Barefoot and Pregnant

I have been thinking long and hard about this blog post. I want to talk about birth control or better yet why all women should have access to it for very cheap or even free. I have been a user of birth control for many years. I know lots of women who use birth control! I am currently using birth control in order to prevent myself from having any more children. I have three at this time and to have any more would put undue hardship on my family. We would love to be able to have an unlimited amount of kids. My husband and I adore children and not just ours. We volunteer in every one of our childrens sports and school activities and we even volunteer when our own children are not involved. We love kids. The number of children we would have if we had no restrictions is probably different between my husband and I but we would definitely have more.
There are all kinds of good reasons not to have children. My reason is simple and yet profound. I cannot knowingly bring another child into the world that I cannot give everything they want/need and then pay for college too. I want my kids to be happy kids and I want them to be involved in all sorts of things. I want them all to have a good education that I provide so that they are not in debt up to their ears like I am because we had to provide our own education. Our parents were, for various reasons, unable to help us with our collge costs. As it is, I will have a difficult time providing a good college education to my three children, but i will do everything I can to make it happen.
If I choose not to have any more children then that should be my choice. Why do some politicians want to limit my access to birth control? Like I said, there are lots of reasons not to have children. Women all over would feel the effects of birth control being limited. Right now politicians are just trying to limit our access to birth control by not making insurance companies pay for it. I'm sure insurance giants would love to have to pay for prenatal care and delivery. They would however make more money in the long term by being able to insure more people. I think that's why they aren't making a peep during all this. I think that eventually politicians will try to ban access to birth control. It was like that prior to the 1930's. Do we really want to move backwards 80 years? Last year in Mississippi there was a bill introduced Mississippi Amendment 26. I have copied and pasted off the website below:
Amendment 26 - The Mississippi Personhood Amendment-- is a citizens initiative to amend the Mississippi Constitution to define personhood as beginning at fertilization or "the functional equivalent thereof." Its purpose is to protect all life, regardless of age, health, function, physical or mental dependency, or method of reproduction.
It basically says that all hormonal forms of birth control, IUD's and the morning after pill would be murder. The IUD for instance, my own personal favorite form of birth control because it's cheap and lasts for 10 years with little maintenance, would be causing murder because it causes fertilized eggs not to be able to implant into the uterus. Our bodies frequently perform this action by itself, say when women are breastfeeding or the body knows it's not healthy enough to support a pregnancy. This amendment would make that illegal. It would also make in-vitro fertilization illegal. People can't be grown in test tubes after all. There were 60,000+ babies born via in-vitro in 2009. That, my friend, is a lot of happy mommies!! The amendment did not pass. As a matter of fact people were quite taken aback by it. I hope that says something. I know people want to stop abortions but is limiting our access to birth control really going to help that situation? Women are going to need birth control of you want to stop abortions from happening. I don't think anything we do will stop them altogether but the best way to combat it would be to offer anyone seeking it free birth control. Women have to be able to take control of their bodies and do what is right for them and their families. I am rambling a little bit here and I have a hard time with this subject because I am so emotionally involved with it. Planned Parenthood was founded in 1942 and they have helped countless women to stop pregnancies from happening that would hurt them for whatever reason. I cannot think of a good reason for all women to be "barefoot and pregnant" as they say. We have come a long way with women's rights and we need to continue to move in the right direction. I read an article today that says that in 40% of American households women are the breadwinners. I am the breadwinner in my house and I am proud of it. If I were to have another child there would be no way I could work and bring home the money my family so desperately needs to survive. Oh sure, I could go on welfare and let the system support me and my countless children but I'd really prefer to take care of myself as most people would. Don't take away the one thing that women need to keep ourselves propelling forward. We are proud of ourselves and we want to keep it that way! Trust me! We are good for more than just having babies and keeping house!