Elon Musk ignites birth control conversation on X

Grace Emily Stark

March 25, 2024 5 Reactions

Right on cue, however, mainstream media sources have been quick to call Musk’s comments “misleading,” “divisive,” and have even warned that women “shouldn't look to Musk's tweet as a source of credible information because there's a lot he got wrong.”

While I agreed in my own comments to Our Sunday Visitor that Musk’s tweets needed contextualizing (as did other fertility awareness advocates and experts like FACT’s Dr. Marguerite Duane, and Anna Halpine, CEO of FEMM), there’s no doubt given the significant amount of data we have concerning the risks and side effects of hormonal birth control that the gist of Musk’s tweets–namely, that these drugs carry significant risks to the health and well-being of girls and women everywhere–are painfully, obviously true. 

In fact, in our own comments on Musk’s tweets, Natural Womanhood pointed out that hormonal birth control use also has an association with the development of certain autoimmune disorders, such as Crohn’s, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), and Lupus, and why, exactly, the Pill might cause some women to gain weight. As part of a group that published a comprehensive petition to the FDA on the harms of hormonal birth control, Natural Womanhood has long been at the forefront of informing as many women as possible about the sinister realities of these so-called “empowering” drugs and devices.   

As more women share their stories about the negative realities of hormonal birth control, the facade around the drug’s safety continues to crumble. While women have been gaslighted for generations that the Pill’s negative effects are “in their head” or that “the Pill doesn’t do that,” Musk’s tweet (and the huge response to it) proves otherwise.

Now imagine if we could just get Elon’s attention on the benefits of fertility awareness as a healthy, effective alternative to hormonal birth control–and all the important reasons why women need to ovulate and have periods, which birth control suppresses.  

Grace Emily Stark, M.A., is the Editor-in-Chief and Public Relations manager at Natural Womanhood. Grace holds a M.A. in Bioethics & Health Policy from Loyola University Chicago and a B.S. in Healthcare Management & Policy from Georgetown University. She is an alumna of both the Paul Ramsey Institute Fellowship and the Robert Novak Journalism Fellowship, and together with her husband, is a certified Sympto-Thermal Method Teaching Couple for the Couple to Couple League. When she isn’t writing or cleaning up after her four small children, Grace loves to relax by baking and hosting barbecues with her husband.

This article has been republished from Natural Womanhood with permission. Want more of Natural Womanhood’s take on birth control in the news? Be sure to follow them on X @naturwomanhood

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