The World Beyond BetterMost > Anything Goes

Bush appoints anti-birth control fundamentalist to run family planning program

<< < (16/18) > >>

nakymaton:
Those of you who are outside the US: what is covered by health insurance here varies quite a bit from person to person and from plan to plan. A lot of things aren't covered, or require a different type of insurance. (Dental work is its own health insurance. A lot of common vision-related stuff, like eyeglasses or contacts, are not covered. Mental health tends to be only partially covered. If you have cancer, your insurance coverage will run out, and you will not be able to get more.) So it is striking that Viagra generally IS covered, when so many other things are not.

There was a bit of a fuss raised over Viagra being covered while birth control was not. Some states changed their laws to require insurers to cover birth control, but some didn't. (I remember when the change happened. My health care provider used to give me a year of free samples when I went in for my annual exam, because not many people used the same pill that I did, and because she knew it was not covered by my insurance. And then, suddenly, my insurance started covering it. And now I live in a state where birth control generally is not covered again.)

Some colleges used to give away free condoms in the 80's, in an effort to promote safe sex for both birth control and prevention of AIDS. There was a student organization that explained the different types of contraceptives, their strengths and weaknesses, and how to use them. That was the first time I learned anything about contraception -- my high school didn't have any sort of sex education class (not even one that explained the reproductive system... oh, and my Creationist biology teacher didn't cover those parts of the body, either), and my parents were too embarrassed to say anything more than "don't have sex... but if you do, use birth control." (And I should add... I went to a public school, not a religious school.) And my doctor told my mother that I didn't need an annual exam unless I was already having sex. (As if I would have told my mother, given how incredibly brief our one conversation was!)

And that was the 80's, before the "abstinence-only" campaigns started. I hate to think what's being taught (or not taught) to kids now.

isabelle:

--- Quote from: delalluvia on November 24, 2006, 02:26:51 pm ---  I may not like late-term abortion, but because of my beliefs, if someone wants to have one, I'm not going to stop them.

--- End quote ---

DEL, I totally agree. I wouldn't stop anyone having a late-term abortion. I guess I was thinking a bit too personally when I said "I find it hard to agree with it". But I do, have to, if I want to be coherent with my beliefs.

Penthesilea:

--- Quote from: nakymaton on November 24, 2006, 06:10:48 pm ---Those of you who are outside the US: what is covered by health insurance here varies quite a bit from person to person and from plan to plan. A lot of things aren't covered, or require a different type of insurance. (Dental work is its own health insurance. A lot of common vision-related stuff, like eyeglasses or contacts, are not covered. Mental health tends to be only partially covered. If you have cancer, your insurance coverage will run out, and you will not be able to get more.) So it is striking that Viagra generally IS covered, when so many other things are not.
--- End quote ---

Thanks, Mel. I was starting to think in that direction after delalluvia's last reply. This makes me understand her point a lot more.


--- Quote ---If you have cancer, your insurance coverage will run out, and you will not be able to get more
--- End quote ---

 :o Is there an error in this sentence? Did you mean: If you have cancer, and additionally have the bad luck that your health insurance runs out, then you will not able to get a new one?
Or is it in fact so that insurance companies have the right to kick out/cancel contracts when someone gets cancer? Please tell me that's not the case.



--- Quote ----- my high school didn't have any sort of sex education class (not even one that explained the reproductive system... oh, and my Creationist biology teacher didn't cover those parts of the body, either), and my parents were too embarrassed to say anything more than "don't have sex... but if you do, use birth control." (And I should add... I went to a public school, not a religious school.)
...
And that was the 80's, before the "abstinence-only" campaigns started. I hate to think what's being taught (or not taught) to kids now.

--- End quote ---

Oh.My.God. Leaves me speechless but angry.

I learned the basics about the reproductive system (where the babies come from and how they are made) before I started school (at age 6) from my parents. They had explained it to me and showed me books with pictures in it. And I did the same with my children. They knew the correct names for the genitals and what teenagers and adults do with them by the time they started school.

And in school the children have sex education shortly before puberty (I think about the age of 11) and methods of birth control are self-evident a part of it.

jpwagoneer1964:

--- Quote from: isabelle on November 24, 2006, 07:50:54 am ---

One thing though, that I really, really cannot accept easily, although I can see your point: to me, giving a child up for adoption is the worst option; a child knowing s/he was abandonned grows up with one of the worst blows to self-esteem ever, even if s/he has a loving foster family.
 

--- End quote ---
Adoption is the best choice for a baby( As opposed to abortion) So much better than being murderd before birth. And acopted child will grow up with  parent who wanted them. Lets call it what it  is, killing Babies.

injest:
I don't see adoption as being a bad choice at all...how it affects a child's self esteem will (like many other factors) depend on the parents..in this case adoptive....

there will always be good parents and bad parents...doesn't matter if they are adoptive or biological!

I do have a problem with an abortion after the first trimester...and I know that opens me up to being called a hypocrit....

the whole issue is one of those that will never be an absolute..no one will ever get everyone on the same side of the issue. What we need is compromise....what are you willing to accept or give to the other side. not everything is black/white...there are a lot of grey.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page