TikTokers tout ‘Vatican Roulette’
Q. What do you call people who exclusively use “natural” forms of birth control such as the rhythm method?
A. Parents.
It’s an old joke but it’s still depressingly relevant: TikTok is exploding with self-proclaimed “holistic healers” and “hormone coaches” who are urging women to ditch their intrauterine devices (IUDs) and hormonal birth control and start monitoring their fertility signals instead. As Vice reports, videos tagged #naturalbirthcontrol have been viewed nearly 30m times and there seems to be a growing movement of influencers who are pushing the idea that hormonal birth control is dangerous and unnecessary. One TikTok that has been viewed 1.1m times claims natural family planning methods are 98% effective at preventing pregnancy.
To be clear: these influencers aren’t entirely wrong; monitoring your fertility signals is obviously a helpful way to understand when you’re most likely to get pregnant. Britain’s National Health Service’s website notes: “If natural family planning is followed consistently and correctly, it can be up to 99% effective.” But that’s a very, very big “if”. Measuring your fertility signals – which involves things like measuring your temperature daily, tracking your menstrual cycle and monitoring cervical secretions – is a lot of work and very easy to get wrong. It’s hard to say what the actual effectiveness rate of natural family planning is, but the size of Catholic families might give you a clue.
Needless to say, this is not exactly the best time for TikTok influencers to be encouraging people in the US to play what is sometimes known as Vatican roulette. The supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade has made it a very scary time to have an unintended pregnancy. The past few weeks have been full of horror stories of women being denied reproductive healthcare because doctors are afraid of the new laws that criminalize abortion. In Wisconsin, for example, a woman suffering an incomplete miscarriage was left to bleed for 10 days after being denied treatment by hospital staff who were afraid of contravening state abortion laws. With the fall of Roe v Wade, “the art of medicine is lost and actually has been replaced by fear”, one OB-GYN told NBC.
It’s important, I think, to acknowledge the many reasons why some of these online TikTok influencers are disillusioned with IUDs and hormonal birth control. Having an IUD inserted can be very painful; oral contraceptive pills can have numerous side effects. It’s essential to discuss these issues. However, scaremongering about contraceptives and urging people to abandon them for natural methods is downright dangerous. As Dr Jennifer Lincoln, an Oregon-based OB-GYN told Vice: “Getting pregnant now has enormous consequences. I don’t even know how these influencers sleep at night.” If I’m guessing? Probably with lots of holistic herbal supplements.
TikTok influencers who are fearmongering about birth control are also playing into the hands of the right, who seem to be very keen on forcing everyone to start using natural family planning. Republicans have repeatedly said that fears they will come after contraception are unfounded; however (shock horror!), their actions don’t seem to match up with their words.
On Thursday 195 Republicans voted against the Right to Contraception Act, a House bill codifying the right to contraceptives into federal law. Only eight Republicans voted in favour of the bill (two voted “present”). If Republicans don’t have plans to restrict access to contraceptives, how do they explain their hostility to the legislation? Well, according to Florida congresswoman Kat Cammack, the bill would “allow more abortions”. Don’t even try to figure out that logic, because there isn’t any.
I’ll tell you what is easy to figure out: Republicans aren’t stopping at Roe v Wade. They’re coming for the right to access contraception. They’re coming for the right to same-sex marriage. They’re coming for all our rights. The last thing we need is “hormone coaches” on TikTok giving them a helping hand.
No condoms for you, I’m religious!
It’s not just TikTokers who are intent on confiscating your contraceptives: Walgreens recently made headlines after an employee in a Wisconsin store refused to sell condoms to a couple on religious grounds. A Walgreens spokesperson said that was totally fine because its employees are allowed to refuse to complete transactions if they have a “moral or religious conviction”.
How US dollars put anti-abortion groups at the heart of Romanian healthcare
In 1966, Romania’s communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, banned abortion and contraception in an attempt to increase the birth rate. After his government was overthrown, in the early 1990s, abortion was legalized and reproductive rights improved. Now, however, things are going backwards again. Anti-abortion centers, many of which are receiving funds from US charities, are popping up in the country; a recent investigation showed that in 11 out of 42 counties in Romania, no public hospital performed abortions last year. Religious fanatics in the US aren’t content with simply rolling back women’s rights at home, they’re trying to export their ideology abroad.
More than 160m women unable to get contraception they need
Another reminder not to take access to birth control for granted: according to a new study published in the Lancet, as many as one in 14 women worldwide who wanted contraception were not using it in 2019. Half the women unable to access contraception live in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia.
Sexism in women’s football still rife
Being a female footballer means being subject to a lot of misogynistic abuse online, according to a new study.
Josh Hawley, expert on ‘manliness’, ran away from rioters like a terrified chicken
New footage has been made public of the Missouri senator running away from January 6 rioters – after he’d egged them on. Hawley, it should be said, likes to think of himself as something of an expert on manliness and has written a book on the subject called Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs.
The week in pawtriarchy
Humans have been exhausting lately so it is no surprise that the hottest new release of the summer seems to be a video game called “Stray” which lets you pretend to be a cat. It’s not just humans who are fans; pets seem to be obsessed and the internet is now full of a-mew-sing videos of cats who are transfixed by the game.
Arwa Mahdawi’s new book, Strong Female Lead, is available for order.
