# What's the big deal about birth control? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 17, 2015, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-birth-control/731549 "2015-09-17T08:40:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-birth-control/731549/1 "2015-09-17T08:40:53Z")
Lately Democrats have been rushing to the defense of Planned Parenthood. Some are recycling the old claim that Planned Parenthood provides mammograms to those who couldn’t otherwise afford them–[which is not true](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/obamas-tonight-show-remark-planned-parenthood-provides-mammograms/2012/10/26/c07f331e-1f16-11e2-9cd5-b55c38388962_blog.html). Harry Reid said that Planned Parenthood “is the health care backbone for American women during their lives. In fact, it’s the only health care that a significant number of women get. About 30 percent of women, that’s their health care.” [Which is also not true](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/jul/31/harry-reid/harry-reid-says-30-women-rely-only-planned-parenth/). But his attempts to mislead the public on this matter got me thinking. It’s not just that Democrats say that Planned Parenthood, which actually focuses mostly on birth control, abortion, and STDs, is a general provider of health care. It’s that whenever they talk about “women’s health care” they only talk about abortion and birth control and occasionally other problems related to the reproductive system. If I got my information from Harry Reid, I’d never know that women have any body part other than the crotch. My wife has a fair number of health issues. She takes Armour Thyroid after having her thyroid removed three years ago. She takes Lipitor for cholesterol, Diuril for blood pressure, two different antidepressants for psychiatric reasons, and other medicines as needed. She also takes “the pill” to prevent pregnancy; this is the only medication she takes that isn’t for curing or preventing disease. Under the regulations created by the Obama Administration, her health insurance company is required by law to pay the full cost of her birth control pills. They are not required to pay the full cost of the medicines she takes for medical reasons, nor the full cost of most of her doctor visits and other medical procedures. She has to pay part of the cost of those things, and pay she does, reaching her out-of-pocket maximum in each of the past three years. It makes no sense to me that her health insurance is required to fully cover what’s not vital to her health, but isn’t required to fully cover what is vital to her health. (There are, of course, some women who take birth control to treat medical conditions; even so, it’s hard to grok why birth control would be considered more important than life-saving medicines.) This obsession with birth control manifests in other ways as well. Witness the absurd panics about how a small number of employers choosing not to cover certain types of birth control for religious reasons were supposedly trying to deny women access to birth control. Of course, when employers don’t fully cover Armour Thyroid or Lipitor, no one says that they’re trying to deny women access to Armour Thyroid or Lipitor. Obviously the claim that anyone is being denied access to birth control is false; even if an employer’s insurance doesn’t cover birth control, any female employee can buy different insurance, or buy birth control directly, or get it for free from countless places. Numerous places offer birth control for free, but no one that I know of offers Armour Thyroid or Lipitor for free. [The government itself has found](http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_23/sr23_029.pdf) that all women in the country have had access to birth control for decades. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-birth-control/731549/2 "2015-09-17T10:51:57Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > Some are recycling the old claim that Planned Parenthood provides mammograms to those who couldn’t otherwise afford them–[which is not true](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/obamas-tonight-show-remark-planned-parenthood-provides-mammograms/2012/10/26/c07f331e-1f16-11e2-9cd5-b55c38388962_blog.html). The article to which you linked does not quite say what you claimed it said. Not a good start to this thread. To quote the article: > [@](#): > > The problem here is that Planned Parenthood does not perform mammograms or even possess the necessary equipment to do so. As such, the organization certainly does not “provide” mammograms in the strict sense. Instead, its clinics provide referrals and direct low-income women toward resources to help pay for the procedure. While the “strict sense” is not met, the fact that they provide both the referrals and information about funding indicates that they do–for women who do not have primary care physicians–“provide” the ability to get the screenings. Obama was at least as accurate as the organziation that challenged his remarks that relied on nit picking. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-birth-control/731549/3 "2015-09-17T11:01:36Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > [The government itself has found](http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_23/sr23_029.pdf) that all women in the country have had access to birth control for decades. Cite please? I searched for the word “access” in that .pdf and found only one usage, on page 50 of 54 (Appendix II: Definitions of Terms): > [@](#): > > Differences among white, black, and Hispanic women in the variables presented in the tables may be related to the lower income and educational levels of black and Hispanic women (36, Tables 222, 223, 262, 569, 602, 669, 671, 689, 699) their limited access to health care and health insurance, the communities in which they live (37), and other factors. There is no other use of the word “access” in that report. So far you seem to be batting 0 for 2 (.000) in your OP. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-birth-control/731549/4 "2015-09-17T11:27:00Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > The article to which you linked does not quite say what you claimed it said. Not a good start to this thread. > To quote the article: While the “strict sense” is not met, the fact that they provide both the referrals and information about funding indicates that they do–for women who do not have primary care physicians–“provide” the ability to get the screenings. Obama was at least as accurate as the organziation that challenged his remarks that relied on nit picking. From Snopes: > [@](#): > > It is true in a literal sense that Planned Parenthood health centers do not themselves conduct mammograms (a procedure which requires specialized equipment and expertise to use it). Planned Parenthood offers comprehensive breast health care management, which includes manual breast exams as well as patient education on breast health. That care management program includes providing women with information about mammograms, referring them to health centers where they can obtain mammograms, and assisting them in covering the costs of the procedure by referring them to government programs that provide free mammograms or by using grant funds to reimburse the medical providers who perform the mammograms. (Referrals for mammograms often require the patient has undergone a breast exam within the previous year.) > Read more at [Does Planned Parenthood Perform Mammograms? | Snopes.com](http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/mammograms.asp#tdEVFVx0kHdiCQum.99) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-birth-control/731549/5 "2015-09-17T11:31:45Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > This obsession with birth control manifests in other ways as well. Witness the absurd panics about how a small number of employers choosing not to cover certain types of birth control for religious reasons were supposedly trying to deny women access to birth control. Of course, when employers don’t fully cover Armour Thyroid or Lipitor, no one says that they’re trying to deny women access to Armour Thyroid or Lipitor. Obviously the claim that anyone is being denied access to birth control is false; even if an employer’s insurance doesn’t cover birth control, any female employee can buy different insurance, or buy birth control directly, or get it for free from countless places. Numerous places offer birth control for free, but no one that I know of offers Armour Thyroid or Lipitor for free. [The government itself has found](http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_23/sr23_029.pdf) that all women in the country have had access to birth control for decades. Not according to these folks: > **[Pharmacy Refusals 101 - National Women's Law Center](https://nwlc.org/resource/pharmacy-refusals-101/)** > > Contraception is Basic Health Care. Family planning is central to good health care. Access to contraception is critical to preventing unintended pregnancies and to enabling individuals to control the timing and spacing of their pregnancies.... > [@](#): > > Refusal to Dispense Contraception are Increasing > ◾Reports of pharmacies refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control—or provide EC—have surfaced in at least twenty-five states across the nation, including: AZ, CA, DC, GA, IL, LA, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NH, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, OR, RI, TN, TX, VA, WA, WV, WI. > ◾These refusals to dispense prescription contraceptives or provide EC are based on personal beliefs, not on legitimate medical or professional concerns. The same pharmacies that refuse to dispense contraceptives because of personal beliefs often refuse to transfer a woman’s prescription or refer her to another pharmacy. These refusals can have devastating consequences for women’s health. “EC” = Emergency Contraception “The Morning-After Pill” ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-birth-control/731549/6 "2015-09-17T11:34:43Z")
Up to half of the population at any time might take the pill. Only a small fraction will take even the most common prescription drugs. Can you not see why that might cause birthcontrol to be more thoroughly funded? ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-birth-control/731549/7 "2015-09-17T11:53:09Z")
Also, the same principles used to withhold birth control are also used to justify many other things, some with far reaching implications. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-birth-control/731549/8 "2015-09-17T11:55:48Z")
It also seems to me that business owners should be strongly in favor of birth control. After all, what employer likes having their workers go on maternity leave? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-birth-control/731549/9 "2015-09-17T12:03:32Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > It also seems to me that business owners should be strongly in favor of birth control. After all, what employer likes having their workers go on maternity leave? The religious right that isn’t going to pay for it anyways. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-birth-control/731549/10 "2015-09-17T12:08:01Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > If I got my information from Harry Reid, I’d never know that women have any body part other than the crotch. If you get your information from Republicans, you might assume Planned Parenthood is a literal gateway to Hell, with helpful kiosks along the way for human sacrifice, money changing, and making oaths to Satan. Many Americans get their information from Republicans, it seems. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-birth-control/731549/11 "2015-09-17T13:00:31Z")
Teen pregnancies are bad for society, as are unplanned pregnancies in general when the parents aren’t ready, either economically or emotionally, to raise a child. It’s a problem that disproportionately affects women, causing them to drop out of their education track early (be it in high school or forcing them to earn income instead of going to college or grad school). Suggesting young people try abstinence has one of the worst track records of any idea ever. Birth control works. If birth control is easy to access, then society gets better. And you might think that being able to go buy affordable birth control is good enough, but young people are idiots. Birth control needs to be stupidly easy to obtain. It’s one of the greatest bargains for society, and that’s why we’re obsessed with it. I really don’t understand the right’s war on birth control. I get that you don’t want to pay for anyone else’s stuff, because your money is sacred, but in the long run it’s going to save everyone money. And yeah, none of these little attacks on birth control are a huge deal in their own right. But the evidence is pretty unambiguous. Societies in which parents delay having children until later in life are _so much better_ than societies in which people have lots of kids starting at an early age that I really can’t see why there’s a debate. Widespread use of effective birth control is one of the single greatest things a country can do to elevate itself in global rankings. Why the war against it? ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-birth-control/731549/12 "2015-09-17T13:10:33Z")
Guy says that birth control pills aren’t a big deal. “You’ve come a long way, baby.” Anyway, whether you’re pro-choice or pro-life, I think an important part of the calculation on birth control pill policy is this: 1. Make birth control and EC easier to get and reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and abortions, or… 2. Make them harder to get and increase the number of unwanted pregnancies and abortions. Who in their right mind would want to see policies adopted that would likely increase the number of abortions? ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-birth-control/731549/13 "2015-09-17T13:20:43Z")
To claim that referring to breast cancer and birth control means that the speaker thinks those are the only health issues that women face is disingenuous to the extreme. Nobody would ever claim calling prostate cancer a “men’s health issue” was ignoring all the other health problems men could have. Those topics are discussed because they are unique to women and, more importantly, because their access is under constant attack by the religious right. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-birth-control/731549/14 "2015-09-17T13:26:32Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Who in their right mind would want to see policies adopted that would likely increase the number of abortions? People that see birth control as morally wrong and those that believe that sex is only for procreation and/or feel that if you have sex an unwanted pregnancy is a suitable punishment. Also, I think you’re missing the fact(?) that people that don’t want birth control covered are likely also going to be very pro-life. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-birth-control/731549/15 "2015-09-17T13:30:08Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > … But his attempts to mislead the public on this matter got me thinking. I know nothing about Planned Parenthood, but I oppose attempts to mislead the public. I’ve heard that Planned Parenthood is in business to profit by “selling baby parts.” **Champion** , can you use your Google skills to inform us about this? ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-birth-control/731549/16 "2015-09-17T13:30:32Z")
Freely available birth control is the single best way to cut down on abortions. You’d think that the pro-lifers would be stumbling over themselves to make BC available… ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-birth-control/731549/17 "2015-09-17T13:34:38Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > People that see birth control as morally wrong and those that believe that sex is only for procreation and/or feel that if you have sex an unwanted pregnancy is a suitable punishment. > > Also, I think you’re missing the fact(?) that people that don’t want birth control covered are likely also going to be very pro-life. I did say “who in their **right mind** ,” which can be translated to mean the 90% of people who don’t believe birth control is morally wrong. There are, of course, single-digit percentage of Americans who deny science to make up lies about how birth control pills work. But even among Catholics, the number of people who think birth control is morally wrong is actually really small. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-birth-control/731549/18 "2015-09-17T13:34:42Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Who in their right mind would want to see policies adopted that would likely increase the number of abortions? The Republican controlled legislature of Colorado, that’s who. [Relevant cite](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/06/science/colorados-push-against-teenage-pregnancies-is-a-startling-success.html?_r=0). ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-birth-control/731549/19 "2015-09-17T13:37:47Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Guy says that birth control pills aren’t a big deal. “You’ve come a long way, baby.” > > Anyway, whether you’re pro-choice or pro-life, I think an important part of the calculation on birth control pill policy is this: > > 1. Make birth control and EC easier to get and reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and abortions, or… > 2. Make them harder to get and increase the number of unwanted pregnancies and abortions. > > Who in their **right** mind would want to see policies adopted that would likely increase the number of abortions? Emphasis added. I see what you did there! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-birth-control/731549/20 "2015-09-17T13:40:06Z")
Well I am one of those 30 percent that got my birth control and other health care from PP when I was too young and poor to afford anything else. PP is more than just birth control; it’s a judgment-free zone where you know they will give you birth control - sell it to you, whatever - and totally accept that you need it. They will not snicker, or make comments or even worse, tell you you don’t need it. At 39 I don’t give a shit what people say and buy anything I need. At 20, hell no, I needed PP. The “obsession” with birth control stems from the fact that birth control for the first time allows women to control their destinies. We don’t have to be pregnant just cause someone says so. We can plan our pregnancies. I think this, more than anything, is what gets Republicans in a tizzy, and I pretty much think that all of this complaining is an effort to get women back into the homes, making babies and taking care of them, instead of standing out in their fields, speaking out. One more thing. I feel like people always look to the well-off white women when they are speaking about this. Your wife is on all of those drugs - I take some daily pills, too. She has health insurance. I have health insurance. And now there’s Obamacare. Is it so hard to look at the minority women who are working at McDonald’s or a diner or really wherever they can get work and realize until very recently they didn’t have health care? It was always tied to their jobs and quite often even if they had it it was bare bones. I went quite a few times without health care - like when I was a temp worker, for example. I had money then, but I still went to PP. Hell you can’t tell me there aren’t poor white women working at these places who still have no money. **Shodan** and others are great proponents of “rules” in life. One of their rules, which I agree with, is “don’t have children until you can afford it”. To do this, though, you need to have everyone have access to birth control and we need to 100% legitimize it. No calling Sandra Fluke a slut because she wants some. Republicans make no sense. On the one hand they are spitting invectives about all of the welfare moms and their umpteen babies. On the other hand they are trash-talking anyone who wants birth control and limiting access to birth control left and right. On the third hand they demonize abortion! But abortions will only go down with education and birth control! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-birth-control/731549.md?page=2)