Source: dailykos.com

So January 23, 2013, will mark the 40th anniversary of Roe V Wade, the landmark case, which overturned numerous anti-choice state laws and legalized abortion rights in the United States.  While it might be too early to celebrate, we might want to take notice of an apparent coordinated political effort that seeks to turn back the clock to a time when it was okay to deny women autonomy over their bodies.

Over the past two years, several GOP-controlled states, as well as their comrades in Congress, have launched one of the most extreme assaults on women’s choice the U.S. has seen in decades. It’s so extreme that many in media have declared it a “War on Women.” Wherever you stand on reproductive rights issues, you might want to take notice on how your gender, more particularly your body, is being used as a way to gain some political leverage and not necessarily for your benefit.  So let me just highlight some of the measures that you should be paying attention to:

Last week, the Georgia House passed the “fetal pain bill,” which seeks to criminalize abortion after 20 weeks, completely overriding the Roe V Wade precedent by 4 weeks. Dubiously dubbed the “women as livestock bill,” this measure makes no exception for rape or incest and requires that women undergo a series of tests to prove that their fetuses might be on the verge of death due to some sort of chromosomal or congenital anomaly before an abortion could be performed.  Likewise, the law also stipulates that the abortion must be performed in such a way that the fetus emerges alive. If, by chance the fetus dies during the abortion, the performing doctors will face felony charges and up to 10 years in prison.

This bill garnered national attention after one of its Republican co-signers compared pregnant women carrying stillborn fetuses and seeking abortion to the cows and pigs on his childhood farm, suggesting that just like farmers, have to “deliver calves, dead or alive,” a woman carrying a dead fetus, or one not expected to survive, should have to carry it to term. Once this bill is signed into law (and all signs are suggesting that the governor will sign it), Georgia will become the seventh state including Idaho, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Alabama, North Carolina and Indiana, which prohibits abortion after 20 weeks.

This past week, Wisconsin Governor, Scott Walker, (You know the guy that pissed off all the union workers and caused a summer of uprisings in the state?), has signed two Republican backed bills, which require doctors to consult privately with women seeking abortions. You know, to ensure that she is not being forcefully lead into having an abortion. The bill also bans abortion coverage in policies sold through a health insurance exchange, a marketplace for small businesses and individuals to purchase health insurance cheaply, except in cases of rape, incest or medical necessity.

From Your Tango.com.

In the middle of this heated debate over birth control and religion, it’s easy to get the impression that Christians are anti-birth control, and so is God for that matter. Yet, as a mom, a person of faith, a married lady and a birth control lover, I don’t see it as so simple.

The people taking birth control aren’t all promiscuous teens. They’re women like me, married women who take birth control for family planning reasons, or women like my married friend Nicki, who takes birth control to regulate her severe PMS symptoms. Or even women like the YourTango community member Andrea MacDonald who writes in the comments to an article on the birth control debate, “I’m married and love my husband dearly so of course we are having sex. I’m also 38, my last pregnancy was high risk due to my age, another could be worse.”

And the religion thing? Well, it’s not so simple either. In an article on the Huffington Post, David Carr, professor of Old Testament studies at Union Theological seminary, writes, “Not many in the current debate realize that the Bible contains a book that celebrates non-reproductive sex and features substances used by ancient women for birth control.

Find out where this scripture lies and how the Bible fits into the birth control debate at Your Tango.com… 

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Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke had no idea that the case she brought to Congress, requesting that her university’s health insurance cover contraception for students, would lead to her being called a “Slore” and “prostitute” by Rush Limbaugh on his national radio show. Since advertisers pulled out of Rush Limbaugh’s show, the conservative radio host issued an apology to Fluke on Saturday; however, she has responded by saying that his apology doesn’t change a thing.

In his apology, Limbaugh stated: ”My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir,” Limbaugh wrote in a released statement. “I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices.”

Fluke went on The View this morning to explain the case she brought to Congress and to urge viewers to boycott media pundits and personalities who consistently insult and degrade women. We applaud her courage and her very eloquent stance on the whole issue. We’re sure by now that she has job offers rolling in from Washington DC.

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Condoms, birth control pills, the coil, progesterone injections, and even implants can stop Gemma Potter from getting pregnant. The 23-year-old has conceived six times in five years, and is currently a mother of three with one on the way.

Although it only takes “one time” to get pregnant, Potter says she and her husband, Glenn, only had sex three times since September for fear that she would end up pregnant, and it still happened. She’s accused doctors of not taking her pregnancy woes seriously, considering the contraception journey she’s been on.

Potter was on the pill when she met her husband in May 2006, but she ended up pregnant three months later. She went back on the pill in May 2007, but by August she was pregnant again with her second child. Four weeks after her daughter was born, doctors told her to try the coil, saying it is the most effective form of contraception. She had it fitted in June 2008, but became pregnant again by November 2008. This time she miscarried at six weeks.

Switching to a contraceptive injection that was administered every 12 weeks didn’t help either. Potter had her second daughter after getting married in 2009. Next, she tried an implant which is said to be 99% effective, yet she still wound up pregnant and miscarried at 11 weeks. Now, back on the pill, Potter is 10 weeks pregnant again.

“I love my children but I don’t want any more. Unfortunately, termination just isn’t an option for us as it is not something I agree with,” she says.

“I can’t go out with my friends or have a drink because I am constantly pregnant. I have also completely missed out on having a job or any kind of career on my own.”

The financial burden of the children could also prove difficult down the line, she says.

“Thinking of other people that can’t have children makes me feel awful. Some people can try for years and years and it’s just not meant to be whereas I can’t stop getting pregnant.

“If I keep having children and it gets to the stage that I can’t afford them any more I would consider surrogacy.”

Maybe Potter needs to go back to the basics with the rhythm method or double up with perhaps a condom and another form of birth control. At this point, even a vasectomy or tubal ligation should be in order.

Have you ever heard of anything like this?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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(Rolling Out) — Teen pregnancy rates, which once warranted national conversation, are the lowest they have been in the past 20 years. Shows like “Teen Mom” and “16 and Pregnant” have helped keep the topic on the social forefront, and the attention tactic appears to be working.  In 2009, around 410,000 teenage girls, ages 15 to 19, gave birth in the United States. That’s a 37 percent decrease from the teen birth rate in previous years. In a press release attached to the new Vital Signs Report, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the CDC, wrote that, despite the steady reduction in teen pregnancies over the last two decades, “still far too many teens are having babies.” Approximately 1,100 teenage girls give birth every day with the majority being of Hispanic and African American backgrounds.

Read More…

Scientists have been trying to develop male birth control for years now. Today, they  claim the latest version of this medical wonder has no side effects.
The drug temporarily stops semen production but causes no harm to fertility later on down the line.

So far the drug, developed by researchers at Columbia University, has only been tested on mice. But there is speculation that it could be on shelves in near future.

You can read more about this pill and how it works at the Daily Mail.

Ladies and gentlemen, do you think men would willingly share in the responsibility of preventing pregnancies?

Ladies, would you trust your man enough to abandon your own birth control regimen?

All, what do you think such a pill would mean for the number of babies born to single parents, abortion rates etc.?

(Daily Finance) — For women who don’t have regular access to affordable birth control — or who find themselves in an emergency — the birth control black market is just a click away. On Craigslist in New York City, a two-month supply of Yaz birth control pills is available for $60. A year’s worth of Ortho-Cyclen can be found for $50 in Los Angeles. And emergency morning-after pills, such as the over-the-counter Plan B, are available for $15, a considerable markdown from the $48 prices in pharmacies.  Such online listings demonstrate a continued need for affordable and easily accessed contraception, says Dr. Vanessa Cullins, vice president for medical affairs at Planned Parenthood Federation of America.  ”We need to look at alternative avenues to provide birth-control services and viable options to women having to come into an office to be seen for each and every pill-refill visit,” she says. “When women are pushed against a wall, they will take action on their own.”  Dr. Cullins says that birth control pills and emergency contraception are very safe to use for nearly all women. Her primary safety concern for women who acquire their pills through back channels is the possibility the pills might have been tampered with or that the medication might have expired.

Sex can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be, but a confident choice in contraception can be one less thing to worry about and allow you to focus on pleasure and not paranoia.

The good news is that your birth control options now include devices that are less invasive than the dated diaphragm and more dependable than “pulling out.” The bad news is that with so many choices, the decision-making process can be intimidating and overwhelming.

The important thing to keep in mind is that birth control should be a personal, individual and realistic choice.  Are you only on the pill because your friend loves it?  What about lambskin vs. latex?  Which material best fits your lifestyle?  Many methods can affect each woman differently and it’s important to choose a contraceptive that YOU will use correctly and consistently.  Don’t know where to start?  Try answering some of the following questions:

When I was 11, the closest I got to “loving” a boy was swooning over “Candy Girl” singers, New Edition. Needless to say, times have changed since then…or so one study leads us to believe.

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This year marked the 50th anniversary of the most popular form of birth control, the pill. According to statistics from the National Survey of Family Growth, 78% of sisters are using the pill.

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