hey ladies
it�s political rant time.
about six months ago, it became legal in australia for what�s commonly known as the morning after pill to be sold over the counter at chemists. before this you could only get it on prescription from a doctor.
however, all of a sudden there�s all this talk from the catholic church, pro-lifers and the health minister, tony abbot, to reverse this decision and bring it back to prescription only. their reasoning is that they think too many women, teenagers especially, are relying on the morning after pill as their only form of contraception.
i cannot believe this. seriously, what a joke. any woman who has taken the morning after pill probably wont be in a hurry to take it again. what it does is pump you so full of hormones that your body reacts by having a period, no matter where you are in your cycle. that�s not an easy thing to do, so as you can imagine there�s lots of cramping and nausea and general yuckiness.
essentially, by taking the morning after pill you are having an abortion, and it�s painful and traumatising as hell.
so i hear you think, why should this medication be available over the counter?? well there�s lots of reasons. girls aren�t using this as their only form of contraception. they�d be stupid to. it is used in case of accidents. what if the condom breaks ?? or you are stupid like me and regularly forget to take your pill ?? and honestly, who hasn�t been drunk and having sex, even when it�s with your partner you�ve been with for ages, and not known/remembered if he put a condom on, or forgot to remind the guy that if it�s not on it�s not on.
the pro-lifer i saw on sunrise this morning said that it is instilling a message of lazy contraception practices in teenage girls. i don�t know if that�s true. we are the generation that has grown up with aids and std�s, you talk to any teenage girl of the post-2k era and she will tell you that she is scared to death of catching a disease. we�re smarter than you think, we know that condoms are the only barrier from most std�s. girls go on the pill as an added form of protection, and because this protection is in their hands, but we know that condom�s are the only choice with a new partner.
i hypothesise that most chemist�s sales of the morning after pill happen on weekend mornings. have you ever tried to find a doctor who bulk bills on a weekend ?? it�s almost impossible. so if you have to see a doctor to get a prescription, not only are you wasting valuable time at the clinic, but you have to fork out upwards of 40 dollars just for seeing the doctor. then with the prescription, it ends up being a luxury a lot of girls can�t afford.
but the thing i�m the most pissed off with is, every person i have seen in the media who has spoken out against the morning after pill being sold at chemists is male. how dare they say what is right for women when they will never go through the worry of a pregnancy scare. why not just take the right to vote away from us too. this shouldn�t be a man�s choice to make as they will never have to be in the position to be needing the morning after pill.
it is our basic human right to freely be able to protect ourselves and this will be taken away from us if federal government makes the decision to ban the over the counter sale of the morning after pill.
14/06/2004 16:43