At this moment, there are two kinds of people on the Right. There are those who insist you are ridiculous to suggest that Republicans are coming after birth control, or that you’re simply lying about this in order to make them look bad. Then there are those who are, well, very blatant about the fact that they are coming for your birth control.
Late last month, the Washington Post published an article about the issue of birth control misinformation and the fact that teens are getting bad information from TikTok and other social media, particularly from “influencers” telling them to do the rhythm method instead of taking birth control. This did not go over well with a lot of weirdos on the Right, who all suddenly started talking even more about how much they hate birth control.
One of the people who immediately jumped on that train? Charlie Kirk! Kirk went on a real big tirade this week about how birth control “screws up female brains” and “creates very angry and bitter young ladies and young women.”
Transcript via Mediaite:
Abortion’s obviously part of it, but they’ve been sold a lie through culture, through media, through even some of their parents that you basically have to go pursue this corporate trajectory, and that men are always the problem, and suppress your biological impulses. A lot of them are on birth control, too.
And birth control like really screws up female brains, by the way. Every single one of you need to make sure that your loved ones are not on birth control. It increases depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation. Birth control is the number one prescribed medication for young ladies under the age of 25. They will give young ladies birth control for pimples, for acne, to control their moods, their period. It is awful, it’s terrible, and it creates very angry and bitter young ladies and young women. Then that bitterness then manifests into a political party that is the bitter party. I mean, the Democrat [sic] Party is all about “bring us your bitterness and, you know, we’ll give you free stuff.”
I hate to tell you this, Charlie, but the reason you encounter so many “angry and bitter young ladies and young women” is not because of birth control. It is because you say things like this and other terrible things. That is why they seem angry and bitter to you. It is likely that when they are around other people, they are as pleasant as can be.
Also — weren’t you all supposed to be mad about women having lots of children in order to get larger welfare checks? How does that factor in here?
The Federalist also ran multiple articles about how birth control is bad and will make women crazy and unhappy, as well as about how there is some kind of mass coverup going on to keep women on birth control in order to keep them voting for Democrats.
But yes, just for the record, I will absolutely vote for the party that gives people “free stuff” if that free stuff helps them live and eat and otherwise survive.
As much as I wish I were, I am not making that up.
The feminist left hates it. They’re all “pro-choice” until women choose to tell about their adverse experiences with birth control and detoxify their bodies of hormone disruptors. Invoking The Handmaid’s Tale is always in vogue, but Democrats’ ugly little secret is that birth control isn’t just the best way to control reproduction; it’s the best way to control women. The longer women remain single and childless, the longer they tend to be dependents of the state and therefore Democrat voters. The fewer times they go on maternity leave, the more soulless hours they can clock for their corporate bosses.
Yes, those jerk women, all doing their corporate 9-to-5 so they can be dependents of the state!
Of course none of it makes any sense, it’s not supposed to. But we will still insist on pointing out who it is who advocates for paid family leave and shorter working hours/more overtime and who is The Federalist!
As far as the side-effects go, these people tend to not understand that there are at least 259 varieties of birth control on the market — some that will work great for you, others that will not. A pill that causes mood issues or weight gain for one might not cause any side effects for someone else. This is the case with pretty much every kind of medication there is. There is no such thing as a magic pill that works for everyone. Hell, the whole reason I got on birth control in the first place as a teenager was because I had horrific cramps. You know what they gave me first? Vicodin. You know what did nothing for me except give me the weirdest panic attack of my life? Vicodin. You know what works really well for a lot of people? Vicodin. Also too, stimulant ADHD meds always made me feel physically weird, but Wellbutrin, though off-label, has worked great. I also know a lot of people who have had a real bad time on Wellbutrin!
With any issue, you usually have to try a few different things before you find one that works well for your particular body chemistry. With birth control, it is possible that hormonal birth control might not be for you. You may want to try a non-hormonal pill or an IUD or stick to spermicide and condoms.
Or, if you really want to get knocked up, go get knocked up! No one is stopping you.
The irony is that these people also point out that married women with children are more likely to vote Republican, and constantly obsess about convincing women to marry young. They’re literally the only ones actually trying to influence whether or not people take birth control or get married for political gain! And no, if you have kids, you Leaning In, corporate ward of the state (?!) they don’t want to help.
At the same event, Kirk connected his birth control tangent to another tangent about how women are “past their prime” after their 20s and come crying to him about how they can’t find a man now that they are older.
Not since The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie has the concept of a “prime” been so blatantly interwoven with fascist ideology.
The Right can’t win with ideas, because they don’t have any. Their only bet right now is forcing women to get pregnant and have babies on the off chance that it will make them more conservative — particularly if they do it when they are young and do not have a lot of time to be free to develop their own thoughts and interests on their own. As much as it’s not great news for us that they’re going after everything that allows women to choose when or if they want to give birth, it’s actually worse news for them if that’s all they’ve got.
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