On The 40th Anniversary of Loretta Lynn’s ‘The Pill,’ Women Are Still Fighting The Battle For Contraception (VIDEO)

[nanaofsix531]

 

On The 40th Anniversary of Loretta Lynn’s ‘The Pill,’ Women Are Still Fighting The Battle For Contraception (VIDEO)

February 20, 2012

By Justin "Filthy Liberal Scum" Rosario

Go ahead, tell me a country singer from Kentucky didn't love Jesus...

My mother was born two months before country singer Loretta Lynn and, like Loretta, married young and had a baby on her hip by the time she was 17; Loretta shortly after her 14th birthday. Loretta had 4 before she left her teen years behind and eventually had 2 more after that for a total of 6 children. Both women found a way to work outside their homes, and neither was comfortable being barefoot and pregnant. Mom was born in the great state of Kansas and Loretta, in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky. Two country women born at a time when birth control was not talked about and certainly not debated.

But a revolution was happening. In 1960, women were introduced to the Pill. This little invention made it possible for women to step out of the house and pursue careers beyond homemaking—if they so desired. Neither Loretta or my mother ever condemned homemakers or the extremely challenging career of raising and running a family—but both sought something else. The Pill gave them control over their future by giving them control over their bodies.

 

Forty years ago, in 1972, Loretta Lynn recorded a song entitled: THE PILL. It told her story. It told my mother’s story. It told millions of women’s stories. The song was banned on numerous stations throughout the South and was not officially released until 1975. The song took on a life of its own and became the topic of many a Sunday service. When released, it topped the Country and Western chart at #5 and became one of Loretta’s signature tunes.

In an interview for Playgirl Magazine, Lynn recounted how she had been congratulated after the song’s success by a number of rural physicians, telling her how “The Pill” had done more to highlight the availability of birth control in isolated, rural areas, than all the literature they’d released.

2012: The Catholic Bishops, the GOP, the Obama Administration and just about everyone is debating contraception. Discussions on the Pill have taken on a life of their own this past month. Congress is holding hearings about women and their reproductive health rights with the Pill taking center stage. If one didn’t know better, they would think Ms. Lynn wrote this as an anthem to the discourse taking place throughout the nation—today. Instead, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of her song and the road traveled by millions of women around the world—packing their contraception packets of their Pills.

The Pill (lyrics and video): (Songwriters: Lorene Allen, T D Bayless, Don Mchan)

You wined me and dined me

When I was your girl

Promised if I’d be your wife

You’d show me the worldBut all I’ve seen of this old world

Is a bed and a doctor bill

I’m tearin’ down your brooder house

‘Cause now I’ve got the pill.All these years I’ve stayed at home

While you had all your fun

And every year that’s gone by

Another baby’s come.There’s a gonna be some changes made

Right here on nursery hill

You’ve set this chicken your last time

‘Cause now I’ve got the pill.This old maternity dress I’ve got

Is goin’ in the garbage

The clothes I’m wearin’ from now on

Won’t take up so much yardage.Miniskirts, hot pants

And a few little fancy frills

Yeah, I’m makin’ up for all those years

Since I’ve got the pill.I’m tired of all your crowin’

How you and your hens play

While holdin’ a couple in my arms

Another’s on the way.This chicken’s done tore up her nest

And I’m ready to make a deal

And ya can’t afford to turn it down

‘Cause you know I’ve got the pill.This incubator is overused

Because you’ve kept it filled

The feelin’ good comes easy now

Since I’ve got the pill.It’s gettin’ dark it’s roostin’ time

Tonight’s too good to be real

Oh, but daddy don’t you worry none

‘Cause mama’s got the pill.Oh, daddy don’t you worry none’Cause mama’s got the pill…

Loretta and my mom—two country girls who stood up and said, “this is my body!” And to those who are now trying to roll back the clock, here’s something to think about:

“Just how far out of the mainstream is the GOP as they fight the evils of contraception?

They’re to the right of a white Christian woman from eastern Kentucky in 1972.”

-via Little Green Footballs

[mommygiggles317]

 Thank you for posting this!! it is ironic - the song was written in 1972 and look at what's going on in 2012!! 

[NWP]

So well said!

It was my mother's generation that lived through the introduction of the pill and what it meant to have control over your body and reproduction for the first time. I was very young, but remember my mother and aunts, who were all married and had children before they turned 18 years old, having conversations about how they now had choices for their futures. This in no way negated their personal worth or importance as wives and mothers.

And yes, these were ALL conservative, Christian, married Southern women.

I benefited greatly from being parented by a woman who saw only potential for my future, in a large part due to birth control and the ability to plan my family. An opportunity, I might add, that I have taken full advantage of as a married, Christian woman and one I will do everything I possibly can to ensure is passed on to my daughters.

While the socially conservative posters on here seem to think birth control against God and is about having permission to engage in willy nilly wild premarital sex that somehow destroys families or communities and needs to be regulated(?) by law!!..

That is an ignorant way to think.

Birth Control is not about that at all.

Obviously these women have NO IDEA what their lives would be like if they were not given a chance to choose their futures.

I know that according to another poster's poll that this group skews conservative..But the conversations on here have inspired me to ACTIVELY campaign and champion women's rights and to not take those rights for granted.

[jewjewbee]

Loretta Lynn PAID FOR HER PILLS.

 

[PamR]

Quote:

Loretta Lynn PAID FOR HER PILLS.

Wow.  Deep.  Thoughts.

[nanaofsix531]

 LOL I graduated high school in 72.That was all our mothers and older friends were talking about back then.

Quoting NWP:

So well said!

It was my mother's generation that lived through the introduction of the pill and what it meant to have control over your body and reproduction for the first time. I was very young, but remember my mother and aunts, who were all married and had children before they turned 18 years old, having conversations about how they now had choices for their futures. This in no way negated their personal worth or importance as wives and mothers.

And yes, these were ALL conservative, Christian, married Southern women.

I benefited greatly from being parented by a woman who saw only potential for my future, in a large part due to birth control and the ability to plan my family. An opportunity, I might add, that I have taken full advantage of as a married, Christian woman and one I will do everything I possibly can to ensure is passed on to my daughters.

While the socially conservative posters on here seem to think birth control against God and is about having permission to engage in willy nilly wild premarital sex that somehow destroys families or communities and needs to be regulated(?) by law!!..

That is an ignorant way to think.

Birth Control is not about that at all.

Obviously these women have NO IDEA what their lives would be like if they were not given a chance to choose their futures.

I know that according to another poster's poll that this group skews conservative..But the conversations on here have inspired me to ACTIVELY campaign and champion women's rights and to not take those rights for granted.

 

[matreshka]

I never heard of that song til now, the lyrics are great!

[nanaofsix531]

 I only remember it because my mom had a clock radio in the kitchen that played country music 24/7.

Quoting matreshka:

I never heard of that song til now, the lyrics are great!

 

[Carpy]

How are we fighting for it?

[Carpy]

Who says this?

Quoting NWP:

So well said!

It was my mother's generation that lived through the introduction of the pill and what it meant to have control over your body and reproduction for the first time. I was very young, but remember my mother and aunts, who were all married and had children before they turned 18 years old, having conversations about how they now had choices for their futures. This in no way negated their personal worth or importance as wives and mothers.

And yes, these were ALL conservative, Christian, married Southern women.

I benefited greatly from being parented by a woman who saw only potential for my future, in a large part due to birth control and the ability to plan my family. An opportunity, I might add, that I have taken full advantage of as a married, Christian woman and one I will do everything I possibly can to ensure is passed on to my daughters.

While the socially conservative posters on here seem to think birth control against God and is about having permission to engage in willy nilly wild premarital sex that somehow destroys families or communities and needs to be regulated(?) by law!!..

That is an ignorant way to think.

Birth Control is not about that at all.

Obviously these women have NO IDEA what their lives would be like if they were not given a chance to choose their futures.

I know that according to another poster's poll that this group skews conservative..But the conversations on here have inspired me to ACTIVELY campaign and champion women's rights and to not take those rights for granted.

[NWP]

The ones who want to do away with Planned Parenthood.

The ones who think that educating teenagers about our biology and contraception equate permission.

The ones who want to support not including full health services to women in insurance plans.

The ones who think taking a hormonal contraception is the same as an abortion....

The ones who want to make sure that I do what they think by creating laws that support thier POV...

Want me to go on?

Quoting Carpy:

Who says this?

Quoting NWP:

While the socially conservative posters on here seem to think birth control against God and is about having permission to engage in willy nilly wild premarital sex that somehow destroys families or communities and needs to be regulated(?) by law!!..