Myth Busters - Aspirin as a Birth Control Method? [Planned Parenthood expert uses same joke]

Dawn Stacey, About.com's Guide to Contraception, is a published author and a former family planning ^ | 5/20/2010 | Dawn Stacey

[Notwithstanding]

Going back to the aspirin belief, if you are determined to use it as a form of birth control, I will leave you with the following suggestion: the only way that an aspirin can prevent pregnancy is for a woman to carefully place it between her knees and HOLD it there (by keeping her knees and therefore her legs) closed. ☺

[Notwithstanding]

Apparently the line is not off-color (and is humorous) when a savvy former Planned Parenthood expert says it: "Dawn Stacey, About.com's Guide to Contraception, is a published author and a former family planning specialist, health educator, and pregnancy options counselor for Planned Parenthood."

[Notwithstanding]

No one thought the line was off color when the UK Telegraph published this opening paragraph in a column:

“’The best way for girls to avoid pregnancy is by taking an aspirin,” said the school nurse. We all stared at her in confusion until she continued, laughing, “and holding it very tightly between their knees.” I went to a co-ed convent school. Despite this and the Vatican’s standing on contraception, we were taught about condoms, the Pill and, most importantly, the legal, moral and psychological issues surrounding sexual relationships. How things have changed. Now it transpires that school nurses are prescribing a lot more than just an aspirin – they’re giving out contraceptive implants.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/9075260/Underage-sex-Parents-just-say-no.html

[Notwithstanding]

Of course no one found it off color and everyone thought it was appropriately funny when a column in FireDogLake.com (which calls itself ‘a leading progressive news site, online community, and action organization consistently ranked as one of the most influential political websites’) used the line to make fun of McCain in 2008:

“Because nothing says “keep that aspirin between your legs, girls” like a hot dog social with John McCain. Yeppers.”

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/11/abstinence-making-the-heart-grow-fonder-for-mccain-nope/

[cripplecreek]

My great grandmother called it the apple method which tells me that the joke probably goes back centuries.

[Notwithstanding]

"A Young Woman's Guide to the Pill & contraceptives" is a 2002 liberal teen sex guide available on the internet.

This progressive guide uses the same common-sense aspirin-between-the-knees humor as its introduction:

"Rule #1 in not getting pregnant: Don't have sex. It's an interesting (and fool-proof) approach to birth control, but it's clearly not for everybody. So what's Rule #2? It's this: Don't have sex without contraceptives. That's probably a more useful (and more practical) approach for more women than Rule #1, or its corollary that you won't get pregnant if you hold an aspirin snugly between your knees on a date."

http://www.doitnow.org/pages/219/219.html

[freedumb2003]

In was hoping this would be Kari Byron showing us...

[Zeppelin]

[Ingtar]

Very well done!

[capt B]

I’m in my 70’s. The aspirin “joke” was around when I was a kid

[grey_whiskers]

+1 *PING* to post #7

[freedumb2003]

Most excellent...

:)

[Zeppelin]

lol I wish I could take credit...