OMG! Cultural Suicide!11!!! (Part II)

[Burris]

As some of you may recall, I recently wrote about how Jennie Chancey's brief but tragic loss of high speed internet kept her out of the “Obamacare†Contraceptive debate.

Chancey promised – or, more accurately, warned – this wouldn't be her last foray into into the discussion on birth control. As with her previous article, this latest effort is laced from beginning to end with nonsense – starting with the title: “Why the Contraception Debate Isn’t About 'Women’s Health'â€

Here, in the simplest terms I can use, is the problem with that title.

1) The process of pregnancy is a woman's health issue.

2) Avoiding pregnancy is also a woman's health issue.

3) Oral contraception, prescribed by doctors, is used primarily to prevent unwanted pregnancy.

4) The contraception debate is about women's health.

Chancey claims to believe otherwise, however, arguing that the debate is really about who should have to pay for contraception – well that, and she also argues in earnest, as her title says, that oral contraception isn't a women's health issue.

She writes...

The debate is squarely centered over who is obligated to pay for health care and what constitutes said health care. According to feminists and other pro-taxpayer-funded “health†activists, hormonal contraceptives absolutely fall under the “health care†heading, so anyone opposed to state-funded birth control is simply out to get women and deny them their right to good health.

Actually, no; the debate is much wider than that: For Chancey and her fellow Randroids, it's about whether or not the state is obligated to pay for any kind of healthcare ever.

This bit about oral contraceptives is simply a branch issue in which Chancey has a keen interest – an interest borne of her desire to control the private lives and beliefs of other women.

Chancey nonetheless argues that the birth control-as-health-issue is “patent nonsense,†and goes on to quote from two different articles that are meant to provide evidence of her claims.

The second of these articles is entirely irrelevant to this discussion. It concerns an Australian woman who allegedly died as a result of taking “the abortion pill.†I will not be addressing that because it has nothing to do with regular oral contraception or with conditions in the United States.

I will, however, take on the first article.

Chancey links to a piece written by Jacqueline Harvey, who suffers from endometriosis. The title of Harvey's article is, “Contraception Isn’t Healthcare; It Isn’t Even Helpful.â€

Harvey writes...

Although the exception rather than the rule, those demanding free oral birth control quickly and often point out those women who need birth control to treat their medical conditions. They become downright indignant and sanctimonious about those poor women, those poor women in pain, who will suffer if the government doesn’t force religious organizations to provide free birth control for everyone...

Feminist blogger Amanda Marcotte has been covering this issue for a long time now. I don't always agree with what Marcotte has to say, but she has done a yeoman’s job paddling up the river of bullshit being produced by people such as Jennie Chancey and Jacqueline Harvey.

I'll let her speak to Harvey's claim:

Four Ways to Show How the "Religious Liberty" Claim Against Contraceptive Coverage Is Nonsense

Birth Control Spawns Right Wing Hysteria

Expanded Access to Contraception? No Wonder the Right is So Scared

Harvey continues...

I will state the obvious: Contraception is about contraception, not my medical affliction. We’ve established that contraception is insufficient in addressing medical problems anyway and rather causes more medical problems, but even if it the pill did appropriately treat my medical condition, most women want contraception for contraception…. This battle that these so-called feminists are waging supposedly on my behalf is exploiting my disease so they can have free birth control. These are healthy women who want a pill to make their bodies unhealthy (and infertile) at their whim. Meanwhile, women like me with legitimate health problems who want to protect our fertility are left without acceptable options. This “poor woman†found and paid for her own treatments in spite of those who feign to care about her and are using her for selfish gain. I took care of myself. Since getting birth control is infinitely easier than what I endured, is it too much to expect these women to take care of themselves as well?

Well, I'll give Harvey points for honesty. Let's unpack what she's saying:

** She flatly argues that because oral contraception didn't help her condition in a way that allowed her to continue bearing children, it simply doesn't work.

** She assumes that the people arguing that oral contraception has other medical uses than merely preventing pregnancy are “exploiting†her – i.e., Harvey's – condition. It never occurs to her that some of the women making that argument have themselves benefited from the use of contraceptives in treating symptoms of endometriosis.

** It never occurs to her that PCOS and menorrhagia can be successfully treated with oral contraceptives as well.

** She argues that oral contraception makes women unhealthy.

** She implies that women who use birth control primarily to prevent pregnancy or engaging in a morally questionable practice, which they are allegedly trying to hide.

She is haunted by the idea that someone, somewhere is being treated with more dignity and respect than 'loose morals' should permit.

In other words, Harvey's article is naval-gazing shite and Chancey favorably quoted it thinking that would somehow shore up her own bad arguments.

After having quoted these portions of Harvey's article (along with the other one I mention above), Chancey then continues with her own illogical nonsense:

If so-called “women’s rights activists†really care about women, why do they continue to push a chemical/ hormonal cocktail with known medical risks (including, but not limited to stroke, loss of natural libido, and early abortion)?

Oh, wow. I know I should just stick to the arguments and take the high road, but Chancey's argument here is powerfully stupid.

I suffered some serious injuries in a skydiving accident eight years ago that have left me with arthritis in my left ankle, which was crushed in a bad landing, as well as in my lower back. For this condition, I take a medication called Celebrex, the potential side-effects of which include, but are not limited to, GI bleeding, stomach ulcers, high blood pressure, and liver damage.

But I judged that the improvements made to my quality of life outweigh the potential dangers of that medication.

It's the same balancing act everyone with any kind of medical condition has to consider: Almost every medication has side effects, some of which can be terrible for a small number of people.

If “Lack of Side Effects†were the bar by which medications must be measured before they can be released to the public, we'd be back to leeches, magic spells, and little else.

So, in answer to Chancey's stupid question, doctors offer women oral contraceptives because those women either want to prevent pregnancy or because the use of said medication could help mitigate the effects of conditions such as menorrhagia.

Women themselves are expected to weigh the pros and cons of each treatment plan and decide for themselves.

I know! Women have moral agency and autonomy! Shocking!

But Chancey is not done. She has one more thing to say:

Why do they celebrate a pill that can terminate a child but also has the possibility of killing the mother in the process? It really begs the question: Who is pro-woman? Is it the pill-pushers (who want taxpayers to fund their habits) or those out there seeking real solutions to genuine women’s health issues without resorting to deadly means (funded through our tax dollars)?

So, to clarify, one woman in Australia died from having taken an “abortion pill,†which means regular contraception is deadly not only to women but also to all these babies allegedly being killed by a pill that prevents ovulation.

And yet she wonders why people are painting her and her fringe fighters as uneducated rubes.

[fluttershies]

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

Pregnancy can cause miscarriages and the death of women in the process. I guess we should ban that too, right?