This article in the current issue of First Things is a must read. In “Bitter Pill,” economist Timothy Reichert, according to the byline, “reveals how the contraception boom has shifted wealth and power away from women.” Here’s a snippet:
With this essay, using the language and tools of modern social science, I will articulate the position that contraception is socially damaging. I will also demonstrate that contraception is in fact a sexist practice. Using straightforward microeconomic reasoning, I will unpack the behaviors engendered by artificial contraception. I will show that the contraceptive revolution has resulted in a massive redistribution of wealth and power from women and children to men.
Make sure you read the rest of this important article. If you aren’t one already, click here to become a First Things print or online subscriber.
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The article is online at http://www.firstthings.com/article/2010/04/bitter-pill. It is a very well-written and well-reasoned defense of the economic case against contraception.
Another related article is "The Pill's Deadly Affair with HIV/AIDS," available at http://pop.org/201004201199/the-pills-deadly-affair-with-hivaids. A brief excerpt:
"The world's deadliest killer, HIV/AIDS, and the Birth Control Pill have been carrying on a secret and deadly "love affair" for decades. While women swallowed their “freedom” with the morning orange juice, studies that should have made global headlines yellowed in medical journals, unknown to the general public. Only doctors learned about the pills deadly affair with HIV/AIDS, and they were too busy writing prescriptions for hormonal contraceptives to talk.
More than 50 medical studies, to date, have investigated the association of hormonal contraceptive use and HIV/AIDS infection. The studies show that hormonal contraceptives—the oral pill and Depo-Provera—increase almost all known risk factors for HIV, from upping a woman's risk of infection, to increasing the replication of the HIV virus, to speeding the debilitating and deadly progression of the disease."
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