Why I Use Birth Control

Ok Rush Limbaugh and Patricia Heaton...if Sandra Fluke is a "slut" then so I am I.  If by slut and prostitute you mean "woman who cares about her health."  Something tells me however that's not quite what you meant. Sandra Fluke's whole point of going in front of Congress was to raise awareness of the many different reasons women need and use birth control.  She even mentioned a friend of hers who needed the pills to combat ovarian cysts.

When I was 15, I had an ovarian cyst grow to the size of a softball, rupture, and kill one of my ovaries.  I have had to take birth control ever since to protect my one remaining ovary since there was a lot of concern that my body couldn't regulate itself. If I hadn't started taking birth control right away, there was a major threat I could have lost my other ovary to cysts and I would have been sterile at 15. I haven't had any problems since, thank God.  I need birth control so I CAN have children one day..what a concept.

In high school I was super shy, got straight A's, was in the honors society, marching band and theater club.  If my nose wasn't stuck in a book, I was practicing my flute.  Yeah...I was a regular dirty hussy.  Obviously. 

Millions of girls take birth control for medical purposes other than for preventing pregnancy---some girls get so ill each month they miss work and school; some lose so much blood they become anemic--heck, plenty of girls take it to get rid of acne!! And God forbid there should be any healthy family planning when the time comes! Because the Bible says we should have as many children as we can!! Because the world is empty!! Oh wait...that was thousands of years ago when the Bible was written...

Using terms like "slut" and "prostitute" are just terms scared men like Rush use to try and silence women who can think for themselves.  Men are frightened of equality because they are afraid that would give women the freedom to treat men the way they treat women.  THE HORROR!!! Not to mention---Rush was married 4 times and has no children.....and you want to tell me contraception didn't play a role????

MY QUESTION: People are so concerned that taxpayer's dollars are going to birth control (which they're not, number 1) and therefore "they are paying women to have sex!!"---when birth control is used for so many other reasons...however, where were they when it was decided for Viagra to be covered by healthcare??....and that can only be used for ONE thing.....riddle me that Batman.  But no, those darn slutty women trying to screw up our moral world....

I heard this the other day and I think it is totally accurate: If men could have children, birth control pills would be in gumball machines.

As women, we have been conditioned to be embarassed of what happens with our bodies.  When boys go through puberty it is celebrated--when women go through puberty we are handed a box of tampons that we can hide in our purse.  We are tought not to talk about what happens to us each month because it is "gross" and taboo.  But..it's a fact of life.  We all go through it!! There is no secret! Yet I am also guilty of the "taking my purse to the bathroom" routine.  We need to stop being ashamed of who we are! I once saw a girl drop her purse in a classroom and a tampon flew out onto the floor in front of everyone...she burst into tears.  Yet I can almost guarantee every other girl in that room also had a tampon in their purse! We have been taught to be ashamed because then we will keep quiet. Then they can keep us second class citizens. 

I read a post the other day from a mother whose 16 year old daughter is being bullied at school by a bunch of kids calling her a tramp and scum because they found out she takes birth control pills--the poor thing is anemic without them---and they "know it's true because Rush said so!" Really?? REALLY?? Now they are worried she will be a target not just for more bullying, but for potential rape by the boys who think "she is asking for it because she is a slut."  There are so many things wrong with this concept I cannot even begin to break it all down in words...plenty of girls at her school have to also take birth control because it is a common medication..but they are probably too scared to speak up now.

WOMEN: Time to stand up for ourselves and for our fellow women!! Stop taking this crap!!! What does it say about a woman who is against women's health rights? How sad is it that she doesn't believe she has a right to be healthy and to protect herself? What kind of man will she end up with? Probably one that doesn't have a whole lot of respect for her or her body...and she will go along with it because she doesn't know any better....scary and very sad. 

And MEN WHO RESPECT WOMEN....WHERE ARE YOU?? Fight for the women you care about--your mothers, wives, girlfriends, sisters, aunts, cousins, daughters....SPEAK UP.  What's so wrong with us being equal anyway?? What do you have to lose besides a bruised ego?