(for the majority of this bit, women shall be assumed cis-women, since we’re talking about conservative religions and trans/intersex/etc folks don’t exist for them)

It came to me in an unusual moment of inspiration the other day. 

For most folks, NFP is just silliness. For most folks, some sort of reasonably reliable contraception is available- the pill, condoms, whatever. 

For Catholic women, NFP is all that is available to them. 

Of course, in my own privilege, I saw NFP as being an ultimate absurdity. But then again, I don’t have to worry about my own pregnancy, nor the pregnancy of my partners. I am privileged enough that both I and my partners have access to some methods of birth control. As both a queer and an atheist, I have this privilege.

A faithful Catholic woman does not have that privilege. 

I’ve realized my error, and I’ve changed my opinion.

Access to reliable birth control is a huge boon to women in patriarchal systems. It helps them physically- pregnancy is a great physical strain. It helps them financially- avoiding children until they can afford them. It helps them psychologically- not having to fear an extra expense, end of a career, etc. It helps them in all ways. 

Just because a woman does not believe in chemical methods of birth control doesn’t mean she doesn’t deserve to have the opportunity to make her own reproductive choice. 

So now, here’s the official opinion of the unfriendly atheist on NFP:

There needs to be more education and research done to increase its efficiency and its safe use, so that ALL women get the opportunity for safe and effective birth control.

the end.

From Alternet. 

Excerpt:

Until the condom, the diaphragm, the Pill, the IUD, and all the subsequent variants of hormonal fertility control came along, anatomy really was destiny — and all of the world’s societies were organized around that central fact. Women were born to bear children; they had no other life options. With a few rebellious or well-born exceptions (and a few outlier cultures that somehow found their way to a more equal footing), the vast majority of women who’ve ever lived on this planet were tied to home, dependent on men, and subject to all kinds of religious and cultural restrictions designed to guarantee that they bore the right kids to the right man at the right time — even if that meant effectively jailing them at home.

Our biology reduced us to a kind of chattel, subject to strictures that owed more to property law than the more rights-based laws that applied to men. Becoming literate or mastering a trade or participating in public life wasn’t unheard-of; but unlike the men, the world’s women have always had to fit those extras in around their primary duty to their children and husband — and have usually paid a very stiff price if it was thought that those duties were being neglected.

Men, in return, thrived. The ego candy they feasted on by virtue of automatically outranking half the world’s population was only the start of it. They got full economic and social control over our bodies, our labor, our affections, and our futures. They got to make the rules, name the gods we would worship, and dictate the terms we would live under. In most cultures, they had the right to sex on demand within the marriage, and also to break their marriage vows with impunity — a luxury that would get women banished or killed. As long as pregnancy remained the defining fact of our lives, they got to run the whole show. The world was their party, and they had a fabulous time. 

Thousands of generations of men and women have lived under some variant of this order — some variations more benevolent, some more brutal, but all similar enough in form and intention — in all times and places, going back to where our memory of time ends. Look at it this way, and you get a striking perspective on just how world-changing it was when, within the span of just a few short decades in the middle of the 20th century, all of that suddenly ended. For the first time in human history, new technologies made fertility a conscious choice for an ever-growing number of the planet’s females. And that, in turn, changed everything else.

With that one essential choice came the possibility, for the first time, to make a vast range of other choices for ourselves that were simply never within reach before. We could choose to delay childbearing and limit the number of children we raise; and that, in turn, freed up time and energy to explore the world beyond the home. We could refuse to marry or have babies at all, and pursue our other passions instead. Contraception was the single necessary key that opened the door to the whole new universe of activities that had always been zealously monopolized by the men — education, the trades, the arts, government, travel, spiritual and cultural leadership, and even (eventually) war making. 

That one fact, that one technological shift, is now rocking the foundations of every culture on the planet — and will keep rocking it for a very long time to come. It is, over time, bringing a louder and prouder female voice into the running of the world’s affairs at every level, creating new conversations and new priorities in areas where the men long ago thought things were settled and understood. It’s bending our understanding of what sex is about, and when and with whom we can have it — a wrinkle that created new frontiers for gay folk as well. It may well prove to the be the one breakthrough most responsible for the survival of the human race, and the future viability of the planet.

But perhaps most critically for us right now: mass-produced, affordable, reliable contraception has shredded the ages-old social contracts between men and women, and is forcing us all (willing or not) into wholesale re-negotiations on a raft of new ones.

And, frankly, while some men have embraced this new order— perhaps seeing in it the potential to open up some interesting new choices for them, too — a global majority is increasingly confused, enraged, and terrified by it. They never wanted to be at this table in the first place, and they’re furious to even find themselves being forced to have this conversation at all. 

It was never meant to happen. It never should have happened. And they’re doing their damndest to put a stop to it all, right now, and make it go away.

It’s this rage that’s driving the Catholic bishops into a frenzied donnybrook fight against contraception — despite the very real possibility that this fight could, in the end, damage their church even more fatally than the molestation scandal did.  As the keepers of a 2000-year-old enterprise — one of the oldest continuously-operating organizations on the planet, in fact — they take the very long view. And they understand, better than most of us, just how unprecedented this development is in the grand sweep of history, and the serious threat it poses to everything their church has stood for going back to antiquity. (Including, very much, the more recent doctrine of papal infallability.)

That same frantic panic over the loss of the ancient bargain also lies that the core of the worldwide rash of fundamentalist religions. Modern industrial economies have undermined the authority of men both in the public sphere and in the private realms; and since they’re limited in how far they can challenge it in the external world, they’ve turned women’s bodies into the symbolic battlefield on which their anxieties over this play out. Drill down to the very deepest center of any of these movements, and you’ll find men who are experiencing this change as a kind of personal annihilation, a loss of masculine identity so deep that they are literally interpreting it as the end of the world. (The first rule of understanding apocalyptic movements is this: If someone tells you the world is ending, believe them. Because for them, it probably is.)

They are, above everything else, desperate to get their women back under firm control. And in their minds, things will not be right again until they’re assured that the girls are locked up even more tightly, so they will never, ever get away like that again.

anarchistmom:

Yes!!

This makes me sad

And this is coming from someone that 

1. Will never be pregnant
2. Has never had sex
3. Has probably never seen a vagina
4. Has probably never seen childbirth 
5. Has no idea what unwanted pregnancy entails 
6. Definitely has no idea what unwanted child raising requires
7. Also definitely has no idea what burdens his shitty religion is placing on women
8. Will never get anyone pregnant
9. If he did actually get someone pregnant, would have enough money for everything plus extra
10. Won’t even allow women into his clergy, much less pregnant ones

I mean, come on. What chances does this idiot have of getting anything regarding women’s reproductive health care right, much less condemning them with the blanket generalization of being selfish and afraid?

Seriously. Is this the best person to be deciding women’s futures for them? 

fuckyeahchoice:

Most People Obtaining Abortions Report a Religious Affiliation

atheistfeed:

Laura Bassett on the power of the bishops.

Terry O’Neill, the president of the National Organization for Women

 finds it troubling that a group of men that has historically denied women the opportunity to participate in leadership positions is exercising so much power over such a broad range of women’s reproductive health legislation.

“Clearly there’s a problem when men take such an interest in the sexual function of women,” she said. “There’s something deeply off about it.”

Especially those men – men who are officially celibate, men at the top of a men-only hierarchy, men who have spent their entire adult lives in an all-male profession – and, of course, men who think they’re taking orders from the Topp Man, God Himself.

http://dlvr.it/10X6bP

bishops gone wild?

That child is not sad.
That child is not angry.
That child is not wondering what kind of life he could of lived.
That child does not think, “Mother, why did you not love me?
That child is not thinking at all.

The only people it immediately affects, are the parents.
It’s their decision, no one else’s.

Not the government.

Not yours.

And not your God’s.

Regardless of whether you’re pro-choice or not, how on earth could one possibly think that Plan B is unsafe compared to abortion or childbirth?

So Plan B isn’t good for 11 year olds? Well, neither is giving birth to a fucking kid. Or an abortion. 

I quit the USA. Seriously. The amount of stupid that exists in this country is just overwhelming. 

Women on Web is a nonproft organization that provides abortions to women in countries without legal access to abortion. From the website:

Do you have an unwanted pregnancy? This online medical abortion service helps women gain access to a safe abortion with pills in order to reduce the number of deaths due to unsafe abortions.

Only women living in countries where there are no safe abortion services, can use this service.

An abortion with pills is very safe and similar to a miscarriage. Millions of women have done it and proven that they can do it themselves at home with very little medical supervision. The need for follow up treatment is very small, this can be done by any gynaecologist in any country, as with a miscarriage.

A medical abortion uses a combination of abortion pills to cause the non-surgical termination of an early pregnancy up until the 9th week of pregnancy. The safest, most effective type of medical abortion requires the use of two different drugs. These medicines, are called Mifeprisone (also known as Mifepristone, RU486, Mifeprex or Mifegyne) and Misoprostol (also known as Cytotec , Arthrotec, Oxaprost, Cyprostol, Cyprostoll, Misotac or Misotrol)

This website acts as a referral service in forwarding your information and request for a medical abortion to a doctor, after the online medical consultation. The doctor can provide you with an abortion with pills . To enable the doctor to decide whether you can obtain an abortion with pills without risk, it is crucial that you provide accurate and complete information. Omitting any information requested could result in damage to your health.

You do the consultation and answer all questions according to the truth.

You will be obliged to provide a valid e-mail address and provide your address and phone number.

You will be asked to make a minimal donation of 90 € (no sale). This way we can guarantee the service remains available for other women as well.

You will receive a confirmation by e-mail from the doctor to whom you have been referred.

The medical abortion will be obtained from a pharmacy. A consultant will ensure that the medical abortion service is delivered by express courier at the address you gave to the doctor.

Normally, the shipment takes about 7 days to arrive.

After few weeks you will receive an e-mail with the follow-up consultation.

Research about the Women on Web services, published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (BJOG), August 2008, showed that with a 78% follow up rate, 6,8% of women have received a curettage or vacuum aspiration by local doctors. This is in the same range as other abortion services provided in outpatient settings. It has shown that it is acceptable and safe for women to do medical abortions at home in countries where there is no access to safe abortion services. 

In some countries Misoprostol is available in pharmacies and it might be a better option for you to do the abortion with Misoprostol alone.

Abortion pill for countries like:

Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Antigua, Argentina, Bahamas, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Comoros, Congo Brazzaville, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, East Timor Timor Timur, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Jamaica Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Federated States of Micronesia, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New, Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda,United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Please reblog and spread awareness.

Fortunately for all humanity, rights exist independently of your shitty little religion.

stfuprolife:

The religious right has been driving me crazy.  This isn’t a theocracy.

Let’s take a look at gay marriage.
How would it affect you if I married someone of the same sex?
Are you going to cry in your room for days about it?  Will it really have that much of a detrimental effect on you?  Will you be unable to go to school or work or even eat because of my wish to legally bind myself to another woman and put our assets together and be recognized as equals under the eye of the law and of society?  Why is it such a big deal to you?
Will my marriage suddenly unleash rainbows from your ass?

And oh hey, the radical idea that people have the right to control their own bodies.
If I had an abortion right now, how would that affect you?
You might judge me and think negative things about me but what about you?
I’d probably take the pill and have some cramps and a longer period, the discomfort varies from one person to another.
But will my abortion give you sympathetic abortion symptoms?
Is your menstruating cycle going to be thrown off because of this?
And if you can’t get pregnant or have no idea what it’s like to have a uterus, what are you even doing in such a debate?  Why are you telling people who can get pregnant to remain pregnant?
That’s called oppression, if you didn’t know.
But I guess the idea of you not being able to control my body is just too progressive for you.  You can’t catch up.
So you want to vote on laws that will make us regress to dark times, back to when people without penises had no say in their own personal matters.

And don’t even begin to compare this to an actual crime like stealing or murdering.
There’s a huge difference.  No one is forcing you to marry someone of the same sex or get you pregnant only to force you to have an abortion.

Enforcing laws against stealing and murdering prevents rights to be taken away from other people, like a person’s right to ownership and right to life, which is funny (not really) since now you want a law that actually takes people’s rights away…

Hold up.

Now you say fetuses have a right to life.

Sorry, but according to the Constitution and you know, the law, these laws only apply to the born, to actual people, not potential people.  To be a person you must be an individual with sentience.  No, I’m not talking about real people in PVS or the handicapped.  I’m talking about a thing that’s attached to someone else, physically depending on the person it’s inside of.  This is not a person.  This is also not a person.  And this is not a person either.

But you know, this is a person.  And this is a person.
And hey, surprise!  This is a person too.  I know it’s hard to believe.
But that’s definitely a person.

Now for the sake of this conversation despite doing so would be illogical and inaccurate, we grant fetuses human being and personhood status.

Organ donations are made by consent.
I am a host of this imaginary fetus.  It is occupying my womb without consent.
I do not want it there.
Even if embryos/fetuses were given personhood, these insentient beings still have no right to borrow my body.

Think about it like this.
If someone needed my kidney or liver and I do not wish to give it to that person even if the person may die without it, I am not obligated to give my organs to that person.  Or if a person wishes to borrow my body for about nine months to live, I don’t have to let that person use my body and it won’t be—because it is not—considered murder. 

I am not some vessel or shell or incubator.  I wonder sometimes if you forgot, but I’m the actual human being here.  I’m the one with memories and feelings and thoughts and dreams.  Any reason that I have to end a pregnancy is a valid one.  I don’t need your judgments or your misogynistic, oppressive dogma.

And I definitely don’t need it in my uterus.

stfuprolife:

stfuconservatives:

Kenya’s restrictive abortion law harms or kills tens of thousands of women each year. To document the atrocities, the Center for Reproductive Rights produced In Harm’s Way, a report detailing the current state of affairs in Kenya.

This video brings the report to life by telling the story of Sarah, a sad tale that’s far too common among Kenyan girls, and revealing the harm done to Kenyan women seeking reproductive care.

 Sarah was 14 years old when she died from complications from an unsafe abortion. She lived in a one room shack in the heart of Kibera — Kenya’s largest informal settlement — with her mother, four siblings and two nieces. Her father had died of AIDS and TB. Her mother, Evelyne, is HIV-positive and has permanent limited mobility due to spinal TB.

 In order to earn money to feed her family, Sarah was forced to leave school at age 13. When she couldn’t find work washing clothes she would have sex with men for money. She would earn 100 shillings [less than $2.00] from these encounters to buy food for the family.

When Sarah became pregnant, a woman in Kibera advised her to get an abortion. Sarah procured an unsafe abortion from the woman’s friend, and soon developed a dangerous, life-threatening infection which left her in great pain and bed-ridden for a month. The cost of emergency healthcare and the fear of arrest kept her from going to a hospital. Sarah and her mother were afraid to talk to anyone about how sick she was because of the risk of arrest and the fear of community condemnation.

Sarah died at home on June 29, 2009. Her family now goes for days without food and survives on hand-outs from neighbors in Kibera.

Why am I reblogging this on STFUC this afternoon? Because this is a world every single one of the GOP 2012 candidates (yes, even Jon Huntsman and Ron Paul) is actively fighting for.

-R

This is basically what will happen if the certain people get their way, in their political offices to the ballot boxes.

sanityscraps:

fuckyeahchoice:

Request.

atheistfeed:

Reproductive Health Reality Check reports that President Obama may well cave in to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops soon and withdraw regulations that are part of the health care reform bill requiring insurance companies to provide birth control without a co-pay.

Women’s groups working to save coverage of women’s health care under health reform are concerned that President Obama will cave as early as this weekend to demands by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (all 271 men) to eliminate coverage of birth control without a co-pay.

The reason? The President thinks he “owes” the Bishops for help with passage of health reform…

This is a tax on women. Birth control without insurance coverage can run as much as $600.00 per year. Without consistent access to birth control, women face constant risk of unintended pregnancy, abrogating their fundamental rights to plan their families and make decisions about how many children to have and when; to decide about their own educational and economic paths; to safeguard their own and their family’s health. Such a tax will of course fall most heavily on low-income women, and therefore most heavily on Latina, African American, and Native American women who already make up a disproportionate share of this economic group.

This is a tax on women, one many groups expect the President may levy as soon as this weekend… because, you know, a holiday weekend is the best time to engage in an act of capitulation and have it get less press attention.

I don’t really buy the notion that this is a tax; it isn’t paid to the government, after all, it’s paid to insurance companies. But that’s not terribly relevant to the real issue here. Access to birth control is an absolutely crucial aspect of preventative health care. I hope they’re wrong about Obama caving, but I wouldn’t bet against it. He’s been mostly invertebrate up to this point.

This is just absurd.

Healthcare can be argued is not a right, and contraception isn’t either; but this is a violation of equal rights.

Men enjoy health care access- especially reproductive health care- without legal restrictions. Women, however, are being denied equality; they are being denied access to healthcare with the same freedom that men have. If women are going to be restricted in their access, men should be as well.

Furthermore, does “separation of church and state” mean anything anymore? What part of the first amendment is so goddamn difficult to follow?

Can religious groups that believe that non-whites are evil legally deny medical assistance to people of color? Can religious groups that believe that homosexuality is a sin legally deny medical assistance to gays?

This means Obama is violating the first amendment by showing giving legal, government-regulated preference to a religious group… and he is doing so at the expense of violating equal rights.