Saturday, October 13, 2012

Some thoughts about Oral Contraception, 2012 Elections, and Freedom




First let’s be clear: I’m a radical feminist and a true libertarian in that I strongly believe in people’ right, aptitude and responsibility to make decisions and choices regarding their own lives; I also believe that the vital process of personal decision-making should be free of interest-groups’ incentives and manipulations.
The way I read into the current Republican’ agenda concerning with oral contraception (NOT regarding abortions etc.) is simply all about minimal government-intervention, as well as – of course - budgetary factors. In simple: They argue that health-insurance should not cover for those pills.   
Mmmm
Well, in the 12 years that I live in the US, I had first a university’ insurance for foreigner students, and later Blue Cross through my employer .Never did I have any of those policies paying for my pills. But let’s leave private insurance companies aside for the thinking experiment…let’s pretend (and hope!) that one day this country will provide all its legal inhabitants with a quality health insurance, hei, a woman can dream…now lets’ meditate further, realizing that if we want to this insurance to cover everything, we will find ourselves paying even higher taxes than we already pay, or we want to have a situation allowing the individual to make some serious choices as for what kind of insurance s/he wants/needs.
Another important question to consider: Do we believe and want the governmental to pay for our life-style choices? If we do, then we have to bring into consideration governmental subsidies for vitamins/supplement, sleeping aid, diet pills or mood stabilizers. If we are OK with such a scenario, then fine, but then we want to consider some universal standards, while understanding the financial consequences.
In other words, taking an oral contraception is a life-style choice (which I do not condemn), it is not a health issue!
And when it comes to life-style choices that may lead to larger issues, then we have much more burning problems, like the fact that most people here are well…how shall I put it nicely….fat and legally drug addicts. And if we already in the issue of legal-drugs and food addictions, then just as I don’t want a government to regulate what I eat, how I educate my children, what news I watch/read, or legitimate moods and their manipulations, I also do not want a government to protect the interests of those who end up controlling and manipulating what I eat, how I educate my children, what I watch/read in the news and how I feel and treat those feelings.
Back to the Pill.
When I was a teenager my mother – with the good intentions of a 70’s feminist – took me to her gynecologist for a first check-up and to introduce me to the pill. That didn’t mean it was about to happen, but at least I was in the know, “just in case…”
The result was that of course I ended up being more “liberal” about my sexual choices, and those who are now clucking their tongues, ask yourself one simple question:
If you were given a magic pill that allow you to eat any food you want without the risk of getting fat (no pun intended) – would you?! The answer is absofuckinlutely yes! Of course there are other negative effects to eating bad food: Cholesterol, acne, mood-swing, weaken immune system, to name a few. The problem is that A. most of us don’t care about something they don’t suffer from immediately; and B. most of us don’t know at a young age about those additional unavoidable side effects.
Same thing with the pill. Not only that it does open the door to a more “uninhibited” behavior, but it also leads to different unavoidable side effects from which all women suffer in one way/degree or another: yeast infections, hormonal unbalances, possible difficulties to get pregnant, mood-swing, cysts, and the worst of all - a total disconnect from one’s body cycle.    
In addition, it leaves men – as usual – irresponsible, free to enjoy themselves as much as they like (after all, on the Pill period can be as short as non-existing…), transmitting diseases and emotional abysses without thinking twice.
And we call that women-liberation? Liberation from what exactly? From knowing our bodies? From being connected to the natural elements, whether those are the lunar-cycle or our community-sisters’ cycles? Free from putting men to take some responsibilities? 
Again, in my view everyone should be responsible for their lives and be able to make their own life-style choices, but for that to happen, we have to educate our children, girls and boys rather than make the pills a political issue, because it’s no more political than the millions of Americans who consume mass-produced processed food or mood-stabilizers delivered to them by their physician who got incentives from the pharmaceutical company who in turn got a sweet little tax-cut…

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