Should birth control be socialized?

[Nation]

Affordable medical care and affordable birth control methods will produce a better society, I believe. Free? Not necessary.

[PBrunsel]

Let me get this straight, hard working tax payers are giving money to this uNiversity so that BRTD can have sex out of wedlock. Do I have this straight because this (for lack of a better word) pisses me off.

Damn it, what is wrong with people in the Twin Cities? To think this is north of Iowa.... [shudders]

[So the Heroes Fall]

1-I don't live in the Twin Cities (although I'm pretty sure the U of M has a similar program)
2-Iowa City isn't much different from here or the Twin Cities.

[A18]

Change the subject question to: "Should I be able to have sex at the taxpayer's expense?"

Everyone should answer no, haha.

It has nothing to do with 'having sex at the taxpayer's expense'.  The sex may be paid, or free, or have emotional costs, but in any case all of these are paid by you.  The state should merely provide medical care, for obvious reasons.  Public health is not an individual matter, but rather one of managing things like pregnancy and transmission of various diseases through the population.  A society with provision of free medical care, free STD treatment, and birth control methods will be a much healthier one.

Perhaps Medicare should be extended to cover prostitutes. After all, the mental health of the elderly is at stake.

[PBrunsel]

2-Iowa City isn't much different from here or the Twin Cities.

West Branch represents Iowa.

Iowa City is an alien city and all good Iowans should run every hippy, fuzzy sweatered professor, pot brain, and Marxist who preside in Iowa City's dark alleys out of our great state and back to San Franciso where they belong.

That's what I think.

[WalterMitty]

something tells me that brtd doesnt have much need to worry about this issue a lot.

[opebo]

Change the subject question to: "Should I be able to have sex at the taxpayer's expense?"

Everyone should answer no, haha.

It has nothing to do with 'having sex at the taxpayer's expense'.  The sex may be paid, or free, or have emotional costs, but in any case all of these are paid by you.  The state should merely provide medical care, for obvious reasons.  Public health is not an individual matter, but rather one of managing things like pregnancy and transmission of various diseases through the population.  A society with provision of free medical care, free STD treatment, and birth control methods will be a much healthier one.

Perhaps Medicare should be extended to cover prostitutes. After all, the mental health of the elderly is at stake.

I do think that generous pensions should be provided for the elderly, and welfare for the poor, that might enable them to purchase some (legalized) sexual services if they economized in other areas.  However as a medical treatment it should be confined to those who have an actual medical problem such as impotence or some psychological problem relating to their sexual functioning, such as female fridgitidy.  This would probably be better treated by psychologists than prostitutes, though I think there would be some role for 'sexual surrogates' here.

[dazzleman]

If you can't afford condoms you don't have sex. Quite simple.

^^^^

[opebo]

If you can't afford condoms you don't have sex. Quite simple.

^^^^

Why not just have sex anyway?  Or better yet if you're female, have sex with johns for money - and he'll pay you and buy the condom (or pay extra to not use one)     Sure beats working at WalMart.

[??????????]

something tells me that brtd doesnt have much need to worry about this issue a lot.

[J.R. Brown]

2-Iowa City isn't much different from here or the Twin Cities.

West Branch represents Iowa.

Iowa City is an alien city and all good Iowans should run every hippy, fuzzy sweatered professor, pot brain, and Marxist who preside in Iowa City's dark alleys out of our great state and back to San Franciso where they belong.

That's what I think.

I've never been to West Branch and I don't even know where that is in this great state, and as a student of politics at the University of Iowa I can tell you that most of my professors didn't wear fuzzy sweaters or smoke pot from what I could tell. Coming from the most conservative part of the state (Sioux City) I can tell you that the views of my professors are far from Marxist. That's just idiotic.

[Sibboleth]

Iowa City has a bit of a reputation because of the '60's when it was one of the most radical Unis in the entire U.S IIRC

[PBrunsel]

Iowa City has a bit of a reputation because of the '60's when it was one of the most radical Unis in the entire U.S IIRC

That's correct. Blowing up the ROTC Buildings, insuing riots, spitting on police, all what those Hippies were doing. That is a history of dishonor in the Great Home of Hoover.

I Everytime I have been to Iowa City I have wanted to leave as fast as possible. Unfortunately the Univertisty of Iowa has a fine curriculum and I am gojng there soon. So I will have to make due. At least UNI is a nice place.

[skybridge]

If you can't afford condoms you don't have sex. Quite simple.

The evidence points to exactly those people having the most sex, though. Tough question.

[J.R. Brown]

Iowa City has a bit of a reputation because of the '60's when it was one of the most radical Unis in the entire U.S IIRC

That's correct. Blowing up the ROTC Buildings, insuing riots, spitting on police, all what those Hippies were doing. That is a history of dishonor in the Great Home of Hoover.

I Everytime I have been to Iowa City I have wanted to leave as fast as possible. Unfortunately the Univertisty of Iowa has a fine curriculum and I am gojng there soon. So I will have to make due. At least UNI is a nice place.

You better not talk sh**t about my hawks while I'm there or I'll hang your ass. UNI sucks. It's boring as hell and everybody knows U of I is the biggest party school in the state. Are you going there in the fall? I'm going to be a sophomore next fall.

[PBrunsel]

Iowa City has a bit of a reputation because of the '60's when it was one of the most radical Unis in the entire U.S IIRC

That's correct. Blowing up the ROTC Buildings, insuing riots, spitting on police, all what those Hippies were doing. That is a history of dishonor in the Great Home of Hoover.

I Everytime I have been to Iowa City I have wanted to leave as fast as possible. Unfortunately the Univertisty of Iowa has a fine curriculum and I am gojng there soon. So I will have to make due. At least UNI is a nice place.

You better not talk sh**t about my hawks while I'm there or I'll hang your ass. UNI sucks. It's boring as hell and everybody knows U of I is the biggest party school in the state. Are you going there in the fall? I'm going to be a sophomore next fall.

I won't talk any crap about the Hawks. I'm a fairly big Hawk fan, too bad they can't do better in football, but next year could be the year!

[migrendel]

I support simple and cost-free access to condoms, but the primary reason why has nothing to do with birth control. First of all, it is statistically improbable that an act of sexual congress will result in pregnancy. The conditions have to be so close to ideal that it is indeed difficult to impregnate a woman. Also, with the availability of legalized abortion (another thing I believe should be socialized), no woman who becomes gravid need stay that way.

However, there is a far more pressing crisis on the horizon: the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases. With HIV and a panoply of other bleak maladies spreading from person to person, we are not just preventing birth; we are now preventing death. After seeing the toll this has exacted on the African continent, I find it difficult to justify not funding such services. The potential calamity is far too great, and the stakes far too high for us to ignore this way of averting a massive human tragedy.