I support affordable contraception—and I vote

Ladies, we need to answer the men who call us sluts because we enjoy sex, who tell us to put aspirin tablets between our knees, who tell us that forcible pregnancies are “gifts from God.”

Our answer should be, “You don’t want us to have sex.  Then we all refuse to have sex.”

 It’s been a long time coming, but Rush Limbaugh finally sent me over the edge yesterday when he inveighed against Sandra Fluke.  "Well, what would you call someone who wants us to pay for her to have sex? What would you call that woman? You'd call 'em a slut, a prostitute or whatever," Limbaugh ejaculated.

Ms. Fluke is a Georgetown University law student who testified before a congressional panel about the costs of having responsible, protected sex. 

Limbaugh objects to her health insurance's covering the cost.  “We are getting screwed even though we don't meet her personally!”

Here’s what I don’t understand.  Today couples have the technology to enjoy sex.  Before affordable contraception, every woman, every time she had heterosexual vaginal intercourse, had to accept that she might end up pregnant.  Before affordable contraception, every sexual contact could lead to a deadly disease.

Today, contraceptive technology (used properly) allows a woman to express her love for her partner without worrying about being able to afford and care for a child.  Their partners, the ones who think with the heads with brains in them, benefit as well.

Today, barrier methods (used properly) allow partners to be intimate without fearing disease and death.

For couples who choose to use contraception, sex is now joyful in a way it never has been before.  Yet bombasts like Limbaugh, Santorum and Romney want to return us to the days of deadly coat-hanger abortions, syphilis wards and threat.

Ladies, we need to speak up.  We need to band together like the Trojan women.

We need to tell them there’ll be no more sex until they agree that every couple should be able to afford contraception, and to use it if they choose.

Men can show their support.  Let’s print a bunch of “I support affordable contraception—and I vote” t-shirts.  Let’s make sure that the only men with sexually-satisfied smiles are the ones in the t-shirts.