Grab and Go Thoughts

[electra310]

I like working the Lunch Cart. I like talking to the people, and seeing just about everyone I know walk by at one point or another during my shift. I like JT, she's my buddy! I like being able to count to 14 really fast. I like making money. And I like watching the people who sit in the Gallery and proselytyze for one cause or another. (And if I spelled that wrong, I defy you to be able to tell!)

Today in the hallway, the usual suspects were putting forth a petition for Wimmin's Rights. Or Ryghts, as long as we're having fun with vowels. They were trying to get people to DEMAND that emergency contraception (morning after pills) be made available over the counter, like condoms. This was very interesting to me because it allowed me to think that these people are idiots not for their ideals, which is the way I usually think of them, but practically.


I've given a lot of thought to the morality and justifiability of things like abortion and contraception over the past few years, especially in my Med Ethics class last year. I firmly believe that abortion is wrong. Even in cases of rape and incest, which is an even more unpopular stance. The only time I think it would be right is if the mother's life is definitely threatened by the pregnancy, and that is because I am not a fatalist. If you can't save both, at least save one. Yes, things like rape and incest are terrible, violations of privacy and trust that deserve harsh punishment. But the baby doesn't deserve to be punished, or the mother. It's society, not the pregnancy, that is the real punishment in current society. If all these women's advocacy groups were to stop advocating abortion and start trying to change attitudes toward pregnancy, that would create a huge change in the status quo of pregnant, unmarried girls. They say they are advocates, fine. Let them stand up for girls who are pregnant by accident, or as a victim of a crime. Let them stand for the mother and for the child, be a support group for them when they need help, and work to change the disparaging notions of people who see a young woman carrying a child. That would be a hell of a force for positive change. If it wasn't such a burden socially, the physical and emotional burden might be easier to bear.

I'm willing to suppose that my attitude might be colored by the fact that I don't know if I'll be able to have children. A lot of the women in the PCOS support group I joined online tell stories of how hard they work to get pregnant, only to fail or miscarry, again and again. These people want children so badly, and women who can have them are throwing away such a precious gift. Girls who get pregnant when they don't want to, and instead of ending the pregnancy, have the baby and give it to someone who wants one more than anything in the world; well, they're heroes in my book. Where's the "advocate of women" who will say that? But back to where I started.

I am in favor of contraception, on the other hand. While I don't believe that it's permissible to destroy the babies that do get conceived, I'm in favor of trying your hardest not to conceive if you don't want to. I'd be a hypocrite if I weren't, my immediate lifetime program includes marriage but not kids, not for years yet. Emergency contraception walks a fine line, though. Is it contraception, or is it abortion? I'm a Philosophy major, and I've spent way super long time with classmates trying to decide where life begins, but I don't really know. But right now, I'm of the mind that emergency contraception is the end of the line for contraceptive efforts. After 72 hours, the embryo is implanted and beginning to grow. Beyond that, you can't use the morning after pill. After that, I consider that an abortion, and wrong. So I don't have a problem with the contraceptive pill itself.

But offering the damn thing over the counter, like it was a Tylenol? WHAT THE FUCK, PEOPLE? (no pun intended.) The morning after pill is effective because it's strong and works fast. Not really a good choice for a drug you can get without doctor permission, eh? I know my normal contraceptive tends to kick my ass from time to time, weird side effects, hormone surges, and this is something that my doctor recommended to me after a full examination. Not to mention the fact that it's low strength slow release, as opposed to maximum strength quick release. My doctor warned me away from Depo-Provera, because with my menstrual schedule and body type, it would be very bad for me. Doctors know these things, and that's why they're doctors. How is some scared 16 year old girl going to know that a contraceptive pill she got over the counter isn't going to do horrible things to her when she's probably never even had a gyno exam? And what if she's really scared, and decides to down a handful of the things, to make sure she won't get pregnant? Brrr.

Aside from all that, having over the counter emergency contraceptives will change the way that people look at birth control. Who's going to get on the Pill or get their shot when they can get an over the counter pill without a doctor's note whenever they happen to have sex? In one fell swoop, you've eliminated a reason many girls go to the gynecologist for the first time at 16 or 17 (a very good time to catch any problems early, and highly recommended by doctors). It also could very well increase the likelihood of unprotected sex with people you don't know very well, because even if they aren't on birth control, they certainly can be soon. Unprotected sex is not a good plan either. So basically what you get is young women using the emergency pill who have never tried another birth control option (so have no idea what sorts of side effects it has on their particular body chemistry) and who have not been to a doctor to get any sort of counsel in the matter. It doesn't take a genius to see that this is not an optimal situation, by any means.

And yet today at lunch, I saw scores of people amble over without a thought and sign the petition, without even asking themselves the implications. The people at the table drew parallels to condoms. No. Not even a little. You don't take a condom then spend the next 24 hours throwing up and then start bleeding from your penis. (The fact that the analogy is so hideous here should prove my point.) This is potent medicine, and no matter how "liberal-minded" you are, it's not something you hand out without any sort of restriction on it! That doesn't help anyone! If this view means I'm a reactionary conservative, then show me to the far right. =)

Comments

[theyloveyou.livejournal.com]

believe me, as a "liberal" I am quite for more sex education in today's schools, as conservative measures in sex ed standards have left many of today's minds reeling. particularly the fact that many schools have followed the academic rigor of teaching "abstinence, or nothing!" now you personally may feel uncomfortable with the idea of using chemical contraceptives, but for many it is a much needed solution. Many couples out there are having sex becuase they want to. You can say all you want about how society has put pressure on the girl to put out, but I don't see how there's any less stigma about a male virgin. In fact, I can think of about twenty teen summer flicks where the males were ridiculued for their virginity and the females were treated as prefectly justified. And beyond that, I personally lost my virginity to a girl upon her request. I also refused this request from two other girls during my high school years due to the fact that I didn't feel ready at that time. Perhaps I'm an anormality in today's society, but I think that there is more intelligence in the common population than you give credit for. I know of three individuals who have taken the abortion pill, and all of them had been using contraceptives. It is again, a terrible experience, and something a girl must be educated about and prepared for. But for those who have made the choice that they want to have a sexual relationship with their partner, it is a safety against a life-changing pregnancy, which you may morally disagree with, but which I feel is a person's right of their own body. Sex is something that one needs to be ready for; however, there are those who have made that choice in their lives. the burden of pregnancy, giving a child up for adoption, an abortion, or actually keeping this unwanted child are reprecussions that I feel are not justified. It is a weighty decision to have sex, with consequences; but it is not a sin that we can't forgive of those punishments.