dreamer_easy | (no subject)

Some personal thoughts on the abortion "debate" in Australia, and how it affects me directly. Luckily, I have never been confronted with the difficult choice, and I've never been terribly interested in the issue; but recently, I've had reason to think about it...

This year, not one but two forms of contraception have suddenly become unuseable for Jon and I - as long-time readers of this scribble will recall, the implant caused endless bleeding and the Pill gave me savage depression. Suddenly the accidental creation of a mini-Ormanblum has become a real worry. I feel like Sparrow and Stuart in

dykes2watchout4: "Maybe you should put on another condom." "I don't think a fourth one will fit!"

By combining condoms with contraceptive jelly, we've now reduced our chances almost to nil of inflicting the genes for diabetes, depression, anxiety panic disorder, inflammatory bowel disease, and alcoholism on an innocent sprog - not to mention saddling said pollywog with penniless parents and a mum barely well enough to look after cats. We are almost ludicrously cautious and responsible, with me taking pregnancy tests out of sheer paranoia.

The idea that some fool who doesn't know us insists that we cannot even be trusted with making a moral, intelligent, careful, informed decision is not only alarming, it's affronting. Don't they think we would pray? Don't they know I'm terrified of operations? The patronising, sleazy old bastards can get the hell out of our bedroom, our lives, and my body, and stay out.

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Amen! sister Kate!
There must be some women's groups there whom you can help to raise bloody hell!

This issue will rear its horrid head here fairly soon. It won't be pretty, I promise.

omg Elsie! Hello! How are things in your tree?

It won't be pretty, I promise.

Excellent! Give 'em hell. >:-)

http://www.birthcontrol.com/index.php?cPath=21

The Today Sponge still isn't available in the U.S. (as far as I can tell), but it is available in Canada, and there are a number of Canadian pharmacies that ship worldwide. (Note: The Today Sponge is the best known, and least expensive of the sponges, but there are others.)

The sponge has a high reliability and it's easy to use (I'm told -- I might note here that as a post-menapausal woman who is into her second decade post hysterectomy, I don't have personal experience here.)

I'll just add my suspicions that the reason it isn't available in the U.S. has to do with extreme difficulty getting any sort of birth control product past the FDA these days. (The sponge was used in the U.S. for a dozen years, mostly in the 1980s, then pulled from the market when there were problems with the manufacturing process [which never resulted in a single consumer injury]. The manufacturer stopped making it rather than investing in a plant upgrage. In 2003, a new company bought the rights to manufacture and market it again. But while it was quickly approved and went to market in Canada, the FDA has yet to sign off for sale in the United States.)

I find it frustrating (and not a little hypocritical) that the people who want to stop all abortions also try to stand in the way of any new contraceptive technology. It's clearly not the health and welfare of women they have on their minds.

Ta for the spongy info!

It's clearly not the health and welfare of women they have on their minds.

I'd have much more respect if they simply said "I believe abortion is wrong, it should be banned" than all of this "it's for your own good, dears" crap. There are individuals who honestly hold that opinion, but the gentlemen of church and parliament who lie and patronise are quite blatantly seeking to control women, not to protect children.

The sponge has a high reliability and it's easy to use...

Do they have them in "SpongeBob SquarePants" designs? No wonder the little perv is smiling!

... sick, sick, and morally wrong!

Many thanks indeed! I shall investigate.

"It's clearly not the health and welfare of women they have on their minds."

not to be pendantic... but why does anyone ever think it was?

As for different or alretnate forns of control I have a few option you might not have run across. I'll email you about them. =)

Things over here are getting past scary. *unhappy*

I would just like to apologize to anyone who clicked on the lj-cut above in hopes of reading raunchy stories about Zienia Merton and the gibbon.

That is all.

You and Jon are being very responsible and intelligent about all of this. Thus, you'd probably make pretty good parents, if the madness ever strikes... :)

My views? Well, I was an accident who was almost aborted, and my wife's natural mother a) refused to see her for even a minute after she was born and b) refused to allow her father to seek custody.

The laws have changed slightly in favour of human beings. This could be seen as a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what you think of human beings. Choice and education should be foisted upon everybody, but not necessarily in that order.

Choice and education should be foisted upon everybody, but not necessarily in that order.

I agree that without genuine sex education, women still don't really have a genuine choice. But (she said naughtily) wouldn't this make a great argument for not giving us the vote either? :-)

Bah. Let's not give *anyone* the vote. I mean, sure, you might end up with a lying, warmongering idiot in power, but at least you'd be able to say "It's not my fault!" And as for choice and education in the arena of sex and/or reproduction... Hmm. We live in a society where it's legal to have sex before it's legal to buy materials which contain sex.* Education and choice should be part and parcel of the same deal. Argh. What am I trying to say? As for the voting analogy - not if you make sure *everyone* is educated. After all, if you aren't careful about where you stick things, you could end up with an infection that takes about 4 years to get rid of...

*Er.

I think I need to up my wordosity, because that reads very very wrongly...

We live in a society where it's legal to have sex before it's legal to buy materials which contain sex.

While there's a dissonance there, I don't think we can rely on commercial pornography to teach teenagers how to be responsible about shagging! :-)

I don't think anyone truly knows what decision they would make until they are put in that situation. The point is that everyone has a right to make that decision, not have it made for them.

There's slogan I saw -

Why is it that only foetuses have the right to life?

I don't think anyone truly knows what decision they would make until they are put in that situation.

That's a very good point. I assume I wouldn't carry a pregnancy to term, but our circumstances might change, my feelings might change, anything could happen. It's not something I would do automatically - I doubt any woman would just jump carelessly onto the operating table.

The point is that everyone has a right to make that decision, not have it made for them.

*nods* Ultimately there's no difference between "You may not choose because I say so" and "You may not choose because you might be bullied by yor boyfriend or you should have been more careful or you might reget it etc etc". The crucial part is "You may not choose".

In work, I have to walk the fine line between opposing coercion and overstepping hospital policy. It drives me crazy not to be able to backhand some of these guys who come in to the clinic all "...yeah, my girlfriend wants an abortion..."

Oh really sir? Well why don't I just ask her? How about you let her speak sir?

Assholes.

Book him in for a vasectomy, then toss him out.

Oooh, hand me the scalpel, I'll do it myself!

I can't tell from your post whether you're operating with avoiding "inflicting the genes for diabetes, depression, anxiety panic disorder, inflammatory bowel disease, and alcoholism on an innocent sprog" as a temporary goal or a permanent one.

If the latter, I'd like to politely suggest vasectomy.

The actual procedure is simpler (for the recipient) and less uncomfortable than dental work, followed by a couple of days of not-serious discomfort, followed by a lifetime of NOT HAVING TO WORRY ABOUT UNWANTED PREGNANCY. :-)

Seriously, the permanence of the thing is the *only* possible drawback as far as I'm concerned.

I'd like to politely suggest vasectomy

My gods, that unintentionally sounds like a fantastic subtle insult. >:-)

All options are being considered, believe me. Dankon!