Feminists mock Ricki Lake’s documentary on Pill dangers, sight unseen
UPDATE 2/24, 4:30p: World Magazine has picked up on this story, quoting from my blog post.
UPDATE 2/20, 7:10p: Ricki Lake has chimed in on Twitter:
@ThePillKills @JillStanek @HollyGriggSpall @Jezebel @PerezHilton I ask myself the same thing. Glad people are already buzzing about it…
— Ricki Lake (@RickiLake) February 20, 2014
2/20, 5:38p: A release date has not even been set on Ricki Lake’s upcoming documentary on the dangers of hormonal contraception, called Sweetening the Pill, but feminists and liberals are already trying to flush it. Here’s the Perez Hilton headline that goes with the gif above…
Then there’s Jezebel, with a title that lives up to its namesake…
How could anyone who purportedly has the best interest of women at heart have a problem with this:
In the fifty years since its release, the birth control Pill has become synonymous with women’s liberation and has been thought of as some sort of miracle drug,” said Lake and [film director Abby] Epstein. “But now it’s making women sick and so our goal with this film is to wake women up to the unexposed side effects of these powerful medications and the unforeseen consequences of repressing women’s natural cycles.”
Objectively speaking, in this day and age of fit and organic lifestyles, an unvarnished look at artificial steroid pills, rings, patches, and implants – all uniquely created to alter a woman’s reproductive cycle – would seem like a great thing. The term “reproductive healthcare” loses much of its meaning if hormonal contraception is to be blindly accepted.
But the pro-abortion movement is inextricably invested in The Pill, both financially and philosophically. Contraceptive services account for 34% of Planned Parenthood’s business, and hormonal contraception accounts for 57+% of all contraceptives Planned Parenthood sells. Which is why Planned Parenthood loves The Pill:
The pill has made a tremendous impact on the lives of women and men around the globe. It is one of the most transformative medical breakthroughs of the past 100 years.
Such crow to someday eat.
Much of Planned Parenthood’s history is linked to The Pill:
In 1948, Planned Parenthood had awarded a small grant to Gregory Pincus, a research biologist who undertook a series of tests leading to the development of the birth control pill….
In 1961, Estelle Griswold, president of Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut, opens a birth control clinic to dispense contraceptives and to put the state’s ban on birth control to the test. Her act of civil disobedience is rewarded: In 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Griswold v. Connecticut, removes one of the last serious barriers to family planning when it strikes down state laws prohibiting the use of contraceptives by married couples.
Incidentally, it was within Griswold v Connecticut that the Supreme Court found a “right to privacy,” which led to the Roe v Wade decision 8 years later.
Those who launched the sexual revolution in the 1960s are now in charge of our political system, and they are equally invested in contraceptives. They have no fallback plan. In fact, they’ve doubled down - use not one form of birth control, but two! They reject the only foolproof means of avoiding pregnancy, abstinence.
This will be Lake and Epstein’s second documentary, a natural fit with their 2008 film, The Business of Being Born, which explored reasons why the United States maternity system has resulted in the second-highest infant mortality rate among developed nations. The team also produced the documentary, Breastmilk.
Sweetening the Pill will be based on the upcoming book by Holly Grigg-Spall, Sweetening the Pill: How We Got Hooked on Hormonal Birth Control, to be released in 2015.
Lake is certainly not known as a conservative stalwart. They won’t be able to attack her there, although they’ll find something to go after her for – many somethings, I’m sure.
But this film will hurt the other side. The more they protest and defend The Pill, the more they will be eyed with suspicion. If nothing else, common sense says hormonal contraceptives can’t be good for you. This film will provide evidence that resonates with women.
For more information on the deadly harms of hormonal contraception, check out links here, here, here, and here.
[Pill/Planned Parenthood photo via Pundit Press]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
That book is out already – got my copy! It’s on Amazon.
So how and when did you get the opportunity to view and assess this documentary?
Recently this blog had a piece about a UK study that found over half of the women seeking abortions were using contraception, and 40% of those were using the Pill. No other product on any other market could possibly be considered “effective” with such a high failure rate. What if we were talking about auto accidents and seatbelts? The outcry would be deafening. And that failure alone doesn’t touch on the dangers and risks to women and teens who take these pills. This only proves that real feminism was long ago hijacked by people who have NO INTEREST in helping women at all.
I love Jezebel’s headline. I don’t really love Ricki Lake’s views, but if you know anything about her at all, you know she’s not going to be opposing the pill from a sexual freedom standpoint, but from a female health/naturalistic one. Is that headline not bad enough for pill lovers? You have to make it into something it’s not?
Marnie, you’re right. Fixing the post. Thx.
How’s the book?
Ricki will be 46 in September. To look that young…. I think she’s made a deal with Old Harry.
I don’t understand the Jezebel headline. I haven’t read the book (though thinking about it now), but I’m currently skimming its FB page. I haven’t seen ONE comment referring to sexual morality at all. The author appears to be quite liberal, in fact.
I’m personally not opposed to contraception on moral grounds, but I find myself very opposed to the Pill and similar after my own experiences with the side effects (which were even mild, in comparison, to many people). I couldn’t believe how much better I felt when I went off of it 2 years ago.
Will this have any impact? Our culture is so addicted to contraception.
Many women have died, or been incapacitated by strokes and clots, and the breast cancer news is already dawning over the horizon of mainstream awareness. But that did not prevent BO from winning re-election with the promise that we will all pay for each other’s monthly contraception.
I will never take the pill again. My mother is convinced (as are her doctors) that her years on the pill are the reason she got breast cancer in her early 40’s.
I think the pill is one of the worst lies every foisted on women. And it is also bad for the environment!
If 50% of those seeking abortions were using contraception and 40% of those were using the pill, that means 20% of abortion seekers were using the pill. Which of itself tells us zero about the failure rate of the pill.
Yeah you know what? I’ve always wondered that about the all natural feminist crowd. I mean i’m definitely not into the whole all-natural, paleo, kale, whatever trend (it’s fine, not criticizing it) and even I don’t want to pump all those hormones into my body. I just don’t get the hypocrisy of it. Obviously it’s a staunch stance on a dying ideology. You don’t act this way until you feel threatened. They must feel like they are threatened and that the threat is real.
Either that or this is a classic case of internet hyperbole.
Though I’m not sure it’s always the same people promoting it.
So Reality, putting the moral argument aside, what is your opinion about the health effects of birth control pills? I have read the NCI study showing higher risks of triple negative breast cancer. I wonder if women are told these facts, and can judge the risk factors themselves?
Wow, reality’s ability to deny is truly a marvel! Just because the sky is blue doesn’t prove anything about the effectiveness of reflected light!
Chris, 9ek, it would really be better if you two would stop feeding the troll.
As a sonographer who does breast imaging I asked a radiologist why she thought there were so many women we see with breast cancer in their late 30’s and early 40’s? She didn’t hesitate and said birth control pills.
Go Ricki Go Ricki!
“I mean i’m definitely not into the whole all-natural, paleo, kale, whatever trend (it’s fine, not criticizing it) and even I don’t want to pump all those hormones into my body. I just don’t get the hypocrisy of it. Obviously it’s a staunch stance on a dying ideology. You don’t act this way until you feel threatened. They must feel like they are threatened and that the threat is real. ”
Some of them do. I’ve witnessed a few arguments between pro-choice feminists, one considers the Pill a sexist invention that is dangerous while the other saw it as a liberating, perfect thing. The argument was entertaining to me. But yeah, it seems like a lot of them have some dissonance with supporting the Pill and their complaints about Monsanto’s GMOs or whatever.
I think hormonal contraceptives should definitely be available for those who want them (I mean come on, cigarettes are legal and there’s zero benefit to smoking and a lot of health risks, at least the pill is used for something and has some legit uses), but the risks should be emphasized a lot more than they are. People should be informed and hormonal contraceptives shouldn’t be treated like candy or some benign thing, it’s a serious decision to use hormonal contraceptives. And I don’t want hormonal contraceptives available so easily to minor girls, too. And I want them to make a male contraceptive, share the risk as it were.
Wow, reality’s ability to deny is truly a marvel! Just because the sky is blue doesn’t prove anything about the effectiveness of reflected light! – what a poor attempt at distraction. The information you provided contains absolutely zero which allows any deduction or estimate of the failure rate of the pill and you know it. It is meaningless.
My opinion Chris, is that women will weigh up the risks and benefits and make their own decision.
So how and when did anyone here get the opportunity to view and assess this documentary?
Hi Jack. I agree although I don’t like the use of hormonal b/c because of the many side effects and contraindications there are women who insist and it is their decision, I just want to make sure it is an informed consent decision. I have ran into women who have suffered blood clots and strokes from b/c, let me tell you ”it ain’t pretty” these young women who did not smoke and never did (which is the biggest contraindication for using b/c).
I would like every woman and mother of girls to PLEASE read the insert from the manufacturer in the packaging, it is eye-opening.
I talking to a breast cancer surgeon who says he does not want ANY women on hormonal b/c or hormonal therapy if possible, pre, peri or post menopausal he feels the risk is too great. I have talked to board-certified OB/GYNEs who are against teen girls being on b/c even for so-called “legitimate” uses for painful periods, irregular cycles, acne, etc. if at all possible because they have seen young women years later with serious side effects. The research shows a young woman who is a gravida 1 (has not had her first pregnancy or birth) is at greater risk for breast cancer that multips.
Many OB/GYNES are on the “push b/c train” and will kick parents out of the examination room to have the ” it’s time for b/c talk”. But not all are on the “ b/c train”. I have heard GYNEs and CNMs lament that sometimes the mothers of girls as young as 10 years old (some who did not have well established menstrual cycles yet) will insist that their daughters be put on b/c “just in case” even when the child refuses b/c because they aren’t sexually active and don’t even want to be. They know hormonal b/c works by putting the girl in a state of “false pregnancy”. The GYNE is in a real quandary between trying to please the parent or trying to talk some “sense” into the parent about listening to their daughter and to keep encouraging their child to delay sex or trying to talk a child into taking b/c to please their mother when the child does not even want it. You want to talk about a real mess, this really is messed up.
Yeah Prolifer L many things are dangerous. People just have to decide for themselves what risks they are willing to take. I do think people should be informed, risks should be openly talked about. And people should stop making it so young teens can get on this stuff with no parental say whatsoever.
It’s poison Jack.
Women are pumping their bodies full of poison.
Totally agree Sydney!!!
Seems to me that cigarettes do the same thing and cause much more death. And everyone knows what they do to you. People make their own decisions, good or bad.
I can’t really tell sometimes in these conversations if people want to make hormonal contraception illegal or not.
I would like to see women heal from the mental disconnect about hormonal birth control. Like abortion, too many women just settle for legal and don’t demand any kind of safety. Snake oil used to be legal, but it was neither safe nor beneficial. This product has been on the market since back when phones were plugged into wall and dialed by rotary; is it really acceptable that birth control pills are still so ineffective? This is outside the discussion of whether or not even perfect contraception is even beneficial for humans. Feminists: I get, you want the product. But why, feminists, do you settle for a product that so frequently ends up in conception of an unwanted human child that you then ask an abortionist to destroy?
But why, feminists, do you settle for a product that so frequently ends up in conception of an unwanted human child that you then ask an abortionist to destroy? – because not using it would end up in more frequent conceptions requiring abortion.
“So frequently” – why don’t you tell us what you are claiming the ‘such a high failure rate’ of the pill is exactly 9ek, based solely on the information you provided in your 6:43pm comment. Then describe exactly what it was that you accused me of denying.
The pill should be illegal for anyone under the age of 18. A parent who puts their child on b/c is not parenting.
Hormones cannot be cleansed from the water supply. Every human being, regardless of “choice” is drinking second hand hormones. If the naturalists worry about hormones in meat and dairy products, shouldn’t they, as well be concerned about not only the hormones they put into their own bodies, but, as well, the fact that they are putting these hormones into the supply of drinking water?
Cigarettes do the same thing?? whaaaaaa????
I am not talking about illegal vs. legal.
I am talking about women REFUSING to pump their bodies full of synthetic hormones!! REFUSE!
If my circle of friends were to come on this thread and talk about what The Pill has done to their ovulation, their fertility, their cycles…..it could go on forever. That doesn’t include the friends I have that have been completely messed up my Nuva Ring, Depo Provera and YAZ!! Thank God I finally went off the pill(that I used to get from Planned Parenthood)and never looked back. I did my homework. I did my research and realized that my body should have NEVER been treated that way.
The Pill does not empower or liberate women. Neither does abortion. We have bought the lies.
Women deserve better.
Prax,
When I was a teen mothers used to ask their daughters if they were thinking about having sex. If the answer was yes they were immediately taken to the PP in my town and put on the pill. Quite a few were put on it when they became teenagers.
:(
Cathy,
Absolutely!! I have been researching that as well!
If boys are the primary victims of autism which has increased radically the last decades, could the pill be a causal factor? The hormonal effect could conceivably affect the developing boy child more than the girl.
Will Rikki Lake be attacked? This is easy to predict. She has ignored the rules of the cult. She will be ostracized.
What led to Leah Remini leaving Scientology? She asked a very simple, obvious question: Hey, Cult Leader, I haven’t seen your wife in a while; How’s she doing?”
If you want to test whether some friend, family member, or blogger is a cult-member, just present some simple, plain-as-day fact, and watch the foam-at-the-mouth vitriole, and the dyslogic, ensue.
“reality:” “So how and when did you get the opportunity to view and assess this documentary? ”
“reality” the have sex and then abort proponent, the documentary Sweetening the Pill will be based on the book by Holly Grigg-Spall, Sweetening the Pill: How We Got Hooked on Hormonal Birth Control. Glad to be of help :)
http://www.myfemininemind.com/2012/07/things-your-doctor-may-not-have-told_25.html
Please explain how you think you have answered my question Galileo.
No one seems to be able to do so.