This is my first diary at BMT. Crossposted at Brendan Calling
Planned Parenthood Affiliates around the country are distributing free emergency contraception today, December 6, 2006. Call 1-800-230-PLAN for the center nearest you.
Plan B, emergency contraception, was finally legalized as an OTC contraceptive for women aged 18 and over. Yet as we all know, there is a real problem with irresponsible moralists in pharmacies everywhere that are denying contraception to customers, based on personal beliefs.
Like a spare tire, you don’t want to be without emergency contraception when you need it. And you certainly don’t need to be at the mercy of some snake-handler at CVS who thinks his or her religious beliefs bestow the right to make YOUR medical decisions for you. This is especially true if you live in Connecticut, where Rape Gurney Joe Lieberman believes that catholic Hospitals should have the right to deny EC to sexual assault victims.
Please forward this post to your friends and colleagues, head down to Planned Parenthood, and avail yourself of free emergency contraception. Even if you never have to use it, you’ll be thanking yourself for being prepared.
Welcome as a diarist at BT.
This is important information. Thanks for sharing it. The one caveat I would add is that if you get a dose for possible future use (which I agree is a good idea), be sure you know if it has an expiration date and what that is.
I am also glad PP is doing this. Alas, we have only one PP in my state and it is in the SE corner – far away from many small towns where I am sure EC is unavailable. It’s a start, though.
Even if you never have to use it, you’ll be thanking yourself for being prepared.
And while you’re at it, give thanks you can do it at all.
In my teens I lived in Connecticut. All forms of contraception were banned there as well as in Massachusetts, even for health reasons. To buy a rubber, boys had to (1) know a druggist willing to sell under the table, a criminal offense, or (2) drive to New York.
Nursing students in New Haven were exposed to family planning via a one-day excursion to the Margaret Sanger clinic in New York.
Then came Griswold v. Connecticut (before Roe v. Wade) — decided forty-one years ago, in which the Supremes overturned a Connecticut law which made sexual speech & commerce, including birth control materials, a criminal offense. The court decided that married women had a right to privacy implied in the Constitution.
The plaintiffs were Estelle Griswold, executive director of Planned Parenthood League, and C. Lee Buxton, chair of Yale’s Dept. of Obstetrics & Gynecology, and medical director for the League in New Haven. Efforts to change the law at the state level had failed. So, they opened Planned Parenthood clinics in New Haven. Then they deliberately had themselves arrested, convicted, and fined $100 for dispensing contraceptives to a married couple, in order to reach the Supreme Court.
The background for Griswold is one of Protestant vs. Catholic legislators, anachronistic Comstock laws challenged with the weapon of civil disobedience. Whether you’re old enough to have grandchildren or young enough to be the grandchildren, this gift from history is unforgettable.
Brendan, I think you are being shrill and vituperative, as well as lacking grace, when you refer to Holy Joe Lieberman as ‘Rape Gurney Joe’.
Please consult the Book of Higher Broderism and rethink your lack of civility.