Regardless of your stance on abortion, every woman has the right to take preventative measures against unwanted pregnancy... or do they?
Last week, Planned Parenthood participated in a campaign called #ThxBirthControl, encouraging people to share their thanks for the role birth control plays in their lives. In October of this year, the House voted to allow various states to defund Planned Parenthood as a whole, ultimately voting to cut its government funding. There have also been legal measures taken nationwide to allow employers to deny their workers coverage for contraception.
The organization has responded with thoughtful campaigning, interviews and notably, social media interaction. 2015 launched a tirade against Planned Parenthood, the ubiquitous family-planning medical center. American culture has conditioned us to believe that sex is dirty, bad and that Planned Parenthood is only there to provide abortions. On the contrary, the facilities provide not only contraceptives, but also low-cost, life-saving preventative measures like pap smears, mammograms and the necessary blood work to monitor hormonal fluctuations in women’s health.
#ThxBirthControl was introduced on social media by Bedsider, an online birth control support network, in an effort to normalize the usage and presence of birth control in everyday society. The hashtag encouraged users to share their appreciation and experiences with the contraceptive out loud on social media. Women, men, couples and everyone in between participated; sharing their accomplishments, comforts and reassurance placed into their lives courtesy of birth control.
Different contraceptive devices, from the pill to an IUD, can aid in preventing various cancers. Countless studies have concluded that women – who make up roughly half of the American work force – earn more wages as a direct result of using contraception. Furthermore, the preventative measures provided by birth control allow women to dictate when they will become mothers, and the impact it will have on their career. The power is in their hands and the equation is simple: determine if you are ready for a child, choose a method and utilize it. The mere notion that taking preventative action can still cause the Supreme Court to rule against the rights of Planned Parenthood, and ultimately, the rights of women, is absurd.
Lifting the veil off of the stigma of contraception is, in my opinion, the most critical way to prevent an unwanted pregnancy. Barring the argument that women use certain contraception for various health issues, many still beg the question: if facilities like free clinics and Planned Parenthood exist, why don’t people just use them? It’s simple, and it’s disheartening – shame. Our culture and society promotes sex to sell everything from clothes to cars to even our food. And yet, we are pressured to only abstain, to treat it as dirty, to hide it away from the daylight and never discuss it.
It is this attitude that harms women distinctly, promoting a culture of shaming their choices, eliminating any security they have in exercising critical decisions in their health and sexuality. All of us possess bodily autonomy, and if a woman chooses to take the measures necessary to thwart a child from even happening, it is not the business of her neighbors, or her employer, or her government. #ThxBirthControl is a tiny drop in the bucket for changing such a vast cultural issue, but it is certainly an open, healthy start.
