Saturday, April 7, 2012

C is for Contraceptives – April 2012 Blogging from A to Z Challenge

Ah, the hot-button subject. EVERYONE should have easy, if not free, access to contraceptives if they want them. I win!

What? You say that there is still debate about it? I heard a reference today to contraceptives being “against the Catholic church's conscience.” How in the hell can anyone with half a brain think that what is, effectively, an un-taxed corporation has a conscience? That is utter, unadulterated bull!

Of course the leadership of the Catholic church doesn't want its members to have unfettered access to birth control. With it there would be far fewer gullible people to support the church! It's the same with Mormons. What is the one thing (other than Mormons) that you see more of in Utah than anywhere else? Twin strollers. This isn't because they have more twins. It's because they have more stair-step kids. Take it from me, unless you are independently wealthy, stair-step kids are damn hard to feed, clothe, and educate!

Why, you ask, should I be considered an expert on this topic? Hmmm... Maybe because I had 4 kids, 4 and under and, nearly 4 years later, 5 kids 8 and under! What they didn't tell us back then was that antibiotics frequently interfered with the pill's effectiveness, and I was often on antibiotics because I was prone to incessant earaches and tonsillitis, so it never quite worked right for me. Don't get me wrong. I love my kids and wouldn't change a thing . But shouldn't women – no, FAMILIES – have at least a chance of deciding how many children they want and how far apart they are? Do these idiots who want to make it difficult, if not impossible, for women to get contraceptives know what pregnancy after pregnancy does to a woman's body? What about abstinence? They're already bitching about there being so many one-parent families that need help. Try cutting your husband off from sex so that you don't get pregnant and see how long the marriage lasts. Presto, more one-parent families!

When it comes right down to it, shouldn't readily available contraceptives be considered a boon to men as well? How many poor, lower middle, and middle class men are child support poor? If anything you would think men would want more effective birth control! And not just condoms. Aside from everything else, people in a truly committed relationship generally hate having to use condoms.

And then there is the topic of overpopulation! Haven't we been hearing for years that Earth is overpopulated? We still hear dire predictions of what will happen if the population keeps growing like it has. Not that I hold 100% to everything about overpopulation. I think that in some cases (China) it has been taken to ridiculous extremes.

Another thing. I know people who honestly believe they are not cut out to have children. So should they be denied the basic comfort of close interpersonal relationships? If a person doesn't want a child, or genuinely believes that he or she would not be a good parent, he or she shouldn't be forced to abstain from all sexual contact to avoid becoming a parent solely because of a bunch of uptight men? (And a few women, I might add.)

In short, to all those contraceptive naysayers out there....... GET A LIFE!

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