A Texas-based group called Liberal Ladies Who Lunch has launched a website, SexStrike.org, and Facebook page in support of health care coverage of contraception and is calling for women to withhold sex from their partners from April 28-May 5.
The “ladies” have posted the following explanation on their website: “This will help people understand that contraception is for women and men, because men enjoy the benefit of women making their own choices about when and if they want to get pregnant. Once congress and insurance agencies agree to cover contraception, we will then resume having sex. Until then men will have to be content with their hand.”
The Facebook page lists several other successful sex strikes and includes an explanation: “Younger men and women may not remember the ‘good old days’ when the only reproductive choice we had was to deny men access to sex. In truth, if we lose our hard won rights to medical care, birth control and pregnancy choice, it won’t only affect women. Men will have to go back to the days when they waited for or paid for sex. This issue impacts all of us. This strike is designed to make that point. IT IS NOT A PUNISHMENT OR A WEAPON TO BE USED AGAINST ANYONE! It’s a week in which you are conscious of the attack on women’s rights, nothing more. Ask your man to stand with you in solidarity and speak up for your rights, because when we lose our reproductive choices, so do they.”
According to The Daily Caller, the proposal has generated some negative Facebook reactions. One opponent of contraception coverage commented on the “irony of…ceasing sex in order to get free contraception.”
However, the movement also received some recent, although unofficial, support from the wife of Virginia State Delegate David Albo (R-Fairfax Station). Albo says she turned him down in the bedroom due to his support for the state’s transvaginal ultrasound bill (see video below).
HuffPo reports women lawmakers have found other ways to protest bills limiting contraception and abortion rights, including a slew of often-satirical legislation imposing similar rules on men.
I went to my doctor this week for a check-up and learned something crazy regarding birth control. Some insurance companies will NOT approve birth control for women, but they WILL approve plan B and abortions. To me, that seemed crazy.