I’m a firm believer that, in every relationship, there will always be some things you don’t need to know. These include, but are not limited to: How many corn dogs you’ve consumed this week, what your ex was like in bed, and literally anything related to your digestive system. Keep it to yourself — it’s fine!
But when it comes to a woman’s relationship with her body, the legal system, and the delightful intersection thereof — well, there’s nothing she shouldn’t know.
And that’s the goal of this whole Shots & Chasers thing! Today, we’re going to focus on big facts you need to know right now — chased with a few you may not exactly need to know, but you’ll probably want to anyway.
SHOT: Under the Affordable Care Act, your health insurance is supposed to provide you with birth control at no expense to you. If you’re still paying for it, that’s a problem. Glamour did a rundown with the Office of the Secretary of Health to answer any questions you may have.
CHASER: The best apple — Honeycrisp, obviously — was developed by the University of Minnesota in 1991. The Honeycrisp apple is older than Justin Bieber!
SHOT: Abortion is legally available to you — and “crisis pregnancy centers,” which attempt to convince pregnant women not to have abortions, need to tell you that. This is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit in California that we’ve written about before, but NPR just did a more in-depth exploration.
CHASER: In 2015, Katy Perry earned 2.5 times as much as Beyoncé. Now, it’s true that I know every single word to “Teenage Dream” and I did kind of love this year’s Super Bowl halftime show, but does this make any sense to you at all?
SHOT: We really can’t take Roe v. Wade for granted. The Supreme Court will soon hear what’s being called the most important reproductive rights case since 1992, and said decision will probably come down to one person: Justice Anthony Kennedy. This ruling could potentially have the power to reverse the landmark 1973 decision. SCOTUS has also confirmed that it will hear a case that basically revisits its Hobby Lobby decision from 2014.
CHASER: While we’re talking about consolidating power in the hands of an alarmingly small minority, did you know that more than HALF of all ad revenue on the internet goes to Amazon and Google? Yow.
SHOT: An abortion can be as simple and relatively painless as taking a pill. But because we can’t have anything easily in the reproductive health sphere, there are a bunch of laws that restrict how women can access that pill — and even how they ingest it. Here’s an explanation from Salon of how that pill works, and why it’s not as commonly used as it should be.
CHASER: Elves have sex. But if you’re a Lord of the Rings fan, you already knew that.
SHOT: If you’re not sure why the abortion debate is so important, Katha Pollitt from The Nation gives you a great reason: Abortion rights are simply a matter of gender equality. And that, ultimately, is all you need to know.
CHASER: The Swedish word for post-sex bedhead is “knullruffs.” You’re welcome — or should we say, varsågod!
