I've had a drink and I'm not on birth control. Should I take a pregnancy test? #CDC #ShouldIAskAMan
— ekprince (@ekprince) February 5, 2016
I had a few drinks tonight and you can't imagine how guilty I feel about all the babies and violence I left in my wake #cdc#yesallwomen — Amanda Hunt (@petulantpanda13) February 5, 2016One woman even made a “Birth Control + Booze Pairing” chart to help women taking birth control find the right beverage for them:
After dealing with backlash from the original infographic, the CDC’s principal deputy director Anne Schuchat defended the advice in a New York Times article. “We’re really all about empowering women to make good choices and to give them the best information we can so they can decide what they want to do themselves,” Schuchat said in the article. Drinking while pregnant is an issue to be concerned about, but so is implying that women drinking alcohol is what causes pregnancies. An estimated 3.3 million women are at risk of exposing their developing babies to alcohol , according to the CDC, yet it is important to remember that women are more than baby-makers; they are people. The CDC may have had good intentions, but their communication has room for improvement. We’ll see if next time their messages are a bit clearer. What do you think about the CDC’s message to women? Do you think that they were right in the advice they gave to women? Let The Western Front know by tweeting @TheFrontOnline .Drink up ladies #cdc#birthcontrol#feministfridaypic.twitter.com/NSssVnVgEJ
— Katie Jean (@mekatieunot) February 5, 2016