What’s so ridiculous about the religious right’s war on contraception (as Dan and Gayle Collins both astutely note, abortion is just an easy pinata for women’s reproductive rights as a whole) is that a majority of religious women routinely use contraception themselves.
Among sexually active women of all denominations, 69 percent rely on the pill, an IUD, sterilization, etc. to prevent pregnancy, according to a report (.pdf) released earlier this week by the Guttmacher Institute, a sexual and reproductive health research firm. The report primarily examines contraception use among regular church-going Catholics (whose church leaders are opposed to birth control), Evangelical Protestants (who also oppose it) and Mainline Protestants (who support it).
But the report found that, among women, “attendance at religious services and importance of religion to daily life are largely unrelated to use of highly effective contraceptive methods.” Here are a few other quick stats:
—Among never-married young adult women, 79 percent have had sex—75 percent of Evangelicals report having premarital sex, 89 percent of Catholics, and 86 percent of Mainline Protestants.
—68 percent of Catholic women use a highly-effective birth control method, compared with 73 percent of Mainline Protestants and 74 percent of Evangelicals.
—Only 2 percent of Catholic women rely on “natural” family planning (i.e. a quick “Hail Mary!” after he comes—the preferred method of the Catholic Church).
The report illustrates the obvious: most everyone with a sex drive and basic social skills is busy capitalizing on both (praise Jesus!). More importantly, though, it underscores how important it is to make contraceptives more affordable and easier to acquire for all women, regardless of their belief systems.
Gail, not Gayle
You and Dan stop with the “Gayle” already.
This little-noticed-by-Slog treasure, this woman with teeth of butter and the sharpest wit the far side of the Calgary wilds, is named *Gail* Collins.
It’s on her byline, Sienna.
Q: What do you call Catholics who practice natural family planning?
A: “Mom and Dad.”
Which is exactly why it’s so important for them to shut down Planned Parenthood. It’s not just about atheists. They’ve got to stop access to contraception for their own church-goers. Far from it being “ridiculous”, you’ve just laid out how logical their fight is. If Catholic women, of all people, aren’t being punished for having sex — are even, dare I say it, able to enjoy sex — then something is very, very wrong. What better evidence that the end of the world is nigh, if we don’t shut down Planned Parenthood?
Hell, even the time-tested cumming on the tits has been 100% effective for me over the last year. I don’t even know if that’s contraception.
Lose-Lose: Withdrawal, aka spray and pray, does not work for shit. Neither does the rhythm method, aka Vatican roulette, no matter what sort of bells and whistles they’ve added this year.
It’s pretty common for religious people to profess certain “beliefs” only when doing so doesn’t cost them anything. What they really believe is only evident when there is something at stake for them. For example, lots of people claim to believe in Heaven, but few of them want to go see it right this minute when given a chance.
Oh gus, dearest, you made me snort my coffee on that last line… 🙂
@3:
Except that’s a pretty lousy form of contraception, since even pre-ejaculate can contain enough sperm cells to knock up the receiver, and most men aren’t aware they’re even discharging that before orgasm.
Basically, for “natural” family planning to be more-or-less foolproof, the male has to withdraw much sooner than most men realize; and a lot of men simply aren’t disciplined enough to do so. The failure rate is typically around 30%, because most couples don’t practice “the withdrawal method” correctly. But even for those who do, there’s still a 1 in 25 chance of pregnancy, nearly twice as high as for couples who use condoms that break during intercourse.
And FWIW, it doesn’t seem to be the women-folk (for the most part) on the churchy side going after PP, but rather their domineering husbands, fathers, brothers & sons. It’s all about male domination; reducing women to the level of slavery by telling them exactly what they can – and cannot – do with their own bodies, and when. And how. And why, by turning them into biblical harlots if they exhibit the temerity to insist they – and not men – have a right to manage their own biological reproductive processes.
NEWSFLASH: right wing christian extremists are assholes!
Anyone not heterosexual could have told you this long ago and we began warning you about the extremism of their assholishness – as well as the cowardly response of the supposed opposition – at least twenty years ago.
Maybe if some women weren’t willing to let the fags take the hit thinking you were above being targeted then none of us would be faced with decade after decade of pseudo religious horseshit infecting our politics.
When will things change? When a penis tax is proposed. Hetero men can’t see past their own flaccid cock. Want the religious extremists to stop? Go after the stupid lazy men that are letting the rest of us pick up the tab for their cheesy discharge.
No coerced ejaculations from hetero men until they figure out how to control/contain the idiot religious zealots that run the country.
I should note that the Pope only uses the rhythm method.
@12: Will, the Pope doesn’t NEED contraception…I don’t think it’s WOMEN he’s ejaculating on/in.
But don’t loads of evangelicals get abortions, too? Even the ones that protest outside the clinic? I think they are all up in arms about this because they know in their hearts (tiny, shrivelled things) that abortion won’t be outright banned. Since they won’t have to actually live with the CONSEQUENCES of illegal abortion, they are free to spout about how evil it is.
Though they are happy to RESTRICT abortion so that women who aren’t fortunate enough to be middle class married evangelicals (or daughters thereof) to get reproductive health care. They don’t matter to the zealots.
@7
Abort n splort is 96% effective according to Planned Parenthood’s own site.
Just get some party balloons, guys. Don’t be a fool; wrap your tool.
@14:
96% effective IF done correctly (as I cited @10 above), but only about 70% effective for most, because they’s doin’ it wrong.
jesus, you guys. no need for the scare quotes around natural family planning; it’s another name for the fertility awareness method, which is neither withdrawal nor the rhythm method. it’s basically detailed, consistent recordkeeping:
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-…
…and it works.
and the pope most definitely does not condone withdrawal. no no no, you have to splooge IN her vagina! if you don’t want to splooge in her vagina, then there will be no splooging.
Agreed @17! My mother passed on her FA knowledge to me, and my folks have used it for their entire marriage with only one “failure” (attributed to jet-lag), and my little brother is an awesome guy.
I’ve been married 3 years now, no kids, and should’ve had a baby a year by the failure rates people quote in ignorance!