Why is Birth Control a Woman’s Responsibility?
The birth control controversy has recently taken the internet by storm angering many Feminists in its process. There are many methods catered to women when it comes to birth control. These methods range from intrauterine devices to oral contraceptives.
The issue here is that most of these contraceptive methods are made for women rather than men. According to healthline.com, a man can produce several million sperm each day.
This proves to show that the process of developing contraceptives has long been directed towards the wrong gender. The implementation of the many contraceptive methods for a woman is just another way of proving the oppression that has long existed against them.
Moreover, the science industry has had minimal funding when it comes to research for male contraceptive options. Have you ever stopped to ask yourselves, “why is the responsibility of contraception just the woman’s?” The responsibility of an unwanted pregnancy does not just lie on the woman but rather on the man too but most birth control methods tell us otherwise.
Even in the case where a woman does not want to have a child, she would have to get her husband’s approval to tie her tubes. Even if she weren’t married, the doctor would ask what her future husband would think about it. The medical industry — the one industry that is supposed to be actively helping everyone with the vow to “do no harm” has significantly harmed society’s expectations by worsening them into being as ludicrous as ever.
So what exactly are the contraceptive methods that are available for men?
1. Condoms
Condoms are the most used when tackling unwanted pregnancies. Despite this, many refuse to use condoms because it “reduces pleasure”. This is no excuse to not use a contraceptive measure especially when they are against the idea of getting pregnant. The effectiveness of condoms ranges between 3% to 14% which may be shocking to some people but life isn’t usually full of 100%’s is it? Moreover, condoms aid in reducing the chances of contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
2. Vasectomy
Since women have always been told to “tie their tubes”, there is also a male alternative which is to get a Vasectomy. This procedure entails for men to cut and seal off the tube and prevent the sperm from reaching the testes.
3. Spermicide
Spermicide is known to kill sperms. It is more effective when it is used with a condom. The spermicide is typically applied to the vagina but also has a reputation for working only 79%.
4. Pulling out
Research shows that withdrawal works around 96% of the time but needs a lot of attention as it has to be removed from the vagina before ejaculation and not at the beginning. Furthermore, the penis has to be completely clear of the vagina which may be difficult for some to time the pulling out.
The examples above are some of the very few options that exist for men when it comes to taking contraceptive measures. Even though there are some trials, there are currently no pills that men can take compared to women who have a range of brands they can choose from.
So what is the cause of this issue? Is the medical industry only focused on making female contraceptives since there is already research that allows them to do so? Are these contraceptives only made for pharmaceutical companies to make money? Why is there a lack of funding to explore male contraceptive measures? There is no obvious reason as to why the industry has done very minimal research on male birth control options for the past few decades.
This only proves that the medical industry has to catch up to current times and start to approach equality by starting with male contraceptive measures. It takes two people to make a baby, and who better to know this fact than those within the medical industry.
At the end of the day, a woman can only get pregnant once a year, but on the other hand, a man can impregnate hundreds of women in the same period — so it is time for the medical industry to re-evaluate its priorities.
By: Anyaa Shrii Kumar
