It seems that some women, especially conservative women, are daring to suggest that hormonal contraceptives (collectively, “the Pill”) are bad for women. Last week, faced with this rising threat to a world free of families and children, the Washington Post published not one, two, or three, but five separate articles and videos assailing this heresy. The fact is, though, that the Pill is a powerful, dangerous hormone cocktail that affects women in myriad ways.

The main article, published on March 21, is entitled “Women are getting off birth control amid misinformation explosion.” Accompanying that article—and all published on March 21—are “Why birth control misinformation is on the rise” (a video), “What you need to know about birth control misinformation” (a video), “Debunking common birth-control misconceptions” (an essay), and “Birth control misinformation surges in fraught moment for reproductive care” (an essay). The key word, of course, is “misinformation,” which actually means “facts and opinions with which leftists disagree.”

I slogged my way through all this panicked material, and here’s the gist:

• Social media is awash in information from women, primarily conservatives, claiming that the Pill causes weight gain, depression, anxiety, lowered sex drives, and possible infertility.
• Doctors insist that the Pill is “safe and effective.”
• Nobody actually knows how much of this “misinformation” is out there, but they know it’s bad.
• Women who ditch the Pill are getting pregnant and leaving no-abortion states to get abortions in other states.
• Minority women (naturally) are more vulnerable to this “misinformation.”
• Conservatives, especially at the Daily Wire, are the worst!

The essays also admit that, yes, the Pill does have nasty side effects, primarily blood clots and strokes, although most women experience only nausea, headaches, breast tenderness, and non-period bleeding, which are considered “minor.”

Of course, if you’re like me and vomit uncontrollably 365/24/7 for a year (doctors missed the cause, telling me I was neurotic), or like the young women I know who bled non-stop (also 365/24/7) or almost died from a blood clot, these things don’t seem “minor” at all. The same article simply dismisses claims about the Pill’s connection to weight gain, depression, personality changes, and sexual attraction.

The main article also decries that young women are turning away from IUDs (which can perforate the uterus), and believe that this is also because of social media misinformation. The OB/GYN resident who noticed this problem has changed the way she practices: “She now routinely offers patients a variety of pain management options including anti-inflammatory drugs, a lidocaine injection into the cervix, or anti-anxiety medication.”

Now, let’s leave WaPo land and get to reality. First of all, common side effects are much more significant than the few the WaPo lists, and include things the WaPo characterizes as “misinformation”:

• acne
• bleeding or spotting between periods
• bloating
• blood pressure above your usual range
• depression
• fatigue
• feeling dizzy
• fluid retention
• headache
• increased appetite
• insomnia
• melasma (dark patches on the face)
• mood swings
• nausea
• tenderness or pain in the breasts
• vomiting
• weight gain

The health risks are also more serious than just blood clots and strokes (although those are serious enough):

• blood clots
• gallbladder disease
• heart attack
• high blood pressure
• liver cancer
• stroke

There’s still more. As the New York Times admitted earlier this year, the Pill can lower women’s libidos and make sex more painful. A 2016 Danish study also linked the Pill to depression, although maybe women are just depressed because they’re bloated (i.e., they gained weight), nauseous and vomiting, disinterested in sex, dizzy, tired, suffering from mood swings, and have headaches.

There’s also good reason to believe that the Pill affects how women choose mates. Some studies show that women on the Pill prefer men with baby faces, which makes sense given that the Pill mimics pregnancy when the body prepares a woman to love her baby.

You can see this by comparing old movies to new ones. Before the Pill, women wanted craggy-faced, deep-voiced men like Walter Pidgeon and Gregory Peck. After the Pill, they went for little chipmunks like Brad Pitt. Indeed, the “less masculine” thing goes so far that some women claim (and research may support) that the Pill pushed them into lesbianism.

In other words, the WaPo articles decrying alleged “misinformation” that challenges the Pill seem to have a little misinformation problem of their own.

The bigger question, of course, is why the WaPo is so panicked at the thought of women going off the Pill. The authors would say it’s because the Pill allows women to “control their sexuality.” In other words, they can have sex with a minimal risk of pregnancy.

However, one could say that pushing young women away from a bonded, monogamous, heterosexual relationship that leads to the creation of a family, encouraging them to live in a world of casual hook-ups, marriage to a career, and a childfree life is the ultimate control over women’s sexuality, for it denies women their biological destiny. And at the end of the day, no matter how much you love your career and your cat, you’re probably going to be less fulfilled than the elderly woman surrounded by her loving children and grandchildren.*

Image by Andrea Widburg using AI and Birth Control Pills by BruceBlaus. CC BY 4.0.

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*I am not attacking those women whose life paths, whether through conscious choice or circumstances beyond their control, focused on careers, not family. I am, however, pointing out that the WaPo, through its young women authors, is aggressively trying to force women onto a path that precludes children and family.