NEWS: Latest News from the War on Women

POLITICS: Latest News from the War on Women

If you're in college, you may have noticed that the cost of your birth control's gone way up.

This is annoying, of course; but it also contributes to systemic discrimination. College students are often kinda broke--having to pay for birth control is an expense women have, and men don't. So women are a little bit broker having to buy birth control; and now they're a little bit broker still, since it costs two or three times more than it did last year.

Same with health insurance not covering birth control: there's an out-of-pocket expense that women have, and men don't.

It seems petty, but it adds up. If you have to scrimp at the beginning of the semester by, say, postponing buying a book or two, then you might be a little behind; if you have to work an extra hour or two a week in order to afford birth control, you have a little less time to study. And if you run out of pills and are too broke to afford to replace 'em for a week or two, and you take a gamble, well then, you're up shit creek.

Does this kind of thing constitute systematic sexism? You tell me.

Bitch PhD remembers having to budget for things like tooth brushes and birth control pills, and is glad those days are behind her now.

Mine actually hasn't gone up at all...it's still $15 with the rest of it covered by in insurance plan....

It's unfortunate that the government is doing this though. Although, I will state that before I went on the pill my boyfriend always paid for condoms etc...which are actually more expensive in retrospect than the $15 a month I now spend.

Every College campus I've visited has had a health clinic that hands out free condoms,although I suppose using both condoms (which college students should be doing anyway) and hormonal birth control does allow for a certain amount of 'backup' should one or the other fail. On the other hand, I'm sure the parties responsible for gutting our public health care systems would like to see the free distribution of condoms done away with as well.

You are such a fucking one trick pony.

Is that what you want me to tell you?

Are condoms not a birth control expense that guys are usually landed with?
While I'm sure the price of those hasn't gone up they are nonetheless something which health insurance doesn't cover and neither does any other health service.

Anyway, it just means more soliders for future wars!

There's always free condoms to be had on a college campus. Always. Go to the university's student health center and ask for them.

Of course, that takes away the sexiness of being a martyr, but you can't have everything you want in life.

Yea! She should write newswire articles about a wide array of topics, like you do.

I am in college. But I have not noticed that the cost of my birth control's gone way up. In fact, I haven't even noticed that I have birth control.

Not always.

the Government needs more BABIES!! Do your duty!!!

They haven't gone up at my pharmacy. And people tend to complain loudly about the cost of drugs, esp when they go up.

If I remember correctly there was some sort of study that said that women by more condoms than men. Anyone else heard of this?

When I was on bc I only paid 3 bucks for it, but I am also a depedent of an active duty member of the Military. Also you can get reduced rate bc at any health dept. even if you have insurance, on medicaid or not. And in some states if you are under age you can get it for free and confidential there as well.

This is part of the " War On Women" ?

Gawd, ain't it the truth? It's always up to someone else to take care of me.

There's other much more natural ways to prevent pregnancy besides becoming a ward of big pharma. Like condoms. Like oral sex and mutual masturbation. Like not fucking when you're ovulating.

Joe Organic has spoken.

if it were anybody but Bush, i'd say you were grasping at straws. because it's Bush, though, i'd say there's at least a decent likelihood of an agenda, or at least a lack of concern for the impact on certain sectors. even there, though, i wouldn't call it discrimination against women, per se, just a discrimination against those whose lifestyle choices require them to purchase birth control pills. in other words, Bush doesn't hate you because you have teh vagynas, he hates you because you're using it and you're not married.

war on women, seriously? ok, i know you're not serious and you're just trollling, but i'll go ahead anyway.

i think the clue there is the "didn't forsee" part. i know this administration manages to be perfectly good at maintaining a war overseas without any evidence of planning, but all they did was take money from anywhere they thought people wouldn't notice to fund the actual war. this has had an unforeseeable effect on one thing that effects women slightly more than men ('cause when they get knocked up 'cause they felt like chancing it then it's everyone's problem) and that's an incredibly long way from having a woman hating agenda of rage.

do you know that sounds like you don't brush your teeth anymore?

isn't this a free market economy? why is it the government's responsibility to pay for your pills? buy them your own damn self, i've got my own bills to pay.
oh yeah, when did birth control pills become a necessity? i realize some girls are prescribed them early on for medical reasons, but still.

How about read her last, oh say, EVERY article and then tell us she isn't.

She has one view on the world and that is "The whole world is out to get women."

Sure, fucked up things happen and dumb choices made. If ever effects a man, that's just life. If a woman is ever involved then it is sexism.

Goddamn fucking Bush administration! It's all HIS fault!!!

I pay for my girlfriend's birth control, because she can't afford it and I don't want to go back to condoms. I don't know how many other men are in this situation, but surely I'm not alone.

and yeah, the price increase sucks.

Men are expected to buy condoms, among other expenses like usually paying for a woman when they go out, and other costs. Don't give me this bullshit about how it's so unfair that women get saddled with paying for birth control. Some health insurance providers cover it and on top of that it's not something they NEED to have.

Everything you do in life is risky. You've got decide for yourself whether the risks are worth the rewards. And whether the resources needed to overcome those risks are worth it as well. Condoms are an alternative to birth control pills and as someone has pointed out, they're free some places or women can always demand men provide them. But women aren't going to die if they can't get birth control. They can simply decide to abstain, just like a man who doesn't want to pay for condoms can abstain so he doesn't put himself at risk for STD's.

But finally, this isn't an assault on WOMEN. It's an OOPS that went into the budget. It's something most people didn't even realize was there. There are plenty of groups already lobbying to put back the extra protections that were given.

Welcome to the actual price of the commodity you've been enjoying.

Hyperbolize much?

Regardless of the right or wrong of the criticisms here, I'm kind of disturbed by the all-male chorus of "Bullshit!" cries this story has generated.

Don't you guys have anything better to do than make fun of feminists?