ladonnapietra:

I have noticed that quite a few of you are complaining vigorously in the comments sections of various news articles about the recent contraception coverage Catholic kerfuffle.  Based on your comments, you are not happy because you 1) don’t want to pay for someone else’s birth control and/or 2) are upset because you feel that this policy violates Catholic religious principles.  I would like to bring a small salient detail to your attention:

The vast majority of you have been outsourcing your birth control requirements for several decades now to the women you have sex with.  You don’t have to worry about it, pay for it, or deal with any of the problems that go along with it because someone else is taking care of it for you.  

Take me, for instance.  I was on the pill for 15 years.  During that time, I:

* Spent about $120-$250 a month on health insurance, which came directly out of my paycheck or was an individual insurance policy.  The main reason I had health insurance was so that I could have annual exams, Pap smears, and birth control prescriptions, mostly so that I could have sex with dudes.  As a woman, my health insurance rates were higher than those for men of the same age, mostly because I went in for those annual exams.

* For 11 of those years, my insurance policies did not cover contraception, so I also paid an extra $35-$60/month for my pill prescription.  

* Dealt with snotty pharmacists who tried to give me the wrong prescription or guilt-trip me because I was OMG SINGLE and using the pill.  

* Fought tooth and nail with my insurance companies to cover a specific type of birth control instead of the crappy generic they would cover when they would cover anything at all.

* Dealt with various side effects, including weight gain, skin issues, crazy-ass mood swings, and recurring infections.

* Went completely bonkers on one type of pill (Yasmin).

Over the past 15 years, my male partners have:

* Had condom-free sex with no worries about knocking me up.

For the record, I like having sex with guys, and I think hormonal contraception (with the exception of Yasmin) is one of the single greatest inventions the world has ever known.  I will further state for the record that with the exception of two of those guys, it was totally worth all the expense, frustration, and social difficulty involved in getting my horny little mitts on my birth control prescription month after month.  That said?  It has all been on me.  Every bit of it. 

Since you obviously don’t care very much about women—at least, those of you who are pounding out screeds about how We Ladies Just Need to Keep Our Legs Crossed So That You Don’t Have to Pay Slightly More In Insurance Premiums—I wonder, do you care about men?  Do you care about my husband’s ability to have consequence-free sex?  Because it seems like the ultimate violation of the Bro Code if you don’t.  

As much as you might try to convince yourself that this is an issue that just affects women and their mysterious lady parts—the ones you are constantly trying to get into—please keep in mind that it is also very much an issue for men.  Men like you.  Men who don’t have to worry about being fathers, because their female partners have been spending a ton of money in insurance premiums, copays, money out of pocket, doctor’s visits, etc. to ensure that they won’t be.  

Do try to keep that in mind.  

Sincerely,

la.donna.pietra

(via motivatedslacker)