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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.
the last time I threw out my back I had to go see a doc for flexeril. The drive was incredibly painful and the entire thing only served to put $200 bucks in the guys pocket. It was literally less than useless. Add to that the cost keeps a lot of low income people away from meds they already know they need. Mix this with an online pharmacy and people the the deep South surrounded by Bible thumpers trying to keep them away from the evils of Birth Control can finally live the way they want.
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Abortion is inhuman... get it... in human... hahahahahaha
I'm strongly in favor of overall greater access to birth control. But I have to say that when it comes to starting any kind of hormonal birth control, I'm uneasy about the idea of doing so without the supervision of a doctor or other medical professional.
In my case I had to go through three different types of pills before I found a pill that worked well for me. The first two left me, well, hormonal and while it wasn't terrible, it also wasn't a pleasant experience. Especially compared to how much better things were once I finally found a pill that worked. There are a number of different pills on the market for a reason; not everyone responds to a given formulation the same way. And this is where the doctor was a great help, as she was able to tell me what was and wasn't normal, use my experiences to suggest other options. I suppose from a technical perspective any pill will do - they all seem to pause fertility - but the side effects can be a real pain.
This is why I'm uneasy about anyone starting a new birth control regimen without supervision. Certainly once you're established and happy, you should be able to get new packs as you please (including ordering extra for trips and such). And this is definitely something that needs to be fixed as it's harder than it should be. But starting without a physician seems like a poor idea to me. I feel like it's doing a disservice to others who will be lead to think the processes is easier than it actually is.
With nearly 40 percent of all pregnancies in the United States unintended, birth control is a critical public health issue.
Wow, that statement really makes you want to click and read the text. It's emotional and powerful.
While an unintended pregnancy is a serious issue, note that the US fertility rate is now 1.88 births per woman. The replacement rate for population is about 2.1 (births per woman, depends on the geographical area: percentage of births that live to adulthood).
If we can eliminate the 40% of all births that are unintended, the US population would drop off a cliff. This is already a problem for many areas such as Japan and Germany.
The term critical means "pertaining to or of the nature of a crisis", with "crisis" being " time when a difficult or important decision must be made" (with reference to: emergency, catastrophe, calamity, and doomsday).
This is an improvement and one I heartily support.
Nevertheless, calling the situation a "crisis" is a bit melodramatic... don't you think?
That's the new business model nowadays: create a cool app to inject yourself between buyers and sellers, lower expectations on both sides, get a cut in the process and call it "disruptive".
lucm, indeed.
Now for the question: Why is birth control supposed to be necessary?
it's not necessary, it's desired. people like to be able to determine what they are going to do with their life instead being slaves to biological processes. if you disagree with this then you should never take any medications ever even if it's to save your life because it's changing "the natural order of things".
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Mix this with an online pharmacy and people the the deep South surrounded by Bible thumpers trying to keep them away from the evils of Birth Control can finally live the way they want.
Big difference between how they want and how they should.
Quick question: How should they live, and what's your authority for making that judgement?
So is waging war and letting people live on the street, but you don't see many right wingers demand ending that.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
It may surprise you, but there are women out there who choose to not have a child and still want to fuck. Guess what, they are human beings and want to enjoy life.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
condoms aren't a medication that intentionally changes the biological function of the person using them.
However, today's women are living a lifestyle that is a huge change from natural biological functioning. Many years ago, a woman was often pregnant or nursing most of her adult life, until menopause - if she lived that long.
Women today go through many many more menses than is natural.
Oddly enough, birth control pills mimic the more natural state. Despite the warnings, which I suspect are put there to satisfy the puritanical - kind of like whenever they find that alcohol in moderation is beneficial, they have to add that scientists are trying to find the miracle ingredient in grapes or barley.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Are the babies going to starve? Are they going to be deprived of education?
Uhhh... yes actually. Have you not heard of the plight of inner city school systems? Or that people like you are desperately trying to reduce welfare benefits for poor mothers that are "stealing your tax money"? You can't possibly think that it is easy to have a baby when you are a single mother making minimum wage, with no family support to help you out. Conservatives seem to care a whole lot about babies until they are actually born, then whatever, fuck 'em. Birth control is about choices.
So, you support making contraception widely available.
There is exactly one reference to abortion in the bible. It's in Numbers 5, and it details the process for performing an abortion if you believe your wife has been unfaithful.
Conservatives do have a solution for single mothers: Incentivise them to get married. Marriages is a magic cure-all. It boost church attendance, improves education, reduces the crime rate, increases income and improves health. But only if you're straight, of course.
You know, sometimes one of the two people doesn't have a choice in the matter.
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.
Sure we can, we make up classifications all the time in science. For instance, one possibility could be when the fetus can live on its own outside the womb. Specific, testable, scientific. Dang that was easy.
Yeah, the U.S. was at complete peace during the previous administration then as soon as Obama came into office it was 8 years of solid war. The Republicans tried to stop it every step of the way but boy Obama is just a warmonger.
Meanwhile back on planet Earth, the US has been tangled up in the middle east (this time) since well before Obama was elected - I suppose you conveniently forgot which party was in power then, no?
Hey axewolf,
"The fact that it is WIDELY subsidized by the government implies the 'necessity'."
Eh? The government also subsidizes the arts and sports.
"Why is it more important to sacrifice your instincts, the substance of your being, that which led to the formation of your body, for momentary respite from pressures from society?"
Eh? Where's the sacrifice? Women can choose to have children when they have a financial and relationship stability. I'm going to take a wild guess and assume you're a man who doesn't need to worry about the personal implications of having a baby without the previous two things in place.
"It's pretty disturbing that you get modded up for saying things so incredibly..."
From this point on you just went on a wild insulting rambling. The doctor's and government officials aren't deciding anything for anyone here. They're giving medical advice and allowing people to choose birth control. The doctor's aren't prescribing birth control and laughing about how they made women better workers.
Anyway, I know there's no actual point replying to you, in fact so far every reply I've seen to a post of yours just makes you madder and act more paranoid delusional. Just wanted the post you replied to to have some backup.
Take it easy man.
It's turtles all the way down.
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.
Actually it says both, but if you're not an Ancient Hebrew, the slaughter, foreskins, and slavery don't apply to you. See Acts 15 for details.
sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
I'm European, from my point of view your democrats ARE right wingers. The GOP is just off the chart.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Feel free to demonstrate the objective scientific point of transition from "not human" to "human". It doesn't, and can't, exist within the context of biology.
Therefore, if you don't accept that life begins at conception, there is no scientific point at which you can claim such a transition has happened for you -at all-, and logical consistency requires that you agree society should likewise be free to kill you at will.
Conception is a process. Biologically, there is no "moment of conception" as the Catholics like to pretend. Sometimes the egg implants first, sometimes the sperm fertilizes it first, and so on. There is no set order for all the various steps that take place during conception. (Some orderings have better success rates than others, but none have a 0% chance... Oh, and about 50% of all conceptions are spontaneously aborted without any human interference. Who should we blame those on?) It's impossible to say life begins at conception because it's impossible to say when conception begins.
In other words, you are completely correct. There is no exact transition point. Which means there is nothing to do other than make one up, as best as we can.
Can you pinpoint the exact moment that a child becomes an adult? If not, I guess all two year olds should have the right to vote, drive, drink alcohol, and serve in the military.
Ideology: A tool used primarily to avoid the bother of thinking.
I suppose you conveniently forgot which party was in power then, no?
Since they're effectively the same fucking party, that should be quite understandable.
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.
"thigh" is translated from a word that, elsewhere in the text, clearly refers to reproductive organs. It's an abortion.
The ordeal involves taking a brew prepared by the priests. I suspect we have only half the ritual - the other half was passed from priest to priest, saying which herbs to put in the brew.
Better education trumps technical advancement. Who would have thought.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Meanwhile, on planet Earth, Obama (hardly a "right winger") is going to go down in history as the first president to have been effectively at war for 8 solid years.
This is only almost true because US presidents have not had a good track record of staying in power for 8 solid years during times of extended warfare. But it isn't true anyway, since Woodrow Wilson was in power for 8 years during the US occupation of Nicaragua, which lasted 19 years spanning his entire presidency. Theodore Roosevelt was in power for 8 years during the Moro Rebellion, which lasted 14 years spanning his entire presidency.
And if you count the American Indian Wars, every President with an eight year term before Woodrow Wilson was at war for eight solid years.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
"Europeans are off the chart left. Socialism will never work."
Your fire and car insurance seem to do just fine with such a socialist ideas, so does the US postal system, military defense, highways, fire department, bridges, garbage collection, public libraries (Those are large houses of stone where people go to read stuff)
and a few dozen other ones.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/...
"Sure we can, we make up classifications all the time in science. For instance, one possibility could be when the fetus can live on its own outside the womb. "
On its own? These times that usually means between the age of 35 and 40.
I do know a woman who had an abortion when she just couldn't care for a child, and had four children once life became more stable. I suspect that's more people in the world, net.
However, I'll tell you one thing common to all aborted fetuses: they're unwanted. Being an unwanted child, which the fetus will become, is not a good thing.
There's plenty of food for all, OK, but it's not distributed to everyone. Changing that would require some massive changes in society and the economy. Communities do not educate themselves to a satisfactory level nowadays.
In other words, you're making crap up to fit with your prejudices.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes