Don’t Drop the Ball–Statistics Show EC Sales More than Double After New Year’s Eve
Teva Pharmaceuticals, the makers of Plan B One Step ® emergency contraception found that sales of emergency contraception more than double in the days after New Year’s Eve. They noticed this trend through statistics from January 2009 and because of the troubling statistic, the Back Up Your Birth Control Campaign and the National Institute for Reproductive Health are raising awareness through their new website, Don’t Drop the Ball.
The site is being used to raise awareness that condoms break and that pills are forgotten about with the excitement of the holidays and New Year’s Eve parties. They have also created a hilarious video about how if you can accidentally text your Grandma on New Year’s Eve, what else can go wrong?
While condoms breaking and forgetting to take your birth control pill at the same time every day is a great thing to raise awareness about since they can both happen at any time, especially in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the holidays, there is another issue that should have at least been mentioned on the website. New Year’s Eve is the biggest party night of the entire year and when we decide to go out and celebrate in an atmosphere like a bar or house party, that additional issue that could be raising the sales of emergency contraception immediately following the last day of the year is date rape.
This initiative had the chance to really raise awareness about violence against women and date rape during the holiday season; it happens a great deal in an atmosphere where people are generally having a great time and celebrating the start of a new year. This is the exact atmosphere where no one would notice someone slipping something into your drink if it is left unattended or would notice the absence of your presence if you left the party or a bar early; people are too wrapped up in celebrating and having a great time with their friends during a time like a New Year’s Eve party, which is why you really need to adopt a trust no one mindset if you’re planning on joining your friends out for the night.
The bottom line of the initiative, however, is great and something to definitely keep in mind–A lot can go wrong with your birth control plan, not just during the holiday season, but at any time so it’s always wise to keep in mind that emergency contraception is available. With its use, you can prevent pregnancy after having unprotected sex for up to 72 hours after the act and unlike the anti-choice groups would like you to believe, it is not an abortion pill in any regard. You can obtain emergency contraception at your local pharmacy over the counter and without a prescription, if you’re over 17 years old. For those under 17, you will need a doctor’s prescription. It is also very important to keep in mind that emergency contraception, as well as the oral contraceptives that may be a part of your current birth control plan, do not protect against sexually transmitted infections, so if you have had high risk sex, get checked by visiting a local Planned Parenthood or clinic that tests for sexually transmitted infections.
For more information on Plan B emergency contraception click here.
If you or someone you know has been raped, please reach out to RAINN by using the National Sexual Assault Hotline (1.800.656.HOPE) or Online Hotline.
Celebrating Christmas When You’re an Atheist
Like most people out there, especially those living in the US, I was raised celebrating Christmas; however, I was not raised with the religious background that most believe Christmas comes with. My father, as far as I know, simply does not recognize religion and my grandmother and aunt, who also played a very big role in my upbringing, are agnostic. Christmas was never a time for midnight mass or prayer, although up until a few years ago while my great-grandmother was still alive, there was a simple grace said at Christmas dinner and that was about it as far as religion playing a part in holiday festivities and even that has ceased since there is no one in my family or who gathers at our holiday meal who considers themselves a theist.
While a great deal of people will argue that if you are not religious, you have no right in celebrating the holidays, particularly Christmas. However, I think that what these people do not understand is that Christmas is not merely a holiday of midnight mass and prayer and spirituality, but also a time for family and a time for giving and also a time to truly reflect and appreciate everything that you have in your life and that is something that everyone can truly get behind, regardless of personal religious beliefs.
I recently saw a great video about a book I am now very intrigued about, The Atheist’s Guide to Christmas by Ariane Sherine. It’s a book of stories, essays, personal anecdotes and the like about Christmas and in honor of the holidays, but also with a great dose of science thrown into the mix. The reason why I really love the concept of this book is because it truly shows you what Christmas means to so many different people of so many different religious and spiritual affiliations and how it is truly a time of togetherness, peace, love, acceptance and giving. It is a time to reflect and to appreciate your life and what you have in your life.
You can check out the video that introduced me to the book below:
There is, of course, another facet of Christmas that I did not mention yet, and that is of course, rapid consumerism. Now with being raised with Christmas in a non-theist home, I was of course raised with the belief of Santa and gift. However, also with that and staying true to the real message we are instilled with when it comes to the holidays, in addition to receiving gifts on Christmas morning, I was also reminded of the message of appreciating what we had and in regards to consumerism, what my family was fortunate enough to be capable of providing me with, which you then gain a deeper understanding of when you find out or are told that Santa never really existed.
So I guess it goes without saying at this point that I did celebrate the Christmas holiday. I spent some great time with my family and with my partner’s family and we were fortunate enough to be able to give my partner’s two young children a great Christmas. Of course the magic of the holiday was attributed to Santa, but as they get older it is my hope that they will also be able to remove rapid consumerism from their minds for a small part of their holiday as they get older to take a look around them and truly be able to appreciate their family and see how magical the holiday can be; and that goes for everyone.
My Christmas tree before the mayhem of gift unwrapping began.
I hope everyone else had a great holiday and continues to enjoy the rest of their year!
Your Holiday Kitty Feel-Good
My cat, Devin, playing with catnip under the Christmas tree. Admittedly, catnip was used as a ploy to get her to stop climbing the tree and knocking ornaments off to play with.
Did you know YouTube actually sends you an email to congratulate you for uploading your first video? Makes me feel like I did something awesome, other than exploit my cat a little bit.
And yes, it’s true that most feminists are cat lovers.
Winter Skin Blues
No one is really immune to a classic case of winter blues; when you live in a northernish state known for brutal winters while all other seasons last a good few weeks and no more, you become quite used to more dark than light and a day when you wake up in the morning and there isn’t snow on the ground is an odd one. But this winter has brought a whole new slew of problems on me this year. Winter skin blues.
First and foremost, we had our first good snowfall where all you could see outside is white on October 16th. The middle of October! No nice colorful leaves of autumn goodness, but snow. You can see a picture of that below:
So that alone was a great indicator that this winter would be bad.
My gene pool pretty much sucks, to say the least. In addition to the fact that I live with Periodontal Disease and my father as well as my grandmother suffered through the same dental ailments; my grandmother had dentures at 17 years old and my father had them at 45, and I can pretty much assume I will have them by the time I’m 30 or so, if I’m lucky. My father, sister, as well as myself also have a wonderful case of stress-induced psoriasis. As soon as stress creeps up into our lives, bam! my hands break out with itchy, bumpy rashes. But apparently that was not enough because as soon as winter set in here in Pennsylvania, my skin went completely downhill and spazzed out!
For a few weeks I had a wonderful case of eczema. After numerous oatmeal baths and weeks of applying cortizone cream and hydrating lotions to my legs, arms and stomach, it healed and went away. After a few days of thinking Hooray, it’s gone! I am victorious! Take that, skin! it got below freezing outside for a few days, we had more snow and freezing rain, black ice, the whole brutal winter thing and then my left arm broke out in a rash that turned into what looks like blood vessels that had burst. I would be lying if I didn’t tell you that for the past few weeks I have Googled every infection, disease, cancer, everything that could result in disgusting rashes. At the end of my “research,” all I have to do is wait out this horrendous winter weather while feverishly applying prescription creams and hydrating and moisturizing lotions and keep my stress level down or I’ll have even more skin issues to deal with.
Fun! Thank you, winter!
Get Social
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Out Campaign
The OUT Campaign allows individuals to let others know they are not alone. It can also be a nice way of opening a conversation and help to demolish the negative stereotypes of atheists. Let the world know that we are not about to go away and that we are not going to allow those that would condemn us to push us into the shadows.
