I’ve seen lots of tweets lately about birth control. Whether it be about how it’s “bad” for someone’s body, it’s “wrong” to mess with your body’s natural functions or that people should “just stop being such thots and control themselves,” I noticed one thing in common: the lack of education and respect for someone’s choice to use, or not use, birth control.
While I’m neither a doctor or specialist on birth control, I do know that many forms of birth control, specifically the pill, have health benefits outside of its obvious use. I also know that unless someone IS a doctor who knows best or IS the sexual partner of someone (in the case of asking their partner to use birth control), they have no business telling someone what to do with their body, especially to tell someone not to take birth control.
I’m a firm believer that every person should have the right to accessible and affordable birth control, and the right to choose whether or not to use it.
The choice to use birth control can come long before someone is sexually active. It can be to help with acne, aid in reducing pain from cramps, make periods regular and less heavy, make the effects of endometriosis more bearable and many other things.
With that, the choice to use birth control to prevent pregnancy is a responsible one.
This particular issue irritates me the most because the arguments against taking or using birth control typically stem from religious beliefs backed by the very few side effects associated with birth control use. Though these side effects can be serious, they’re very rare, and rare side effects come with the use of any medication.
If someone is using religion to argue for their own personal choice to not use birth control, so be it. If someone is using religion to argue against someone else using birth control, that is when it’s not okay. Personal decisions made based on personal religious beliefs should not ever be pushed on others.
The most infuriating part of this is that in almost all cases, those who are against using birth control are also the ones arguing against abortions. While this doesn’t need to turn into a pro-life/ pro-choice debate, the connection between the two needs to be addressed.
More accessible, more affordable and judgment-free available birth control will lead to fewer abortions needing to be performed for unwanted pregnancies. It shocks me that people have the audacity to push their anti-birth control beliefs on others and then be upset when people faced with an unwanted pregnancy consider an abortion, especially when birth control is an easy solution to reduce the need for abortions.
So while I do respect someone’s choice to not use birth control, I do not support that push of it on others. Publicly proclaiming anti-birth control beliefs on platforms like Twitter is just to breed a further divide between those whose have religiously driven political beliefs and those who don’t, to spread more misinformation and to guilt those whose actions and choices are being shamed. The act is hateful and it really speaks volumes about who these people are deep down.