On Friday, a student-organized rally on the University of Texas at Austin campus applauded reforms intended to increase womens' access to birth control. Counterprotesters responded with their own anti-birth control message.
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Comments (33)
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
No one is forcing them to take birth control pills.
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Childbirth can be harmful to women.
Julie Joffee Covey via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Giving birth is harmful to women too but we still do it.
Mike Openshaw via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Nor should they be required to pay for others through via taxes. But then, what's even more asinine is government subsidizing purchases of Viagra and other classes of 'vanity' medications. That's a discussion to have.
Karen Hawkins via Texas Tribune on Facebook
seems that half of the dozen antibirthcontrol supporters were nuns. the others were just dumb.
Eugenia Beh via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Not all of us take birth control to prevent pregnancy. Did those motherfuckers on the other side ever hear of using it to regulate menstrual cycles or to prevent endometriosis?
Robert Adams via Texas Tribune on Facebook
We need a single payer system in America so there is no interference in the health of Americans, no question of employers not agreeing with the treatments, and so we can cut out the greedy insurance companies. Health for profit is just wrong.
Karen Hawkins via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I was first prescribed BC when I was 16 or 17 after bleeding profusely for 3 months straight. Hormone imbalance, but of course the AHoles protesting could care less.
Kay Wilkinson via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Sex Education, Birth Control and Woman's Right to choose in addition to each woman having 100% control of her own body is essential to having rights in America.
George Schwarz
If these idiots are going to legislate birth control, then every member of congress (notice I didn't capitalize as a form of disrespect) should file information that reveals the following:
1. Certify how many times a week they have sex with their spouse.
2. Certify how many times a week they have sex with their illicit lover(s) and whether the lover is of the same or opposite sex.
3. Certify which positions they use and how many times per week in each position for each of their lovers.
4. Certify what kind of birth control they or their partner uses if either are still fertile.
5. Certify whether any member of their family or close associates, including female lover(s), have gotten pregnant and what the disposition of the pregnancy was.
6. Provide the same contraceptive benefits to themselves and federal employees that they impose or restrict by legislation for the general public.
The filings should be in the form of an affidavit so that if found untrue, the congress person can be prosecuted for perjury.
Terry Wells via Texas Tribune on Facebook
@Kay ..wouldn't it be easier if you let a bunch of old celibate white dudes or perhaps a male politician make such decisions for you?
Sam Davis via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The Pill does carry risks and before women spoke up in the late sixties the pill carried much higher risks. The demand for safer birth control is not necessarily an anti-birth control message (but from the Catholics, well, maybe.)
Virginia Barton Mehaffie via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Very few things that we humans ingest, including most prescribed medications, are totally risk-free. Look at the lists of possible side effects on your prescription fact sheets.
José Escobar via Texas Tribune on Facebook
There were 43 counter-protesters, not "over a dozen", which implies a low turn out. But don't let the Soros funded "unbiased" Texas Tribune let facts get in the way of framing the story.
S.j. Thompson via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I'm astounded that this is even an issue. I was a teenager going to planned parenthood in the 80s and i don't remember any protests, nosy politicians pretending to care or any of this religious based overzealousness trying for force their version of morality on the rest of us. How have we ended up going backward, socially, politically and religiously in this country?
Katie Blackmon via Texas Tribune on Facebook
There are some serious side effects to the pill, but using condoms and spermicide diligently can be quite effective. Carrying a pregnancy to term and giving birth is quite risky too. Men have such a tiny contribution to pregnancy with no risk (except a possible STD) they need to stay the hell out of it.
Navy One
To destroy a life, or not destroy a life--that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the children
The slings and arrows of outrageous adult fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles caused by irresponsible parents
And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep--
No more--and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache of the children, and the thousand unnatural shocks
That flesh is heir to when Mommy & Daddy don't want you. 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished.
Mimi Purnell via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Saw a tweet earlier asking if the church was opposed to vasectomies? Don't know, don't care...no birth control-no sex!
Carol Parrish Hicks via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Yes the church does oppose any birth control but instead abstinence. But really the same no birth control, no sex. They just take it further. Save yourself for the right one and let God bring you together through him, with his blessings.
Carol Parrish Hicks via Texas Tribune on Facebook
And I couldn't agree more, guys need to stay out of it!
Sean Riley via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Telling somebody to spend their own money for something that is non-therapeutic is not the same thing as banning it. Typical of liberals to confuse uninformed people of this plain fact to further their agenda.
Navy One
Wait a second. So....if the guy leaves a pregnant woman he is being irresponsible but when it comes to his child living or dying he has no say? What sort of logic is that? There may be some planet where that sounds reasonable but its not this one.
Anya Khan
If the government will attack one Church they weill attack any or all
If the government takes away religious freedom, they will atake away any or all
Dinah Miller via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I remember learning in my Methodist Church as a teenager a word that describes people who practice natural family planning: parents.
Suzanne Hardie Lander via Texas Tribune on Facebook
They are spending their own money. Whether you pay for insurance out of your paycheck or it's a part of what an employer offers separately from your paycheck in exchange for the work you do, either way you're paying for it with your work.
Adele Roberson
The dismal way women are treated in this country and particularily in this State is nothing new..
We waited two hundred years to get the vote and have always been treated like second class citizens Even after women got the vote the men told them how to vote ... or else. . .Men had all the money and the women were barefoot and pregnant.
Not until the 1950 - 1970 did this deplorable situation start to change.
Now the younger women enjoy a life many of us only dreamed of when we were young. Young women do not know or choose not to remember what we went through so they can have a better life now... a life they take for granted.
Women are under fire now, again, please do not sit back and be unconcerned. If you do, you can find yourself barefoot and pregnant again... If you think this is all just about contraception you are naive. It is authority over women, the complete authority over women we should be alarmed about. What is happening right now should wake you up. You should know that it matters not whether you are a Democrat, or Republican, or have no political stance as yet, religious or an athiest, nothing is more important than you live your life as you see fit to live it. You must protect yourself. You must protect your daughters and your future daughters.
The uncontrolled religious fervor in this country right now is one of the most dangerous episodes I have lived through in my long life. TAKE HEED.
Janet Thomas
As usual the left has scewed the message. This is about abortion, which for the left is birth control. If you don't have money for birth control pills, don't mess around.
Caitlin Gilchrist
@Janet: Right. Because I should have to pay hundreds of dollars out of pocket every year to control a medical condition (not prevent pregnancy!) when my other prescriptions are covered just because a few extreme Catholics don't approve of birth control. Makes perfect sense. Just like how Jehovah's Witness employers refuse to cover blood transfusions, or Christian Science employers refuse to provide any healthcare coverage...oh wait...
Birth control is not abortion. Birth control *prevents* pregnancy, it doesn't end one. It's been shown time and again that when women can plan their pregnancies and space out their children, everyone is happier and healthier. To say women who can't afford it should just keep their legs together is not only naive (what about married couples?) but insulting to the millions of women who use birth control for reasons other than preventing pregnancy.
gypsy314 ne
It is sad there are so many that support the killing of the unborn may god have mercy on there soul.
Anyone BUT Obama and democrats!
Sam Davis via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The more the GOP takes their misogynistic approach on issues like family planning the more irrelevant they will become. Old white dudes like me have no business telling others how to run their lives.
Roger Calderon
I think some people are missing the bigger issue at hand. Does the Federal Government have the right to force a religious organization to do something that is against its teachings. Teachings that are not a threat to anyone? No one is asking that everyone be excluded from the mandate, just religious institutions. The majority who work in them, do so because they feel called to do. Not because of better pay or benefits.
Here are some real things to think about. If this law passes, will it set a precedent on what the Federal government can force a religious organization to do? What are the consequences if the religious organizations do not comply at all, even with the fines? Will the Federal Government close down churches?
Any thoughts?
Caitlin Gilchrist
@Roger: I think the problem is that those teaching *are* a threat. They threaten the health of the women who work for those institutions. I am fine with exemptions for institutions whose purpose is primarily religious in nature and who almost exclusively hire people of their own faith (churches, synagogues, etc.), but the hospitals and charities fighting this mandate aren't primarily religious in nature; they may be associated with a particular religion, but they hire and serve people of all faith and their main purpose is to help those in need, not promote their particular denomination. An employer cannot restrict medical coverage to his employees just because that medical coverage goes against his personal faith. That says that a person's own moral views, however strongly held, always trump another person's ability to access healthcare, and that's just not right. No one is requiring these religious institutions to pay for care they don't agree with, all we're asking is that it be readily available to their employees.
Helen Carvell
Watching the video and reading the comments tells me that the protestors are misinformed on two important areas:
1) that it is all about abortion. One woman talked about contraceptives aborting the baby. She is referring to the morning after pill, not birth control pills. They prevent a pregnancy from ever occurring by tricking the body into thinking it is already pregnant. No eggs are produced. That such ignorance abounds 50 years after the introduction of the pill is mind numbing.
2) the government's role in health care. Liberals are not interested in dictating anyone's behavior - just not restricting their rights. Eg. If a Catholic hospital is the only employer needing your skills, should you be bound by their rules? Even if you are not Catholic?
And for good measure, the fear tactics re: birth control pills were in vogue 50 years ago The active compounds have been dramatically reduced in today's versions. AND in Mexico and other countries they are available over the counter at about $5 a month. No medical supervision is provided. You haven't seen any fertility problems or deaths there have you? The pill is dangerous for those over 40, anyone who smokes or has a history of blood clots. Otherwise, they should be freely available. Aspirin is more dangerous.