I admit to being confused about this, I’m not sure who is taking away anyone’s right to reproduce.

I’m old enough to remember when there were only a few methods of birth control. Rhythm – which we joked about. “You know what they call people who use the rhythm method? Parents.” or the guy pulling out – and that one didn’t work any better than the other one. And then in the 70’s along came IUD’s and the pill and holy cow, no one really had to get pregnant if she didn’t want to.

(Please don’t think I don’t realize there are moronic men who want their women barefoot and pregnant, and there are cases of rape, and there are cases where it is indeed a health issue. These cases are a totally different thing from using abortion as birth control)

I’m from a generation who viewed getting pregnant outside of marriage as something not very desirable. Most of the time, and no, I don’t have statistics, but my experience showed that most of the time, the guy and the girl got married. If the girl had a reputation, then maybe she went away for a few months and came back a bit thinner, and no one really talked about that – except in whispers. Getting pregnant unmarried was definitely not something to be celebrated.

Birth control gave women the ability to have sex any old time and not have to worry about getting pregnant. It also gave guys the ability to screw ’em and walk away. Somehow, women got the idea that having multiple partners with no consequences to anyone was a really great idea. Young men, who essentially think with their dicks, also thought it was a great idea.

This was the “freedom” that came with birth control

Yes, people made mistakes. Women, girls, got pregnant. I went to college with a girl with got drunk, slept with a couple of guys in the same night, and ended up pregnant. Abortion was a new thing – well, not new, but newly legal in NY. We sent her off to the City to get this done, and she was honestly devasted by the whole experience. There was no “shout your abortion” or celebrities extolling the virtues of sleeping around and damn the consequences.

I don’t think sex is something to view with shame. I think it’s something that should be a loving expression of committment to your partner – the one you share your life with, not the one you share the evening with.

Call me old fashioned but I miss the days when people didn’t tell you who they wanted to screw before they told you their names.