Friday, December 29, 2006

Weird Contraceptive Advertising

Dawn Eden has this post about new T-shirts being promoted by Planned Parenthood of Connecticut.

I don't imagine many women who would buy this T-shirt from Margaret Sanger's organiztion would really "♥" taking four-to-40 times the amount of hormones in one birth-control pill within a 12-hour period. Nor do I believe they would ♥ tripling their odds of a potentially fatal ectopic pregnancy. Nor would they ♥ it so much if they knew that, based on studies in Scotland, Sweden, and the states of Washington and California, even after shelling out to Planned Parenthood for their EC, they're just as likely to return there for an abortion as they would have been had they not bought the pill.

Funny, I don't see any mention of those risks on Planned Parenthood of Connecticut's site, nor on any Planned Parenthood site — with the notable exception of Planned Parenthood Federation of America's helpful chart showing how many birth control pills equal one complete dose of EC. (It ranges from four Ovrals to 40 Ovrettes.

According to the comments, there's more to the shirt:
This "I heart EC" t-shirt is for the true activist! This is a standard unisex t-shirt. The message on the back message [sic] reads, "Birth control is basic healthcare."

Then there's the fitted version of the shirt:

This adorable fitted "I heart EC" t-shirt will make heads turn! Show people how much you care about "EC", Emergency Contraception. The back says "You have 5 days" which indicates how many days after unprotected sex, a condom breaking, or sexual assault, a woman can take EC to prevent pregnancy.

I have to wonder about the person who would wear such a thing, but, then again, the same people who like this shirt hate the I Love My Boyfriend T-shirts.