve ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 9 years ago

Each dollar spent on publicly funded family planning saves more than $7

For years, the Guttmacher Institute has been calculating just how many unintended pregnancies are prevented–and how much money is saved–by investing in public family planning programs. It’s a depressingly necessary project, as conservatives have taken aim at such funding — both in the US and abroad — in their quest to slash the safety net and vilify all reproductive health care.

By Maya Dusenbery • 9 years ago

“No duh” study finds giving teens access to free IUDs cuts their unintended pregnancy rate by nearly 80 percent

I’d love to live in a country where we don’t need studies to tell us that giving people affordable access to effective contraception is a pretty excellent way to prevent unintended pregnancies. But alas. So today’s “no duh” study finds that giving teen girls access to long-acting birth control, like IUDs and implants, at no cost cuts their abortion and unintended pregnancy rates by more than 75 percent.

The study followed 1,404 sexually active teen girls in St. Louis. After receiving counseling about their different birth control options, they were able to select any method free of charge. Nearly three-fourths of them ended up choosing an IUD or implant. Nationwide, only about 5 percent of teens use these methods. ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 9 years ago

Friday Feminist Fuck Yeah: Contraception

Happy World Contraception Day! While I think we could use some better contraceptive options, there’s no question that we’re living in a golden age for birth control. Just take a look at this video from EngenderHealth on history’s worst contraceptives.

By Maya Dusenbery • 9 years ago

Will there be long-term male birth control by 2017?

Considering that “the joke in the field is: The male pill’s been five to 10 years away for the last 30 years,” I’m not holding by breath. But apparently Vasalgel, a long-term reversible form of birth control that blocks sperm after a single injection, is entering human trials and could hit the market by 2017.

At The Daily Beast, Samantha Allen touches on some the barriers to birth control innovations like these. Long-term treatments like Vasalgel often don’t get much funding in a pharmaceutical industry that maximizes profits by selling us uterus-having folks hormonal birth control that must be taken regularly. “Why sell a flat-screen television to a man, after all, when you can rent one to ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 9 years ago

The Satantic Temple uses Hobby Lobby ruling to claim religious exemption from anti-choice biased counseling laws

Citing the Hobby Lobby ruling, the Satanic Temple is claiming a religious exemption from the anti-choice “informed consent” laws that require abortion providers in 35 states to give out biased, sometimes false, information about the procedure.

Given that “the Supreme Court has decided that religious beliefs are so sacrosanct that they can even trump scientific fact,” the Temple says it expects its “deeply held belief” will be respected. After all, unlike Hobby Lobby’s, their belief is even based on actually accurate information.

By Syreeta McFadden • 9 years ago

Hobby Lobby and the war on poor women

Years ago, my doctor prescribed oral contraceptives after I was hospitalized from a ruptured ovarian cyst. I had insurance through my employer at the time and paid a modest monthly copay of $10. When we switched insurance plans during an enrollment period, my coverage lapsed and I had to pay out of pocket for the medication. The snafu was quickly resolved but it was important information, a quick glimpse of the kind of expense I’d incur if I didn’t have a job, or the kind of job that would allow me to contact someone without taking time off work or fearing retribution from my employer to resolve the matter. I worked really long hours then, probably about 80 and ...