posted by Jennifer Roback Morse
The Sexual Revolution: most people equate it with fun and freedom. At the Ruth Institute, we are convinced that the Sexual Revolution = destruction + heartbreak.
We have identified
12 Survivors of the Sexual Revolution: people who have been harmed by this toxic ideology, who have lived to tell their stories and triumph.
One of our group is “People with Health Problems Due to Hook-ups, Abortion or Contraception.”
Here is a heartbreaking story by the
parents of a young woman, Erika Langhart who is not a Survivor. Erika died due to the use of the NuvaRing for contraception. Listen to her
symptoms:
Our beautiful, caring, full of life, daughter, only just 24, had collapsed in her apartment, and had two heart attacks in the ambulance on the way to hospital.
A doctor called to say we needed to get there as soon as possible. We took a flight at midnight and arrived by her side on Tuesday morning, but she
was still in a coma….
One of the first things the doctors asked was whether Erika had been using hormonal contraceptives. When they found out she was using NuvaRing – a vaginal ring that releases so-called third-generation synthetic hormones – they removed it immediately. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving we were shown scans of her lungs, which were full of massive blood clots. We were
told NuvaRing was the cause of the pulmonary embolisms, heart attacks and subsequent irreversible brain swelling. On Thursday – Thanksgiving – they
told us Erika wasn’t coming back. She died that day. It absolutely broke our hearts.
Tell me: were you aware of these possible symptoms of using the NuvaRing? Yes, they have warning labels. But all the advertising makes it look so harmless,
so easy. Think propaganda: seductive, superficially appealing, with trouble lying just below the surface.
How does the Victimization continue? There are typically two motives, an ideological motive and a self-interest motive. Somebody wants you to believe something
in spite of the evidence. And somebody is making money.
In this case, the Somebody Making Money is Merck, the giant pharmaceutical company. Erika’s parents wanted to hold the company accountable. They wanted
at the very least, to have the case examined in a jury trial, so that all the facts could come to light. However:
Unfortunately the attorneys involved in the class action lawsuit against Merck did end up settling out of court.
These cases included 3,800 women, 83 of whom had died. We never got that jury trial we were promised. My husband and I refused to opt in to the $100m settlement agreement. Merck would not now be held accountable in a trial – to us this felt like watching Erika die all over again. The
only thing that has ever mattered to us is the pursuit of truth in honor and memory of our beloved Erika.
In our opinion, Merck got away with murder, and continues to do so to this day. In 2011 NuvaRing made the company $623m; in 2013 it was $686m; and in 2014,
after the settlement, Merck made a staggering $723m from it. Settlements are just the cost of doing business to Merck, all at the expense of women’s
health and lives.
And the ideological motive? One of the three key tenets of the Sexual Revolution is that a good society separates sex from babies. This of course,
cannot be done. Sex does make babies. All contraception sometimes fail. Yet, this fantasy ideology that we can create a society in which sex is
a sterile recreational activity continues to hold a grip on the minds of many people. In order to keep this Fantasy Ideology going, all the risks and
harms of contraception must be systematically downplayed. If people knew that contraception had risks associated with it, the Ideological Illusion
would be shattered.
For people in this frame of mind, Erika is just collateral damage, another broken egg for the omelet of the dream world.
Erika is not a survivor. She died, very quickly, once her symptoms first appeared. But her parents are Survivors. They have set up a foundation in memory
of their daughter, InformedChoiceForAmErika.com. Go there and be informed. Go there
and Give. You will no longer be a Victim, but a Survivor of the Sexual Revolution.
If you think you have health problems due to hook-ups, abortion or contraception, go here for help.
Go here for a podcast for more information about the Sexual Revolution and Its Victims.
Go here to give to the Ruth Institute.
