Male birth control pills: Pregnancy takes two, so should prevention

Women have had a birth control pill for 51 years and men — it may be coming soon. TIME magazine reported on recent Columbia University studies that offer positive evidence we may be close to a male birth control pill.

According to TIME the key is in vitamin A which is necessary for sperm growth. The medication which has so far only been tested on mice, successfully interferes with receptors that metabolizes vitamin A, temporarily stopping sperm growth.

Kind of yucky, but cool.

TIME also raised an interesting question as to what this does for birth control responsibility. Typically that has fallen on women, but what does this pill do for leveling the playing field?

"Would men even take a birth control pill?" is how TIME phrases the question. That right there is pretty telling of where the responsibility would lie regardless of a new pill.

This science breakthrough might not change anything. Socially, birth control (minus condoms in wallets) might still be considered the work of women, just as pregnancy might still be considered a woman's burden. After all, what physical sign do men who have impregnated women have to deal with for nine months?

Even though TIME's expert goes on to say he thinks as long as it wouldn't affect sexual performances men would take a birth control pill, the wording of the question alone makes the argument that birth control is a woman's responsibility, so why would men even have to consider it?

It simply casts a doubt on a man's willingness to accept responsibility for his part of the baby-making process.

It takes two — one sperm and one egg that is.

And let there be no doubt that babies cannot possibly be made with just an egg. That sperm is an integral part of the process.

The problem might be that men don't feel the weight of their decision to engage in unprotected sex (literally they don't have to carry that baby bump at all). Even when discussing condoms, pregnancy plays a role, but I don't know if it's as motivating a factor to put one on as the risk of disease.

For women the pill was a sign of liberation and it should be seen the same way for men. After all, a child is (or at least should be) half their responsibility, as it is half their doing.

It's not that TIME did anything wrong by asking their expert if men would take the pill, it's just a sad commentary on our society that the question was considered necessary to the conversation.

Besides religious fundamentalists and conservatives I don't think anyone wondered if the female version of birth control would "catch on."

If researchers at Columbia do decide that the pill is safe and effective for mainstream use, then it's time for women to demand their partners help protect against unwanted pregnancies as much as they do.

Because it takes two.

…..I just don't know where men will put those little round pill dispenser things without purses.