Pregnancy has never really made sense to me, I know that sounds weird, but to be honest, it really never has. Sure I understand all the biological aspects of it, I understand that babies are a result of sex, the sperm and the egg meeting and all that.
What I don’t understand is how someone “didn’t mean to get pregnant.” That, to me is the most absurd thing in the history of all existence and I have sat for nights on end pondering how someone could do that without meaning to.
And I’ve heard it said and seen it done so many times. It has always been my perspective that if you really didn’t want to get pregnant, there is no reason why you should.
Especially in this day and age with all the contraception available and all the sexual awareness that is present in American culture, I would have thought we were past that whole mentality. But then today, I went to the pharmacy and looked at the prices of birth control. Then I understood the reasons why people may get pregnant without ‘meaning to.’
Contraception is so expensive!
The birth control patch in itself is about $71.00 with a prescription; I mean I never would have thought that you would have had to pay an arm and a leg (nearly) just to keep from getting pregnant.
In England, it’s free! I don’t believe that the government is helping young women (especially those on a college student’s budget) who really want to keep from getting pregnant before they graduate by making it so costly to attain contraception.
From what I’ve been told the whole idea behind making contraception so expensive is so young people choose to abstain from having sex because of the risks of getting pregnant. Clearly, congress doesn’t understand that this is college and abstinence is the last thing on anyone’s mind regardless of the reason.
Nevertheless, a woman has to make a decision here, which means you. Once you think about the alternative it’s not really a tough choice.
Would you rather pay the $71.00 for the patch, the $500 and upwards for the abortion or the never-ending amount it takes to actually take care of the baby?
When you look at it from that perspective (unsympathetic as it may be) that $71 really doesn’t look so much like an arm and a leg.
Pregnancy is always a costly business, whether those costs are financial, emotional, physical or psychological.
I’m glad to see most students on campus practicing safe sex by using a condom, however, lest the condom messes up, consider having made the choice to take contraception.
No matter what you have been taught to believe, the condom isn’t always enough.
So regardless of the fact that contraception costs are expensive; the fact that one is able to avoid pregnancy if they do not want it is still prominent.
I encourage all the ladies (and gents) to please continue being in control of your sex lives by advocating safe sex, contraception and STD testing on campus. Visit Planned Parenthood or the Student Health center for accessible contraception if you’re unsure how to go about things. Always remember, the sexiest thing you could ever do is to be safe.
Philippa Hatendi can be reached at phatendi@ut.edu.
