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New Apps Let Women Obtain Birth Control Without Visiting a Doctor
HughPickens.com writes: With nearly 40 percent of all pregnancies in the United States unintended, birth control is a critical public health issue. For short-term methods, visiting the doctor for a prescription can be time-consuming and sometimes costly and for some, like teenagers, it can be intimidating or embarrassing. Now Pam Belluck reports at the NYT that a growing assortment of new apps and websites now make it possible to get prescription contraceptives without going to the doctor as public health experts hope the new apps will encourage more women to start, or restart, using contraception and help reduce the country's stubbornly high rate of unintended pregnancies, as well as the rate of abortions. At least six digital ventures, by private companies and nonprofits, including Planned Parenthood, now provide prescriptions written by clinicians after women answer questions about their health online or by video. All prescribe birth control pills, and some prescribe patches, rings and morning-after pills and some ship contraceptives directly to women's doors. "At first I didn't believe it," said Susan Hashem, who wanted to restart birth control pills without missing work for a doctor's appointment. Hashem used an app called Lemonaid and paid $15 for a doctor to review her medical information and send a pill prescription to a local pharmacy. "I thought it was just a setup to get money," Hashem said. But after she answered the health questions one evening, "a doctor actually contacted me after office hours," and the next morning, she picked up three months' worth of pills.
Odd, I highly doubt my credentials to capably identify how professional a practitioner of medicine is in the field of my needs.
I tend to think of them as being like computer technicians and computer scientists... just because you're practicing as a doctor doesn't mean you don't suck at it. Almost universally, "general practitioners" are the least likely people to go back to school for further education while remaining isolated in their own practice.
No thank you! I'd honestly rather read a book/web page and just risk it. Takes less time and if I break myself at least I didn't have to have some guy grab my balls and say cough
It's pretty straightforward, having a child in the US is a really bad deal. No guaranteed maternity leave, day care that costs more than one parent's entire salary, relatively little government support that people shame you for even trying to take advantage of, etc. Not to mention the fact that it sets back your career for years and is not exactly a pleasant process, physically, for the mother.
Having children, to a point, is a long-term benefit to society but so many people vocally resent having their money spent to help with the burden that goes along with children. Any discussion of maternity leave will have tons of people saying things like, "why do you get time off for having a baby and I don't get time off because I choose not to." Bottom line, people are too selfish.
there are women out there who choose to not have a child and still want to fuck
I can think of one group of women like that. Whores. Prostitutes. What other ones can you think of?
A) Everyone else.
And a question for you: what is wrong with you that you think women enjoying sex fall into the category of "Whores"? And you even needed to repeat the point: "Prostitutes".
They're a far better class of person than you are, sir.
And then you could add that the life expectancy in Cuba is higher than the U.S., and the infant mortality is lower.
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/1...
A Different Model -- Medical Care in Cuba
Edward W. Campion, M.D., and Stephen Morrissey, Ph.D.
N Engl J Med 2013; 368:297-299
January 24, 2013
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1215226
This highly structured, prevention-oriented system has produced positive results. Vaccination rates in Cuba are among the highest in the world. The life expectancy of 78 years from birth is virtually identical to that in the United States. The infant mortality rate in Cuba has fallen from more than 80 per 1000 live births in the 1950s to less than 5 per 1000 â" lower than the U.S. rate, although the maternal mortality rate remains well above those in developed countries and is in the middle of the range for Caribbean countries.3,4 Without doubt, the improved health outcomes are largely the result of improvements in nutrition and education, which address the social determinants of health. Cuba's literacy rate is 99%, and health education is part of the mandatory school curriculum. A recent national program to promote acceptance of men who have sex with men was designed in part to reduce rates of sexually transmitted disease and improve acceptance of and adherence to treatment. Cigarettes can no longer be obtained with monthly ration cards, and smoking rates have decreased, though local health teams say it remains difficult to get smokers to quit. Contraception is free and strongly encouraged. Abortion is legal but is seen as a failure of prevention.
Everything has ups and downs.
Is a falling population a tragedy.
Lower costs of education, childcare, probably crime...
The cost of supporting 'old people' in terms of healthcare and retirement based on younger workers sounds like a reason to have more kids... but last I checked, jobs in general are a problem in most countries.
It's not magical young people that pay taxes... it's young people with good jobs.
And if the government is going to be spending money to create jobs for young people and stimulate the economy, are you really in any worse position to just spend that money taking care of old people directly.
You have issues with a falling population. But it's not kind of automatic crises. Certain industries will face problems. There are powerful lobbies as well.... banking, housing, mortgages... that depend on population growth as well.