NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Today marks the anniversary of a historic milestone in Americans’ access to birth control and the reproductive rights of women.
It was on this date in 1965 that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that married couples have the right to birth control in the case of Griswold v. Connecticut.
“And so it was an important ruling in terms that it allowed married couples to have access to contraceptives and it also sort of started what became the ‘privacy clause,’” explains Steven Emmert, chief operating officer of Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee. “That was the first time that was mentioned.”
The privacy clause refers to a woman’s right to privacy when it comes to reproductive issues.
Emmert says in the decades since, the expanded access to birth control has helped to improve the health and economic security of women in this country.
In 2014, birth control will be covered as a preventive benefit under the Affordable Care Act, without a co-pay, but Emmert notes that the battle over birth control is not over.
“We still have elected officials and bosses who don’t see birth control as basic health care,” he says. “But the fact of the matter is 99 percent of women who are sexually active have at some point in their life used birth control, and so it is basic health care.”
One person who can speak to the need of contraception as part of basic health care is 19-year-old Max Smith of Knoxville. Smith was a sexually active teen, who had pain with menstruation, but through Planned Parenthood was able to access free birth control.
“It made me a lot less worried in general about my life and my future and it made my amount of physical pain go down a whole lot,” she recalls. “Having birth control as accessible as any other medical need is absolutely vital for women’s basic health and basic freedom over their body and their life.”
It’s estimated that the average woman spends about five years pregnant or trying to become pregnant and three decades trying to avoid an unintended.
Planned Parenthood of Collier County!
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released its 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. This information has been collected since 1999 and includes 9th-12th grade students feedback from across 43 states. This survey about teen behavior is published every two years, covering health behaviors as well as teen sexual behavior.
So what did they find…
Pros:
- Of the 33% of sexually active students nationwide, 60% reported that either they or their partner had used a condom the last time they had sex
- Condom use and the use of backup birth control methods has increased
Cons:
- 84% percent of students had been taught in school about AIDS or HIV infection, down from 87% in 2009.
- The number of students experiencing dating violence has remained steady since 2005
Today the US House voted down Prenda, Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act. Prenda would have made it illegal to preform an abortion if the woman’s decision was motivated by gender. Violations to this law would have been a federal offense for health care providers. While doctors would not have the duty to ask a woman her motivations for an abortion, health workers could be imprisoned for up to a year for not reporting known or suspected violations of gender-based abortions.
“The administration opposes gender discrimination in all forms, but the end result of this legislation would be to subject doctors to criminal prosecution if they fail to determine the motivations behind a very personal and private decision,” White House spokeswoman Jamie Smith said in a statement to NPR. “The government should not intrude in medical decisions or private family matters in this way.”
This legislation was almost identical to a bill heard during Florida’s 2012 legislative session, that also did not pass. One of the biggest failings of this anti-choice bill is the lack of evidence that gender or race based abortions are occurring in the United States. Once again it seems lawmakers are not only positioning themselves in the private decisions of families, but also creating another narrative where women are removed from their unique and personal life choices.
At 12pm on Friday, May 18, tune-in and call-in to Southwest Florida’s Sound Off With Sasha to hear PPCC’s CEO Char Wendel speak on the topic of National Women’s Health Month. For our local friends, you can listen live on the radio via WGCU 90.1 FM or WMKO Marco 91.7 FM.
To voice your questions or thoughts live on the air call: 1-877-GCU-TALK
Last night, Rush Limbaugh stating what it means when a woman seeks affordable contraception:
“It makes her a slut, … and the rest of you Feminazis, here’s the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives … we want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.”
*In the 2nd wave of feminism in the 1960s and 1970s, the term “male chauvinist pig” orginated. A male chauvinist pig is a man who thinks that women are inferior or lesser then men and who acts on or makes statements to that effect.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013 NAPLES FL- Planned Parenthood of Collier County will participate in National HIV Testing Day by offering free HIV testing to anyone 17 and older.
Planned Parenthood of Collier County 