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Comment by Sir_Vival | Hacker News Reader

I'm pro life as a whole but that's a crazy take on things. The average woman would need to get an abortion a year. That runs me the wrong way on a bunch of different levels. Abortion should be an "oh shit" plan, not a routine thing.

There are plenty of methods of birth control that don't affect moods. Condoms, IUDs, and pulling out (if you're in a very trusting relationship and the guy is "good" at it) all work.

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Maybe a cultural split-- sex discussion subreddits are full of posts with people using both condoms and hormonal birth control freaking out worrying that they'll get pregnant and getting replies saying "don't worry too much, so long as you use condoms, birth control, and withdrawal it's somewhat unlikely! Just make sure you do all three!"

I figured that somewhere the people in charge of reefer madness videos got assigned to make sex-ed material. :)

So there is at least some risk that when you hear someone say that abortion is an alternative to hormonal contraception, what they're really thinking is condoms+abortion is an alternative to condoms+pill.

Along those same lines, ignorance may cause someone to equate hormonal pills with the “Plan B“ pill, especially in a “condoms+pill” context like the one you’re outlining.

"Pulling out" has not been proven to be a reliable birth control method, even in that situation.

It's also quite shocking how little research there seems to be on the subject.

planned parenthood lists it as not much riskier than condoms.

You're right on the second point - we were all always taught that precum can contain sperm. It can...if the guy hasn't urinated after ejaculating the last time he did it. Not all that long ago someone had the bright idea to actually test it and found no sperm otherwise.

It's certainly not a foolproof method but the success rates are up there with condoms, when both are used properly.

I’m not sure why you assume not taking the pill equates to stop using condoms and other methods that have no effect on the brain like drugs.

You did phrase your comment as “Why use pills if you can abort?”

Probably because you said "abortion is a better solution", which it definitely is not.

Generally folks using a hormonal pill (not talking about the Plan B pill) are doing so as an alternative to a condom, especially in long term committed relationships with honest partners where STDs are not a major factor.

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