Media Celebrate ‘Shout Out For Birth Control Day’
If you receive a tasteless e-postcard celebrating sex
without consequences today, someone in your life really needs a new hobby.
Bedsider, an organization connected with Planned Parenthood, is sponsoring a media-backed “Shout Out for Birth Control Day.” As a thank-you for “Healthy Kids. Happy Parents. Stable Families,” the organization set aside November 12 to honor birth control. The website invited all to share "Thanks, Birth Control" postcards with friends and to use the hashtag #ThxBirthControl for social media promotion.
The organization explained, “Nearly all women who have had sex—99% to be precise—have used birth control. Yep. It’s that common because it’s that awesome and because it makes so much possible.”
Bedsider, a project of the non-profit The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, is a self-described “online birth control support network for women 18-29.”
The postcards focused on – what else? – self-obsession :
- “Nine months from now the only thing I’m expecting is to be more awesome”
- “Danced all night. Slept all day. Had wild, swing-from-the-chandeliers, baby-free sex.”
- “The only thing I worry about after sex is how soon can we do it again.”
- “All my play dates are adults-only.”
- “We can go to Paris, drink champagne, and never have to ask, ‘Do you sell pregnancy tests?’ in French”
- “Doing the 9-to-5 thing for my career before I do the 24/7 thing for a baby.”
- “Rocked a 4.0 because the only thing that kept me up at night was studying. (And maybe some sex.)”
Charming.
Cosmopolitan Magazine, MarieClaire, MTV, Dr. Drew Pinsky, reality star Angela Simmons as well as actresses Ricki Lake and Cassie Steele have all enlisted to push the campaign. Cosmo’s Liz Plosser gushed, “Celebs, politicians, high-profile leaders – and hopefully you!– are tweeting and Instagramming about the positive effect contraception has had for them on November 12, the first annual Shout Out for Birth Control Day.” She explained, “Think: the freedom to enjoy worry-free sex, pursue a rewarding career, or manage your endometriosis.”
While Bedsider claims its website is “totally independent and the info on it is honest and unbiased,” the organization has an intimate relationship with taxpayer-funded abortion giant Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood, which lists Besider.org as a “patient resource” for birth control, either employs or once employed five of Bedsider’s “members:” Linda Dominguez, Michael Policar, Tessa E. Madden, Colleen Krajewski and Melissa Gilliam.
In addition, Planned Parenthood’s Vice President for Medical Affairs Dr. Vanessa Cullins sits on the board of both Bedsider and The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.
Bedsider recently made headlines for teaching a “Bedsider Birth Control 101 Interactive Workshop” to students during “Sex Week” at the tax-payer funded University of Maryland.
— Katie Yoder is Staff Writer, Joe and Betty Anderlik Fellow in Culture and Media at the Media Research Center. Follow Katie Yoder on Twitter.
