H/T Thomas Ventimiglia
Recognizing that this is a very controversial moral/political/medical/social football that will likely earn me many nasty emails, I submit the following in regards to Missouri’s proposal to allow employers and landlords to discriminate against women who are on “the pill.”
I don’t use the word “hate” very often, but I HATE “the pill,” not because I am Catholic, or a recovering Catholic, as it were. I believe “the pill” has weakened the moral fabric of America considerably.
As a young, single male, I recall “the pill” being referred to as the “slut pill” among young men in my social circle. Not a politically correct label, to be sure, but descriptively accurate, according to my own experience, but only as it related to single women not in committed relationships. A woman in a committed relationship was simply seen as wisely timing the start of a family. Those not in committed relationships and proudly on “the pill” were seen as easy and disposable, generally popular for limited periods of time, like one night.
I would like to point out that I don’t believe promiscuity is beneficial to either gender and neither should practice it. It can cause serious problems, especially later in life. I was a young, single male for several years and for a while I could have been accurately described as “promiscuous,” and I regret it for a lot of reasons.
With that laundry aired, I am very interested in the opinions of others regarding “the pill,” specifically as it relates to promoting promiscuity among young women. Is it none of my business? Is it OK for women to sleep around without the fear of pregnancy? Would you want your daughters to do that?
I have three daughters and I would be heartbroken to discover that they were on “the pill” and the hotel circuit, the root word of “hotel” being “ho.” (Just kidding about that. I couldn’t resist).
Now that I have likely pissed off half of my readers, please answer the poll at the end of this article, letting us know how you feel on the topic, and by all means feel free to comment in the comments section, below.
From Newsweek….
Missouri’s Senate is considering legislation that would allow employers and landlords to discriminate against women who use birth control or have had abortions. The bill, which has the support of the state’s governor, Eric Greitens, was approved by the Missouri House Tuesday.
Known as SB 5, the bill was first passed by the Senate on June 14 following a special session called by Greitens. His aim was to overturn an ordinance that prevents employers and housing providers from punishing women for their reproductive health choices, according to a report by Feministing, a feminist website.
The ordinance was passed by the city of St. Louis, and Greitens had said it made the area into “an abortion sanctuary city.” The Senate seemed to agree with him, as did the House, which on Tuesday passed an expanded version of SB 5 that included more anti-abortion restrictions. Given the Senate’s vote on June 14, it it seen as likely to approve the updated version of SB 5. This would mean that landlords could refuse to offer housing to women based on their reproductive health choices, while employers could fire female staff members who were using birth control, or refuse to hire them. And while of course this isn’t information most landlords or employers have access to, under SB 5 they could ask women what forms of reproductive health care they are using.
Daily Emails and Alerts– Get the best of Newsweek delivered to your inbox
In a statement, the women’s rights group NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri described SB 5 as “a disgraceful blow to women and families.” Singling out Greiten for particular criticism, the organization added: “Gov. Eric Greitens and his GOP colleagues should be ashamed of their wasteful ‘emergency’ special session and their continued efforts to restrict a woman’s access to basic health care. This bill will do nothing to expand access to healthcare or improve the lives of Missouri residents. Instead, it puts Gov. Greitens’s personal political ambitions and out-of-touch agenda ahead of the needs of hard-working Missourians.”
The maneuverings come two months after a federal judge struck down two Missouri laws that prevented clinics, apart from a Planned Parenthood outlet in St. Louis, from offering women abortions. It appears SB 5 would override the federal ruling, by mandating new restrictions on abortion clinics that could force some to close.
But the state could run into difficulties enforcing the law if signed. As Feministing reports, the Federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act prevents discrimination against women who have had an abortion. The act, however, makes no mention of birth control.Bustle reports that it is unusual for U.S. laws to target women for using such measures.
The Atlantic attempts to tackle the moral/medical/social/political question….
It’s time for some political, scientific, and moral clarity on the birth control pill. It’s time to distinguish clearly—in terminology, thinking, and public policy—between contraception and abortion.
We can begin with terminology, which has become increasingly sloppy in news analysis and public discourse. “Birth control” includes any device or practice that prevents birth, including elective abortion. “Contraception,” by definition (but not necessarily in common usage), prevents conception (not implantation of the fertilized egg in the uterine wall); and “conception” refers to the joining of the sperm and ovum (not implantation). It is unfortunate (if not downright Orwellian) that “contraception” is used so loosely, particularly within the context of public policy and national health care.
“We know from studies such as the 2007 “Changes in measured endometrial thickness predict in vitro fertilization success” that the thickness of a woman’s endometrium—the lining of her uterus—determines the likelihood of the successful implantation of an embryo. If an embryo—a living human by all characteristics – does not implant, it is passed out of the uterus in what’s popularly called a miscarriage, or a spontaneous abortion. (If you’re interested, this study also showed that oral contraceptive use also altered the quality of the endometrium, the markers associated with “endometrial receptivity.”)
We’ve known for quite a while that the use of oral contraceptives has the capacity to thin a woman’s endometrium. The 1997 study “The effects of monophasic and triphasic oral contraceptives on ovarian function and endometrial thickness” found that “endometrial thickness in OC users was significantly smaller than in controls”, that is, than in women who were not using oral contraceptives.
A 2001 study of one the most popular oral contraceptives on the market, Yasmin, found that … oral contraceptives have the effect of thinning the endometrium.”
Commentary within the Christian and the pro-life communities debating these issues has cropped up in recent months, including a provocative post at Patheos providing analysis suggesting the likelihood that fewer human zygotes are lost when the birth control pill is used than when it is not. While not scientifically provable (at this point), such a notion could have radical implications for the policies and practices of people with pro-life convictions. More and more, it seems, younger members of these groups in particular are re-examining and re-evaluating previous thinking. This questioning seems to be prompted by an array of interests including rejection of the seeming inconsistencies within the pro-life movement described above, greater awareness of global issues such as poverty and with that greater sense of responsibility of meeting those global needs in real and immediate ways; and general distrust of the old, modernist categories such as “pro-life/prochoice,” “liberal/conservative,” or “Republican/Democrat.”
Please answer our poll, below. Feel free to leave your comments in the comments section, below.