Something All Women Need To Know:

What a funny coincidence I'd write a blog post about considering the ramifications of having a baby THE SAME DAY that the U.S House of Representatives passes a vote to cut federal funding from Planned Parenthood.

It's called the Pence Amendment, and you can read more about it here, here, and here.

Normally, I'm not one for politics, but this is absurd. Americans, you think that supporting other people via welfare sucks? Great, then how about you don't take away the preventative measures that stop young women like me from ending up on it? Without access to free or cheaper birth control, young women stand a greater risk of not being able to afford or going without the contraceptive, therefore, increasing their risks of winding up pregnant and needing the tax payer's support on welfare. Without screening procedures, STDs will spread, and it won't just be women affected. Cancer, UTIs, and other infections and illnesses will go undetected. True, abortions are a service that Planned Parenthood offers, but it only accounts for 3% of their services, and no federal funding has ever supported it. And more to the point-- do you REALLY think it's ok for a woman to have her rapist's baby because it was THAT MUCH HARDER for her to get an abortion? How about your kid sister when she sleeps with a guy and fucks up and doesn't use a condom, or, for those in the House, your daughter or granddaughter? I was a teenager once, too, and I made some stupid decisions that I was lucky not to have to pay for. The younger women of our generation shouldn't have to pay for them either. They should-- and WE should-- be able to have all the access they need to making the right decisions, for themselves, and the rest of society. We don't need more teenage mothers. We don't need more people spreading STDs and AIDS because they don't know about it. We don't need women to be pregnant who want or need not to be. What we DO need is EVEN BETTER preventative methods and our rights continued to be upheld.

It's the only responsible thing to do. I can't believe this is even an issue. Sign the petition to help stop it in the Senate.

XOXO

Sex And The College Girl...A Political Columnist?

I don't know how it happened. I really don't know why. I actually really detest politics, or talking about politics, or debating about politics, the product of growing up with a severely politically-rampant father, even though I have strong opinions about a few items-- namely, environmental issues, women's rights, and higher education. Maybe it just affirms my belief that I'm a whore for a by-line. But however it happened, I was asked to be a columnist/blogger for Vermont Commons newspaper, an online and print publication, and I accepted. Stemming from the idea that Vermont could better govern itself as an independent state than as part of the government, it covers everything from politics, to environmental issues, to the localvore movement in Vermont. And I now write for it.

Part one of my installment just hit the web a few days ago. It's called "SEX-CESSION," (of course, what else?) and here's an excerpt from it:

"Everyone has heard horrible break-up stories: The ones where there was lots of screaming and crying and breaking of things. But for everyone who’s thrown their used-to-be-beloved’s clothing out the window and onto the front lawn as the passers-by stopped and stared, there’s been someone who’s been calm and collected and respectful. I personally have not met or been that person yet, but I hear that they’re out there somewhere. Point being, there are good break-ups, and then there are bad break-ups. When you think about it, secession isn’t so much different...

...Sustaining something, be it a relationship between two people or a union of 50 vastly different states, is no easy task. What one person, or one state, needs is different from what another desires. Vermont sleeps next to New Hampshire every night, and while we’re one of the most politically liberal states New Hampshire is as politically conservative as they come. Unlikely bedfellows, yes; and yet the orders coming from the head marriage counselor (the U.S Government) expect that they’ll be treated not just as equals, but as one cohesive unit."

Follow this link to Vermont Common's website to read the entire column.

XOXO