While I was just clicking around the nytimes.com website I came across two really interesting articles related to contraception. They’re both very different but provide interesting ways of dealing with the necessity of contraceptives, especially in a world where casual hook ups are prevalent and the desire to link yourself with the random stranger from the bar for life is not great.
One article is on New York City’s new effort to provide free condoms. While they instituted a program in 1971 to provide condoms free of charge, the only places to get them were city run health clinics and HIV and AIDS programs. Now, with the help of theaters, shops, doctors offices, bars, and even churches, the city has been able to distribute over 5 million specialized NYC condoms over the past month.
The other article is about the recent death of John Billings, creator of the Contraceptive Method. The Contraceptive Method allows women to examine their increase cervical mucus in order in order to determine fertility. The method is endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church and the only form of contraception allowed in China. Interestingly enough, the method has a 3 in 100 failure rate which is impressive when compared to a 1 in 100 failure rate for condoms.
