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Strollerderby
Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar think Rick Santorum is the next best candidate to Jesus Christ.
I admittedly have not paid too much attention to the candidates currently stumping for president. The horror of Mormon Mitt Romney the robot actually becoming POTUS is simply too much to bear.
I should point out I am a recovering Mormon who spent nearly a decade covering Mitt Romney for Fox news. He has a home in Utah and was in my hometown of Salt Lake City for several years as head of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, the team who coordinated the 2002 Winter Games in Utah.
That said, I think Romney would be preferable to Rick Santorum who gave the candidates a surprising run for their money (Romney’s bottomless pockets in particular) in yesterday’s Iowa Caucuses. As The Huffington Post reports, Santorum “once considered a fringe candidate, the Christian conservative former Pennsylvania senator has come from nowhere to take the lead in the first race of the Republican race.”
Santorum’s secret weapon? The Duggars? The stars of 19 Kids and Counting on TLC pounded the pavement with Santorum over the weekend. The family appeared at a rally at a pizza place and Jim Bob is quoted as saying, “I’m asking families, Christians all over American to get behind Rick Santorum for the next president of the United States.” He continued, “Republicans are not going to find a perfect candidate, unless it’s Jesus Christ.” Continue reading »
I mean, for God's sake, they're free and everything.
If you’re a regular reader, you know I’m not a huge fan of the tone of the writing over at XOJane. It’s a bit too flippant, unnecessarily pseudo-sexual and quasi-controversial for my taste, as I made plain in my criticism of Jane Pratt’s May essay on miscarriage, in which she used her boobs as the lede. That being said, I want to back one of Jane’s writers up on her recent post about not using condoms, because, well, I’m not using them right now, either. Continue reading »
A new study shows that parents talk to their kids about sex, but not about birth control. Hot tip: if you don’t want to be a grandparent too soon, that’s a conversation you shouldn’t skimp on.
While most parents are having The Talk with their children, the study, commissioned by Planned Parenthood and the Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health, found that talk covers the mechanics of making babies and stops short of explaining how not to make little ones until you’re ready.
Why are parents keeping their kids in the dark about birth control? In some cases, that may stem from a belief in abstinence-only sex ed. Some people really think kids shouldn’t know about contraception.
A lot of us, though, are just squeamish about getting into too much detail with our kids. Or we think they’re too young to know. I am not one of those parents.
There are a lot of options out there for birth control
After news over the weekend that some birth control pills were sent out in the wrong packaging, possibly causing them to not work, some women may be looking for new options in their contraceptives.
There are a lot of them out there. Whether you’re looking for hormones in another form or a different approach to the problem altogether, there’s no shortage of ways to keep from getting pregnant. We’ve rounded up a list of all the choices. To compare how effective any given method is, check out Planned Parenthood’s site. Some of the data might surprise you.
For example, the much-mocked “pull-out” method is about as reliable as using a condom. Breastfeeding is more reliable than either of those choices, at least for the first six months after you give birth. And a fellow in Germany has invented spray-on condoms to give guys a custom fit.
Massive birth control recall due to faulty pill placement
News flash: your birth control pills may not be working. Right now, this month.
A major manufacturer of oral contraceptives, Alabama-based Qualitest Pharmaceuticals, has issued a huge recall of pill packets. The problem: pills were put in the wrong slots in the plastic packages, meaning women won’t get the right pills at the right time of month.
That, in turn, means the pills won’t be effective at preventing pregnancy. Which many women were no doubt relying on them to do.
What does it take to keep teens from getting pregnant?
You can’t “catch” pregnancy like you can a common cold, right? We all know what causes that, and it’s nothing you’re going to get from hanging around your pregnant girlfriends.
While pregnancy can’t be “caught” like the flu, it still might be contagious. At least among teenage girls. That’s the finding of a new study British study that shows a profound effect of teen pregnancy on a girls’ sisters. Having an older sister get knocked up doubles the odds that you’ll become a pregnant teenager yourself.
Other factors like education can mitigate the effect, but the impact of a sister’s pregnancy seems to be the strongest influence on a girl’s own liklihood of becoming pregnant. At least our families still have more influence on us than lousy shows like 16 and Pregnant.
Does natural family planning even work?
There’s a joke some of my friends like to tell: “What do you call people who practice Natural Family Planning?” “Parents.”
The joke being that “natural family planning”, the practice of avoiding conception by avoiding intercourse when a woman is fertile, doesn’t work. Proponents say it’s extremely effective when used correctly, but even if that’s the case, it’s a method extremely vulnerable to human error.
Yet it’s a popular one, especially among conservative Christians who oppose the use of most forms of birth control. NFP isn’t just for the God-fearing, though. Plenty of my liberal hippy friends have tried it over the years.
Now, a couple who once wrote a book praising the practice are speaking out against it.
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Wendy Michaels 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
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