Victoria Dahl’s ‘A Troll Primer on Birth Control’
Victoria Dahl:
(Clarification: ‘troll’ is not an insulting term for a conservative. A troll is a stranger who posts an insulting or deliberately aggressive comment on your blog or Internets in an attempt to anger, embarrass or put you in your place.)
I’ve been pretty outspoken on Twitter lately about the birth control debate (Really? This is a thing? In 2012?) and Rush Limbaugh. Of course, this sort of talk attracts trolls and I have yet to have one who seems to know anything about anything. I’m getting tired of repeating the same facts over and over, so I decided to write up a little primer, so I could simply point them toward it, pat them on the head, and tell them to educate themselves so they don’t have to weather the shitstorm I’m going to rain down on them.
I’m a layperson, in the sense that any woman can be a layperson about birth control, and I’m also pissed, so please excuse any messiness or disorganization or vulgarity in the delivery. And warning: there be snark in them thar hills. Snark. And maybe bitchiness.
1) Why do you think you deserve free birth control?
I don’t think that word means what you think it means. This debate is about insurance coverage of birth control. Is your insurance free? Mine isn’t. Mine costs a buttload of money every month. When you go to your doctor for a check-up that would cost, say, $300 out of pocket and you pay nothing, do you consider that free? Do you pat yourself on the back for pulling one over on the man? Do you dance your way to the parking lot, shouting, ‘I’m the most wily welfare queen in a world of welfare queens!!!!’? Somehow I suspect you don’t. It’s not free, it’s a service provided by a policy I pay premiums for.
Except when it’s not. Since the dawn of time, many insurance policies haven’t covered all of women’s prescriptions. Why? I don’t know. Because they haven’t had to? Because discrimination is fun? Regardless, many states (24, I believe) have enacted laws requiring plans to cover birth control if they cover other prescriptions. A new federal law will make this true in all states. It’s about time.
2) Why do you think you have a right to use my tax dollars to subsidize your birth control?
Assuming you’ve dropped the whole ‘getting it for free’ issue, I assume you’re referring to the zero cost for preventative health care issue wherein I won’t have to pay a co-pay for birth control? I don’t think it’s subsidized by the government, I think it falls to insurance companies. They seem to be fine with this, as birth control coverage costs them a lot less than pregnancy visits and childbirth. Regardless, 50% of the taxpayers in this country are women, and 98% of women have used birth control in their lives. So I think we’ve got our share of it covered, thanks. You can use your tax dollars to ‘subsidize’ no-co-pay preventative checks for prostate cancer, chief. Draw the imaginary lines in your head and feel better. Your tax dollars protect your little man down there. My tax dollars go to prevent the pregnancies that women would otherwise generate on their own without any fault or responsibility of men, whose magic sperm only ever create pregnancies when both parties are ready and prepared. Tricksy women.
More (including rebuttals 3-9) at:
victoriadahl.tumblr.com