Prolonged Eye Contact

Millions of European Women [People] Struggle to Access Contraception

Members of European Parliament Host Roundtable on Human Rights Violations, Gender Discrimination

Sen. Johnson’s Advice To Women Who Can’t Afford Contraception: Google ‘What If I Can’t Afford Birth Control?’

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin — A Tea Party senator had a curious piece of advice for the millions of women across the country who can’t afford contraception coverage: go online and Google how to get birth control.

ThinkProgress spoke with freshman Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) about the matter this weekend at the Americans For Prosperity’s Defending the American Dream Summit in Milwaukee. Johnson has been vociferous in his attacks on the new regulation that requires insurance companies to cover birth control.

Given his opposition, we asked the Wisconsin senator what advice he would have for women in the country who can’t afford the cost of contraception. (A recent survey found one in three American women voters have struggled with to afford birth control.) Johnson’s advice: go online and type in, “what if I can’t afford birth control?” “If you can’t afford it, you can get birth control in this country,” Johnson explained. When we asked for clarification, he said, “You can get it. Go online, type it in. It’s easy to get.”

KEYES: What do we say to the millions of women who can’t afford access to birth control?

JOHNSON: My wife actually went online here in Wisconsin and typed in, “what if I can’t afford birth control?” Came up, bam. If you can’t afford it, you can get birth control in this country. That’s a straw-dog argument. There’s no conservative who’s trying to deny women health care or contraceptives. We’re just saying this is an issue of religious freedom. […]

KEYES: What do you mean, “if you can’t afford it you can get it?”

JOHNSON: You can get it. Go online, type it in. It’s easy to get.

Watch it:

ThinkProgress went online and Googled “what if I can’t afford birth control?” The very first link explained that the entire process, from the initial exam to a follow-up to the pills themselves, can cost upwards of $210 the first month. The rest of the first-page results included two sites informing women that if they can’t afford contraceptives, “don’t have sex,” four sites attacking Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke, and one site explaining how birth control is a lot more expensive than many believe.

Straw-dog argument? Is that kind of like when Republicans pretend something is an issue of religious freedom when it’s most certainly not, and they use straw-man arguments about the first amendment as dog whistles to provoke indignation in their extremist base?

*People that need and want contraception, not just cis women.

The Oyez Project

This is a fantastic Supreme Court resource that I just found. It has archive recordings of almost all the oral arguments brought forth during cases to the Supreme Court. It also has mp3s, transcripts, and case info available. 

Most applicable to this blog is the section on cases in regards to abortion and contraceptives. Also applicable, but for some reason not showing up in that filter, are Eisenstadt v. Baird and Griswold v. Connecticut.

They also have a page dedicated to the Court’s upcoming review of the Affordable Care Act.

Another great resource is this page of reproductive rights cases from FindLaw.

Have A Baby? There Goes Your Job.

bebinn:

liberalsarecool:

Supreme Courts’s 5-4 decision yesterday to negate part of the Family Leave Act:

“I’ll be damned if the conservatives on the Supreme Court weren’t getting jealous of all the congressional and state-level battles in the war on women and decide that they needed to take up arms themselves….

First, conservatives want to make sure you get pregnant by limiting access to birth control, then force you to have the baby by limiting access to abortions, then if you get fired for taking time off to have the baby, you have no right to recourse for being fired. Great. All these things that have been litigated decades ago and established as basic rights have been inverted.” - Nicole Belle of Crooks & Liars

No birth control, no health screenings for mother or child, no job to come back to. That is the family values of the Republican Party.

You’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. Don’t you just love being fertile under conservative control?

A dispatch from Texas, the front line of the war against women [*]

She knew she was supposed to be careful about getting pregnant, although truthfully she didn’t think it could happen because of her blood pressure and kidney problems. The nurses at the county clinic started her on the pill, but her blood pressure went all crazy. They asked her to come back on a Wednesday night when the doctor was there. The doctor asked lots of questions and spent a lot of time with her. It was nice to see a doctor care so much.

The Wednesday night clinic was where the nurses sent you when they needed the doctor’s help. It took two buses to get to that clinic and she had to wait an hour after it closed for her boyfriend to get off of work so he could pick her up, but she went because the nurses were so insistent.

The doctor (so young, she looked right out of medical school) asked her to stop the pill, something about the estrogen. The doctor tried to talk her into an IUD. Said it was the safest thing. But it sounded scary and some ladies at church said it caused abortion, so she wasn’t so sure about that.

Eventually she agreed to the Depo-Provera shot. Made her bleed all over the place for a while, but after a couple of shots she stopped getting her period altogether so that was okay.

Her boyfriend got a job in a new city, so they moved. She didn’t have a car, and even if she did she couldn’t afford the gas money to go back to the county clinic where she used to get her Depo shot. The nurses there were very nice and she was sure they would have looked the other way seeing she now lived in a different county. But they told her about Planned Parenthood. She could get her Depo there. She was so excited when she realized it was only six blocks from her apartment.

When she called to make an appointment for her Pap and Depo she was told Planned Parenthood couldn’t accept her Medicaid. Wasn’t allowed to accept Medicaid. Some law. “But I don’t want an abortion,” she said.

“Doesn’t matter,’ the receptionist said. “The government of Texas refuses to let any state tax dollars go to Planned Parenthood. You’ll have to pay for the visit and your Depo, but we do have a way to reduce the price for you.”

Even then it was a lot of money. More than she had right now. She called several doctors, but no one accepted Medicaid. “Doesn’t pay enough to cover our expenses,” they said.

And then one thing sort of led to another. She got a job at the Wal-Mart, but only part-time, so no health benefits. She needed the money to pay for her blood pressure pill. And food. Her boyfriend’s job wasn’t as many hours as they’d hoped. She bought condoms when she had the money, but stopped after a while. Deep down she had always thought she couldn’t get pregnant. The doctor at the county clinic told her not to count on it. The doctor said she had delivered many women who never believed they could get pregnant.

The sound of the doctors at her door brought her back to the here and now. She went to the emergency room the night before with the worst headache she had ever had. The look on the emergency doctor’s face when he saw her blood pressure was almost comical. And the swelling, he’d wanted to know how long it had been that bad.

He told her she was probably six months along. That she had something called preeclampsia. Her kidneys couldn’t handle the stress of being pregnant. When they got her to labor and delivery the OB said she needed to have the baby. As soon as possible. It didn’t matter that she was so early. She could have a stroke and her kidneys might fail. They told her that her baby had a 60-70% chance of surviving.

Her headache was a little better. The medication to bring down her blood pressure helped. The contractions hurt, but they weren’t that bad. She listened closely to the doctors at the door. They were talking about her ultrasound. She thought the lady who was doing the scan had taken a long time. She’d even called someone over to look at the screen. Something about not enough fluid so it was hard to see.

Only one doctor came in. A lady. She walked like she was in charge. She pulled up a chair. Her face looked a lot softer up close. “Your ultrasound has some findings and I need to talk with you about them. We know the fluid is low. We knew that from the initial scan we did last night. We talked about that this morning. But this latest ultrasound is more detailed and gives us more information. Your baby is smaller than expected. That could be from your blood pressure, but there is something else. Some problems with the bones in the skull. You were taking a blood pressure medication and it looks as if there are some birth defects.” The doctor paused.

“What does that mean for my baby?” She thought it sounded odd to say those words, my baby, out loud. A baby she didn’t even know she was carrying until yesterday. A baby she thought she could never have.

And that’s when she started to cry.

________________________________________________

*I hate the “war on women” rhetoric for a number of reasons, but this story HAS to be told far and wide. I don’t want to see a SINGLE person victim blame this woman or say she should have “kept her legs closed” or “known better.” Poor people are allowed to have sex. People with chronic conditions are allowed to have sex. All of the blame is on the politicians of Texas who decided their games with health care mattered more than this woman’s LIFE. That because she was poor and needed Medicaid her life and health were disposable and up for debate (the same thing that happens every day with the Hyde Amendment). They decided because she was unfortunate enough to need assistance that they had the right to butt their noses into her business and prevent her from going to Planned Parenthood. There is so much fail in this story and I doubt this woman is alone; there are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of people suffering in Texas right now. And now that the WHP is gone it WILL get worse.

Also, here’s a story from the comments:

I have high blood pressure (among other health concerns) and have since I was 18. I have also never wanted children. However, because I don’t meet their “eligibility” requirements, I cannot find a doctor who will sterilize me. Two attempts to insert an IUD were unsuccessful and traumatic. I became pregnant while using condoms, then ended up paying $750 for an abortion at a private clinic (PPH wouldn’t take me because of my blood pressure) and because my blood pressure was so high they couldn’t perform the procedure until it was under control and by then it was the second trimester. If I had continued with the pregnancy I risked further blood pressure problems, kidney damage, and damage to the fetus so I would need to go to a high risk pregnancy specialist which I couldn’t afford, even with the insurance I had. The doctor said he suspected that my blood pressure went even higher because of the pregnancy, but when I said I didn’t want to have children he still tried to convince me that what I needed was an IUD or Depo because I might change my mind one day. I have tried Depo and had terrible migraines the whole time.

Because doctors and politicians are so convinced that women don’t have any idea what’s going on with their bodies and deep down they all want to procreate, they have made reproductive care prohibitive in so many ways. If the doctors I had talked to for the past five years had listened to me and believed that I knew enough about my own mind and body to know that I wanted to be sterilized, I wouldn’t have had to spend the time off work and all my savings to terminate a pregnancy I couldn’t sustain even if I had the desire.

I feel for the woman in your article and it breaks my heart to think of what she went through, and chills me to know that I could have been in her place so easily.

POSTED BY NJS | FEBRUARY 26, 2012, 12:59 PM

The Frisky: sex How To Get All The Condoms You Need (Discreetly)

I still get a little flustered when I have to walk up to some random checkout counter and whisper, “Hey, can I have those Trojans? (even more hushed) Yes. The Magnums, please.” I accept the fact that it is a little childish of me, but so what? I believe a girl is entitled to discretion. Luckily I stumbled upon a website where I can have all of my sexytimes needs delivered right to my door. LuckyBloke.com is a service where you can create your own personalized condom collection for monthly delivery. Brands include Durex, Trojan, Glyde, Billy Boy, Kimono and RFSU and come in an assortment of colors, flavors, and styles. Plus, different lubes include organic, silicone or water-based ones. The best part? Shipping is free and 10 percent of sales go to charities that support urgent humanitarian causes like UNICEF and It Gets Better Project. Who knew that just by shopping for my condoms online (without shame),  I could be doing an incredible service to the world?  [Prices Vary, LuckyBloke.com]

(Source: seriouslyamerica, via bebinn)

Texas Democrats Look To Secure Alternative Federal Funding For Planned Parenthood In The State

Democratic lawmakers are trying to find alternative ways to keep Planned Parenthood clinics in Texas afloat just one day before the state officially bans the organization from receiving funding through the joint state-federal Women’s Health Program. Tomorrow, a new rule goes into effect stopping any clinic affiliated with an abortion provider from receiving WHP funds, and federal officials have said they will cut off funding to the state program if Texas bans Planned Parenthood from WHP. If the program stops, 130,000 women will lose their access to affordable health care.

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and state Rep. Garnet Coleman have been meeting with the Department of Health and Human Services about creating a women’s health “look-alike program” that would keep money flowing to Planned Parenthood, which treats nearly 44 percent of the program’s patients:

The Medicaid Women’s Health Program is due to end in Texas on March 31, the result of the state’s decision to exclude clinics affiliated with abortion providers, even those that do not provide abortions. Federal regulations say a state can’t exclude qualified providers from the program.

Coleman and Lee said the alternative might involve the federal government allocating money to local entities, such as counties, hospital districts or federally qualified health clinics. They noted that school districts have been allowed to apply for federal grants independently rather than through the state.

Ninety percent of the Women’s Health Program’s total operating costs are covered by federal funds, but last week, Republican Gov. Rick Perry announced the state would continue funding the Women’s Health Program without including Planned Parenthood and without federal funds. His administration has not explained how he plans to carve $30 million out of the state’s budget to do so. Although HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius maintains that federal funding for the Women’s Health Program will be phased out gradually over the course of several months, she also inferred that the option of providing direct federal funding for Planned Parenthood was on the table.

While the rule goes into effect Wednesday, Planned Parenthood clinics in Texas will accept WHP patients to the end of March. Last week, Texans protested against the Republicans’ decision to take away health care for hundreds of thousands of women just so they can take funding away from Planned Parenthood.

_______________________________________

This vile political tactic will affect more people than just cis women.

ALL ABORTION OPPOSERS: SIGN THIS PETITION

alittlepainalittlepleasure:

Dear President Obama,

I am appalled at your Obamacare mandate that forced religious employers to pay for health insurance coverage that includes birth control and drugs like Plan B, the morning after pill, and ella that can cause abortions.

Today, you revised your mandate in a way that is just as offensive.

Your revised mandate will have religious employers refer women to their insurance company for coverage that still violates their moral and religious beliefs. Under this plan, every insurance company will be obligated to provide coverage of abortion-causing drugs at no cost.
Essentially, religious groups will still be mandated to offer plans that cover both birth control and the ella abortion drug - only now insurance companies will offer them at no charge.
This ObamaCare rule still tramples on Americans’ First Amendment right to freedom of religion. It’s a fig leaf, not a compromise. Whether they are affiliated with a church or not, employers will still be forced to pay an insurance company for coverage that includes abortion-inducing drug.

I oppose this revised pro-abortion mandate and urge you to overturn it immediately.

Sincerely,


(After signing this petition, please cut and paste the text of it and send it to Obama by going to http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact.)

[warning: all links are, unfortunately, cis-centric]

It’s pretty embarrassing that 6,547 people are so misinformed they signed this piece of drivel. For those interested in the truth:

Plan B (aka the morning-after pill) and Ella, which are classified as emergency contraception, do not cause abortions. If you look at the science into EC it’s very clear on the subject: there are no post-fertilization effects caused by these medications, so even if you go against virtually the entire scientific and medical communities and define pregnancy as fertilization rather than implantation, emergency contraception is still not abortion.

the administration’s guidance does not include drugs that can induce abortions. As the rule explains that insurers and employers must cover “Evidence-based items or services that have in effect a rating of A or B in the current recommendations of the United States Preventive Services Task Force (Task Force)” and “the comprehensive guidelines supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration.” The contraception language is included in the HRSA guidelines, it reads: “All Food and Drug Administration approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling for all women with reproductive capacity.” Those include:

Male Condom, Female Condom, Diaphragm with Spermicide, Sponge with Spermicide, Cervical Cap with Spermicide, Spermicide Alone, Oral Contraceptives (a.k.a. “the pill”), Patch, Vaginal Contraceptive Ring, Shot/Injection, Emergency Contraceptives, IUD, Implantable Rod, Vasectomy, Transcervical Surgical Sterilization Implant for women

These methods act to “prevent pregnancy before, and only before, fertilization occurs.” Emergency Contraceptives like Plan B — which Murphy attempted to paint as an “abortion pill”– halts the union of sperm and oocyte and inhibits ovulation. It does not work after fertilization.

Also see:

• Mechanism of Action of Emergency Contraceptive Pills
• Planned Parenthood: The Difference Between Emergency Contraception and Medication Abortion
• Letter to Kathleen Sebelius: Comments on CMS-9992-IFC2, Group Health Plans and Health Insurance Issuers Relating to Coverage of Preventive Services Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
• Guttmacher: Past Due: Emergency Contraception In U.S Reproductive Health Programs Overseas

Churches were always exempt from the rule, and with the revised mandate religious employers with objections do not have to offer the coverage or pay for it. Their employees will receive the coverage from the insurance company (a third party) directly at no cost. It’s really pretty simple. Birth control existing and the fact that your employees are using it doesn’t infringe on your freedom of religion. However, not covering contraception when your plans cover other prescription medications has been shown to violate Title VII (the Civil Rights Act of 1964). 

The mandate is not unconstitutional nor does it infringe on your freedom of religion. Getting involved in the healthcare of your secular employees, on the other hand, is an infringement on their rights. Further, conscience protections that are virtually the same as Obama’s have been upheld in court.

Honestly, you really should know the intricacies of an issue before signing petitions against something that will positively affect the lives and health of a significant portion of the country.

Further Reading:

• Text of the 2011 mandate [also see: here, here, here, here]
• Final rule for mandate [after religious exemptions were debated] and the prior interim final rule
• IOM’s July 2011 report “Clinical Preventative Services for Women: Closing the Gaps” [report brief here, testimony before House Judiciary Committee here, testimony before House Oversight & Government Reform Committee here]
• Press release: IOM report recommends 8 additional preventative health services to promote women’s health [also here]
• HHS press release
• Fact sheet: women’s preventative services and religious institutions
• Covered preventative services under ACA for women
• Coverage guidelines for women’s preventative services [also here]
• Women and the Affordable Care Act
• Pregnant women and the ACA
• Women’s preventative health services in the new health care law: FAQ
• Contraceptive coverage “accommodation” of religiously-affiliated employers: FAQ
• Access to preventative health care for women in the new health care law: FAQ
• Covering prescription contraceptives in employee health plans: how this coverage saves money
• Sampling of Catholic-affiliated institutions that provide contraceptive coverage
• Title VII requires covered employers to provide contraceptive coverage
• Amicus Brief, Department of Health and Human Services, et al., v. State of Florida, et al.
• Letter to the President opposing the religious employer exemption
• Contraception mandate doesn’t include abortifacients
• Mandate isn’t unconstitutional
• Majority of Pill users take them for non-contraceptive purposes
• Birth control is medical care
• 5 reasons why the contraceptive coverage guarantee is so important
• Benefits and savings from contraception coverage [also here]
• The White House explains its contraceptives compromise
• Obama’s contraception rule a matter of life-altering care for some
• Obama’s conscience protection clause has been upheld in court
• Large Catholic institutions offered contraception even before required to do so [also here]
• Catholic hospitals can’t discriminate based on sex in hiring, shouldn’t discriminate based on sex in coverage
• Nation’s largest Catholic university offers a contraceptive benefit
• Majority of Catholics support requiring health plans to provide contraception
• Insurance coverage of contraceptives [also here]
• Obama and the Bishops: Is the White House Caving on Birth Control Coverage?
• Expand Access, Not Exemptions
• Actual Costs of Birth Control
• Catholic groups fight contraceptive rule, but many already offer coverage
• Major mainstream religious leaders support White House on contraceptive coverage in health reform
• Health Insurance Coverage a Courtesy? No, It’s Your—And My—Wages

Now there’s no excuse for misrepresenting this issue ever again.

Michele Bachmann Thinks Birth-Control Rule Will Lead to a One-Child Policy