I know that I am a woman of the new millennium, but I still cannot believe that in 2008 there are still people out there trying to control women’s bodies and what we choose to do with them. Especially doctors.

Recently, a federal rule was proposed in Minnesota that would eliminate the mandate for hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape victims. This rule would “broaden the definition of abortion to include the most widely used forms of birth control, which can prevent implantation of a fertilized egg.”

“It elaborates that the rule change would mean doctors and nurses would not have to provide information on birth control, prescriptions or give referrals to get it elsewhere. Operating room technicians would not have to clean instruments used in a surgical procedure, the proposal said.” Read More »

[Read part one HERE]

Finally, I left the store with no pregnancy test and no lack of huffing and stomping. As I drove to the next grocery store, I started to think about what I would do when the test told me I was pregnant.

I had all but assumed that I was, at that point. I had talked about it with my boyfriend, who was enormously supportive, as we tried to figure out how I could be pregnant. We were almost always safe when we had full on sex, but not quite as safe during foreplay. And there was that time we played the pull out game.

I honestly had never really thought about this situation before, because in the almost three years that we had been having sex and playing that game occasionally, nothing like this had ever happened, not even close.

I stood in line at the next grocery store, sandwiched between two harried looking mothers and their brood, and cursed myself for being so stupid. I should have gotten on the pill even though it was expensive and made me fat, I should have used spermicide even though it grosses me out, I should have made my boyfriend wear a condom at all times, even when I was just thinking about sex.

Eventually, I bought the damn pregnancy test. I read the instructions and, in my haste to be done with the damn thing, made the mistake of not peeing on it long enough. I sat on the toilet, staring in fury at the now useless pregnancy test that had taken so much guts and time and money to acquire and threw it across the room. I was mad at the thing, yes, but mostly, I was so mad at myself, that I wanted to cry. Read More »

When the announcement came last year that Plan B would be sold over the counter, slutty college girls, or just college girls in general, silently rejoiced.This means no more shameful experiences at the local college health clinic having to explain to a nurse who looks like your mom why you need this pill, as well as the exact details of what happened. That situation is traumatizing enough that I’m sure it deterred many girls who really needed the pill, but were not willing to go through the humiliation of actually obtaining it.

Lucky for the incoming freshman class of 2011, who will never truly appreciate the easy accessibility of Plan B pills at the drugstore pharmacy instead of a doctor’s office. Well, pharmaceutical companies are just as excited as we are, with the sales expected to be ENORMOUS for 2007. Read More »