Four Tips for Male Journalists Who Want to Discuss Women’s Health
Some advice to male talking heads on covering reproductive rights…
Of the 146 guests who have come on cable news shows to discuss the decision between Monday and Thursday, 91 were men. MSNBC’s Morning Joe has come under fire from Democratic congresswomen for not inviting women, other than show co-host Mika Brzezinski, who disapproved of the Obama administration’s initial policy, to appear on the program. And at Politico, Mike Allen’s presented the White House’s decision-making process as a boys-against-girls fight pitting strategy-minded male advisors against women who were tightly focused on the actual issue at hand: making sure women can get insurance-covered access to contraceptives. And since men in media seem to have so much trouble figuring out how to cover women’s health issues, it’s time to help them out with some simple advice.
Here’s the thing about birth control: It’s for people who don’t want to become pregnant, nor be responsible for getting someone pregnant. However, hormonal birth control has other applications besides preventing pregnancy. It’s used to treat many health conditions.
All in all, this is pretty good advice for covering this issue and not sounding like a total chauvinist tool. I’m getting sick of the moralistic lecturing that I see on both liberal and conservative outlets. My brain has been playing this gif on a loop:
Why? Because restricting access to contraception in any way makes the above more likely. Also, Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) - you might restrict it, but you’ll never ban it. This assault on contraceptive coverage is one more piece of the war on those who’d like control of their bodies and the decision to bear a child.
Note to Catholic bishops - while you worry about hormonal birth control maybe preventing some maybe-not Catholic children being born, children who were already born died of starvation and preventable disease.
