Since we last met here to look at the anti-birth control movement, I’ve been thinking about how to continue to talk about it, because we must. And because my first line of defense is usually to make a list, there is one underneath this photo of petals in Brooklyn.
The teen pregnancy rate is down, and right-wing politicians are angry about it. You will never convince me that anti-birth control propaganda isn’t at least a little responsible for this, and that there isn’t overlap with the folks who promote “natural” methods of birth control and those who are mad that there aren’t more pregnant 15-year-olds.
In anti-birth control rhetoric, the word “poison” is often used to refer to hormonal birth control. As in, “Why would you want to put poison in your body?” It’s not a coincidence that “poison” is also a term used when people talk about food they consider “bad” (processed foods, sugar, really anything associated with calories). There is absolutely overlap between a certain stripe of wellness influencer and the anti-birth control movement.
There is a simplistic quality to story-telling in both the anti-birth control and the anti-abortion movements (which, let’s be honest, are often the same movement, although many anti-birth control folks would not consider themselves to be anti-abortion, just “healthy” or something). Someone had a bad experience with a certain kind of hormonal birth control, so they shun it, and you should too, because it’s bad for everyone, and it will ruin your life.
You can manipulate someone into believing they’re genuinely making a “choice,” when in fact they’ve been inundated by propaganda that’s based in shame and stigma. This is done all the time when it comes to abortion - the woman who “chooses” to carry a pregnancy to term after she visits a fake clinic.
Hormonal birth control is imperfect, which is a generous term when we’re talking about something that’s under-researched and universally used. Birth control is under attack, and what we’re seeing on social media in regard to anti-birth control propaganda is part of a campaign to eliminate access to contraception. We have been warned.
Action item: Talk about your own experiences with hormonal birth control, to people in person and/or on social media. Have you used more than one kind of hormonal birth control, because not every kind is right for everyone, and life circumstances changed? Have you taken birth control for reasons that have nothing to do with avoiding pregnancy, which is common and can improve quality of life for folks with diabolical periods, endometriosis, and other health conditions? Has birth control changed your life in a positive way? The point here is not to justify the use of hormonal (or any kind of) birth control, it’s to amplify stories that are real and complicated, instead of distilling the narrative into black and white, as antis (anti-birth control and anti-abortion) love to do.
Next time: The teens.