Posts Tagged ‘health care’

During my time working at Planned Parenthood, I’ve probably heard every possible excuse not to use a condom.  But no excuse is good enough when your health is on the line. Here are some of the most common excuses (and falsehoods) that I hear on a daily basis and how to respond back:

“Condoms don’t really work, so why should we use them?”
When used properly, condoms are 98% effective at preventing pregnancy and greatly lower your chance of contracting sexually transmitted infections.

“We would use a condom, but my boyfriend says he doesn’t fit.”
There are different sizes of condoms.  From snug fit to extra large, every person can find condoms that fit them.  On top of that, there are tons of different types of condoms: fitted, ribbed, studded, flavored and so much more!

“I’m allergic to condoms.”
Then maybe you’re allergic to latex.  And if you are allergic to latex, you can get non-latex condoms.  Even allergies shouldn’t be an excuse.

“We trust each other. Why would we need a condom?”
People can carry sexually transmitted infections without knowing it.  When it comes to your health, would you rather trust words from someone that could possibly give you an STI, or a condom that will put a barrier between that STI and you?

“He says it doesn’t feel as good with a condom.”
You know what else doesn’t feel good? Chlamydia.  Also, when you know you’re protecting yourself from sexually transmitted infections and an unplanned pregnancy, you’re both going to feel more relaxed during sex.

“He says he can just pull out.”
This doesn’t do much if you’re trying to prevent sexually transmitted infections. And pre-cum can still get a woman pregnant.  This is a very hard method to master that takes a lot of self control and trust.  With typical use, there’s a 27% chance you could become pregnant.

All of these myths are just that: myths. Condoms should be used every time you have sex. So, don’t be fooled or coerced by false information. You need to know how to use a condom, what to do when if it breaks, what lubricants work and don’t work, and how to talk about condom usage with your partner.  Learn all of that and more at the condom section of the Planned Parenthood website.

In case you missed the bipartisan Health Care Reform Summit yesterday, coverage of the six hour event made it seem that the Summit lived down to low expectations. You have to respect President Obama for trying and at least the conversation was civil. Still, it’s pretty difficult to see room for much progress to be made. This lack of progress has never been more evident than in women’s access to reproductive health care under the proposed legislation.

We recently learned that the President has joined Congress (including Congressional allies) in putting Women’s Health at stake in the name of Health Care Reform. President Obama’s Health Care Reform proposal accepts the Nelson Check Provision which contains extremely restrictive language around abortion from the Senate version of the bill which passed that chamber back in December.

See our post on the Nelson Provision for the details but, in a nutshell, the “Nelson Abortion Check Provision” effectively creates an abortion rider system where all individuals who purchase their health care coverage will be forced to write two premiums checks—one for their abortion coverage and one for everything else. This includes coverage of any abortion that is medically necessary.

Basically, if you want abortion coverage, the Nelson provision requires you pay for it separately from all other components of your health care coverage.

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