Any woman can have an unintended pregnancy, so let's just pray that Barbara Bush doesn't get drunk and drop another would-be presidential candidate on us.

Getting irked over unnecessary government meddling and intrusiveness? How refreshing for a change.

Is the author such a drunk that the only choices are "not drinking" and "binge drinking"?

Except that it doesn't say that teetotaling is a form of birth control; it says that drinking too much can increase your risk of STDs and unwanted pregnancy. THIS IS, IN FACT, TRUE. Drinking to excess reduces your inhibitions and clouds your judgment (precisely why consent cannot be given by a seriously intoxicated person), a fact that has been widely known since the invention of alcomohols exactly five million years ago. And hey, when you're not thinking straight, you're more likely to make choices that Sober You would know better than to do. (Yeah, I know, it's wrong to take sexual advantage of drunks, but what if two comparably tipsy and enthusiastic people go at it? You'd have a hard time saying that either raped the other, and both would still be at elevated risk for STD transmission and maybe unwanted pregnancy.) This is not even getting into the fact that drinking too much might cause you to forget to take The Pill, or even to vomit it up! And that comes directly from Planned Parenthood; are they "absurd" and "comically stupid" as well?

Look, there's loads of rape culture bullshit out there, but this SO isn't an example of it. I shall enumerate in detail:

1. "the gross insinuation that women are somehow to blame for 'injuries/violence' they may encounter when drinking (I mean, nice rape myth, champ!)"
Ooor maybe this is just a reference to the fact that people often get belligerent and pugnacious when they have too much to drink? Men do it, and women do it; I'm a fairly chill drunk, but I've snapped at people once or twice after a night of boozing, simply because (as mentioned above) alcohol reduces your inhibitions, giving you a shorter fuse. Don't believe me? Ask my uncle the cop; he's a big scary dude like me, and he's had loads of people take swings at him because of all the Liquid Courage in their systems.
And that's not even mentioning the fact that alcohol messes up your sense of balance and slows your reaction time, making you more likely to fall and hurt yourself. Again, it's a serious issue for guys and gals alike! (And given that women are statistically more likely than men to be wearing high heels while out partying, maybe it's slightly more relevant for those of them who do; but the point stands even apart from differential choice in footwear.)

2. "The CDC warning states that drinking too much can cause 'sexually transmitted diseases,' which CAN ACTUALLY BE INTERPRETED TO SUGGEST THAT GONORRHEA IS TRANSMITTED BY BOOZE ITSELF."
Well, it can be interpreted to suggest that if you've got the reading comprehension of a fourth grader! If you actually READ THE INFOGRAPHIC, it says that drinking too much comes with a RISK, not a CAUSE, of STDs. To use an analogous situation, being male doesn't CAUSE a criminal record (i.e. gender is not a crime), but it's associated with a higher RISK of getting one (because men have naturally higher levels of aggression and are thus more likely to get violent). Bashing a document for the obscure possibility of someone misinterpreting it is holding it to a thoroughly impossible standard.

3. "But the CDC's implication that preventing unintended pregnancy is something women should solely be responsible for, and that if they can't be on long-acting birth control, they should at least not drink seems a little, um... avoidant?"
Women aren't solely responsible for preventing unintended pregnancy, no (it takes two to tango), but most of them have some modicum of control over the situation. (For those who don't, the CDC has some hotlines and other helpful resources for women who are the victims of intimate partner violence.) And for those women, the admonishment not to drink if you're going to have unprotected sex (whether or not pregnancy is expressly desired) is a useful if rather obvious tip. Just because women aren't solely responsible for pregnancy doesn't mean there aren't things they can do to reduce their risk of an unwanted one, and when it comes to fetal alcohol syndrome, alcohol consumption is the one risk factor that THEY AND NOBODY ELSE can control.
Notice also that they don't specify long-acting birth control in the infographic; a condom will work just fine. I wonder, do you actually disagree with the advice? Do you think it's a good idea to have entirely unprotected sex and still be drinking? Or are you just reading maybe a little much into the presentation and wording? If you want to suggest that it be amended to include "and if you're drinking and having protected heterosex, make sure your boyfriend isn't a scumbag who's sabotaging your protection", I mean, that's fine and all, but if women think he might actually be doing that, they'll really get more benefit out of this page instead.

I know, I know, I'm a guy. But I'm also a bioscientist. And even more importantly, I'm a SCIENTIST, which means I follow the evidence. Just because facts sound a little weird, or because someone could interpret them in such a way as to have a fuckstupid misconception, doesn't mean they shouldn't be out there. Statistically, the risk factors they attribute to overconsumption of alcohol by women are true and significant, and they're giving sound medical advice.
If anyone does think that I'm mansplaining, I welcome your criticism; all I ask is that you focus on my arguments rather than my gender.

@1: "Any woman can have an unintended pregnancy"
NOT ALL WOMEN CAN
CEASE YOUR TRANS-ERASURE SHITLORD

Alcohol doesn't increase promiscuity - it's true - never in the history of mankind has that happened.

@1 -- I can't, for the same reason why Barbara Bush can't.

Thanks for mentioning that hormonal birth control and IUDs aren't for everyone. Side effects be real, yo - and not necessarily worth it, compared to barrier methods or vasectomy.

What, in fact, do you expect the CDC to say? "Ladies, go ahead, get bombed. Science shows if you binge drink nothing bad can happen to you."

Well in all fairness women not drinking problem would've prevented many pregnancies. But yeah fuck the cdc. I am not a uterus.

*probably

Thanks Megan.

@7

But the sign says you and she both can--if you drink.

HOW DARE THEY SUGGEST WOMEN CAN EVER BE AT RISK OR TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF DUE TO THEIR PERSONAL CHOICES! WOMEN'S PERSONAL CHOICES ARE NEVER BAD OR THE REASON FOR ANYTHING BAD THAT CAN HAPPEN TO THEM.

Fucking HELL is this third-wave feminism some dumb bullshit.

I am more upset about the part about drinking pregnant and the assertion that any alcohol is too much when pregnant. That is not remotely evidence-based. It is bulshit. It is astonishing how willing we are to tell women what they can and cant do pregnant. On a whim, without any evidence. And just how willing people are to condemn or say nasty things to women who have a single drink, despite the fact that there is no evidence at all that light (maybe even moderate) drinking during pregnancy has any adverse effects for mother or baby. This just reinforces that wrongheadedness.

Did the author graduate from the Lindy West School of Writing? This has every halmark of a typical West piece- mind-bending leaps of logic, LOTS OF CAPS, 4th grade comprehension, cute-sy crap (uterus hat) and so on and so on.

Thanks for taking the time to put out such a well-thought out response, @4. Spot on.

I miss Lindy West. :(

Surprise parties are shit FYI.

@7: Pheobe! I was thinking about you. I hadn't seen you posting for a while and was a little worried. It's nice to see you.
@18: Me too. Her review of Beowulf will live forever!

This third-wave garbage of an article, deliberately misreading an infographic to find excuses to get offended, is harder to stomach than guzzling a bottle of straight Everclear.

the gross insinuation that women are somehow to blame for 'injuries/violence' they may encounter when drinking (I mean, nice rape myth, champ!)

I seriously rolled my ankle while drunk, due to poor coordination and balance, and the numbing effects of alcohol preventing me from guarding my injury as carefully as I otherwise would have.

Who said anything about rape? What is with this third-wave tendency to read "RAPE!!!" into everything?

the CDC's implication that preventing unintended pregnancy is something women should solely be responsible for, and that if they can't be on long-acting birth control, they should at least not drink seems a little, um... avoidant?

(1) The CDC did not say women were solely responsible. It just told the target audience of this particular infographic what they could do.

(2) The CDC did not say "long-acting," just birth control. Just birth control. That includes spermicides and barrier methods.

(3) The CDC did not say don't drink, it said watch how much you drink.

In sum, if you're going to get so sloshed that you might make some impulsive decisions, bring condoms just in case. If you don't have condoms, maybe limit yourself to alternating cocktails with tall iced waters and take it slow. That's perfectly practical advice for either men or women or SOPATGS.

As for "reproductive coercion, AKA birth control sabotage," what's your point? Someone might deceive or force you, so why even bother making prudent decisions?

@15: The evidence is ambiguous on light drinking, but moderate drinking is absolutely harmful. The biggest methodological pitfall is that it's very hard to do any sort of study on this because of the ethical issues. But what science has discerned, from case-control studies etc., is that the evidence supports total abstinence from alcohol during pregnancy. You want to tell people they should feel free to take that risk? You ought to be ashamed of yourself.

Yeah, you either really missed the point, or intentionally did to fuel this article. They did not say/mean any of the things you decided they did.

@21: brent.b may have had in mind the fact that some women will simply be beside themselves with guilt when they realize they had a single beer before they knew they were pregnant. I can understand not wanting women to beat themselves up about that.

But yeah, I've also had to bite my tongue when a woman clearly very pregnant complained loudly that she shouldn't have such a horrible headache because she didn't have "that much" wine. She didn't have a sliver of shame over having had wine--she just wanted everyone to know that she had (what she considered) a moderate amount.

Cringe-inducing. Everyone in the room got an earful, but if anyone had decided to comment, I'm sure they would have been sharply told it was none of their business.

Underage drinking will give you cancer. Or something.

@24: Well, looky here. http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/m…

@21 - Your posts are usually pretty logical and well thought out. But this position is not. I notice you don't cite to a single source for the proposition that evidence supports encouraging total abstinence? And I guess it depends on how you define 'moderate.' But the only known effects of drinking while pregnant are from fairly high consumption (like more than a drink a day, fetal alcohol syndrome levels). There is absolutely zero support for shaming people who have an occasional drink while pregnant or staring down some pregnant person you see having a drink. If you find any actual evidence based support for that, feel free to link it.