MALE ORDER column (28 October) contained Socialist Action's only coverage of the recentlypublished research on cancer and the contracep tive pill. . Such coverage is welcome, but the conclusions are definitely not:
'Male Order says:
Panic now before it's too late. If you're on the pill stop taking it. . Get the men in your life to take responsibility for contraception, and in. vestigate safe methods under your control like the cap. (my emphasis)
I couldn't believe what I was reading! I agree that women should not accept the implicit advice of the (male) FPA doctor quoted, to remain health risks involved in taking the pill. But really! Can anyone writing for gest that an 'alternative' is to rely, even temporarily, on men?
The dangers and difficulties of using the most contraceptively safe form of birth control should not be passed over lightly, as they are by the medical establishment and the bourgeois press. But the fundamental problem for women remains that there is no method of birth control which is safe from all points of view as a contracentive and for the mental and physical health and wellbeing of the woman Looked at like this. the least adequate advice anyone coul get men to take responsibility. Our slogan should be: 'SocialistFeminist Health Warning: relying on male contraception can seriously damage all aspects of your health'!
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Socialist Action 11 November 1983