So, I just finished reading this article about a male birth control pill. From the article, most men were open to the idea, but were, of course, concerned about possible health problems. So far, the worst side effect seems to be a little weight gain. When told of all of the side effects for women on birth control, most men were shocked that women go through all of this stuff. The article also goes into why a male birth control pill has not come out sooner (lack of funding, lack of interest). The mindset is: if there is already a pill that works for women, why have one for men? They have the gall to ask this as the number of cases of breast cancer among women rises exponentially. Also the FDA is concerned with the amount of time that it takes for men to become fertile again after going off the pill. The max time is three months. That is the minimum time for women who go off the pill, but they have no problem issuing that out.

Another article I read this morning having to do with a woman’s period, discusses a new birth control pill whose marketing strategy is that you (a woman) never have to have a period again, or at least as long as you are on this pill. You don’t even have the withdrawal bleeding that you have with other birth control pills. While not as interesting as the above article, it is still an informative and interesting read.

And last, but not least is an article on abortion. Short summary: it bashes people who want to make abortions illegal, but who will not condone the use of contraceptives. Long summary: Pro-life groups want to lessen the number of abortions in this country. So do the pro-choice groups. Both groups have been doing this by encouraging women to complete their pregnancies and to then give up the child for adoption. The pro-life group, however, say that encouraging the use of contraceptives will only increase the amount of extra-marital sex that people are having. While, yes, that may be true, it will also greatly decrease the amount of unwanted pregnancies, and thus the amount of abortions. Even though the encouragement to complete the pregnancy is helping to reduce the number of abortions, by condemning contraceptives, women are still having unwanted pregnancies, thus women are still having abortions. It seems to me that if we have to choose between killing more babies or having more extra-marital sex, then I say bring on the sex! (in no way am I approving of extra-marital sex, but in choosing the lesser of two evils, I will choose the side of life.)