The Women Misrepresented By The Washington Post Respond

Mistrust in legacy media is only growing, and when journalists publish articles that gaslight and invalidate millions of women's experiences, it's not hard to understand why. The Washington Post's recent article "Women are getting off birth control amid misinformation explosion" drew so much backlash on Instagram that they turned off the comments. Women's health professionals all over the internet critiqued the gaslighting attitude of the article.

Even the women interviewed for the article were not happy with how their personal experiences and knowledge of hormonal birth control were treated by The Washington Post. Many have shared their side of the story on social media or with Evie Magazine or both.

Sabrina Grimaldi, the founder of online magazine The Zillennial Zine, described to The Washington Post how her birth control gave her blood clots in both lungs and her leg. The newspaper mentioned her experience in brief (you can read her full story here on Evie) as an example of a rare side effect and skimmed over how, throughout Sabrina's whole experience, her questions and concerns were dismissed or ignored by each doctor she encountered. In a response on her Instagram, Sabrina said the article failed to fully connect the medical gaslighting to why women are turning to alternative sources for information about birth control.

Another interviewee, certified holistic nutritionist Nicole Bendayan, describes her interview with The Washington Post as "one of the most disingenuous experiences I've ever had" and took to social media to share her side of the story. Nicole says the article "falsely represented and tried to discredit me." She highlights that birth control and women's health are not political issues – they're health issues. She was "made to believe this would be a positive piece about how women are moving toward holistic health practices and away from hormonal birth control." Not only did The Washington Post turn her into a "pawn" for their political agenda, but they invalidated her own personal lived experience on birth control. Furthermore, The Washington Post positioned Nicole as an influencer and educator, conveniently leaving out her nutrition coaching certifications, which she says they were aware of.

Nicole points out that The Washington Post attempted to minimize her concerns about what she "assumed" were side effects of her NuvaRing birth control, but the symptoms mentioned by The Washington Post are real side effects of NuvaRing listed by the manufacturer. Lastly, Nicole exposes how The Washington Post tried to undermine the proven connection between hormonal birth control and depression.

The Washington Post also reached out to cultural commentator Alex Clark, the host of POPlitics and The Spillover Podcast, about hormonal birth control but failed to include her responses in their article. At Alex's request, we have included her answers below:

Washington Post: You have called birth control “poisonous” – can you explain why? What makes it poisonous?

Alex Clark: When something increases the risk of depression by 130% – that’s poison. When something may double your risk of breast cancer – that’s poison. When something increases your risk of blood clots by three-fold – and largely goes away within a couple of weeks if you stop taking it – that sounds an awful lot like poison. A substance that alters your personality so much that you choose a different romantic partner than you would when you’re not on it? That’s poison. Poison is defined as something that can cause illness or death. Hormonal birth control fits that standard.

WaPo: Why is there a movement among prominent conservative commentators, including yourself, to question the safety of hormonal birth control?

AC: The anti-birth control movement is not conservative, historically or currently. It started in the 1970s with a group of feminist, liberal women who spoke up and risked their reputations questioning Big Pharma at the Nelson Pill hearings. They demanded to know why women were being experimented on like guinea pigs, because we were seeing alarming health risks after 20 years of being prescribed the pill. In fact, it’s because of these liberal women that we are given an insert packet larger than a newspaper with birth control risks and side effects. The attack on women who happen to be conservative who are speaking out against the harms of birth control is disrespecting the very feminists they claim to admire. It was their backbreaking work to warn women around the world about the potential negative health consequences of birth control that planted the seeds for today’s pushback, a movement that is growing. This isn’t a partisan issue. This is a health issue that affects all women, regardless of political persuasion. Women from all political parties, religions, and regions should care that we have been encouraged to ingest a pill without an honest understanding of the hundreds of very real potential risks associated with it.

WaPo: Some experts say you are working to vilify hormonal birth control in order to limit access to it – do you have a response?

AC: “Some experts say.” Who are the experts? Who do they work for? Here’s what I am working toward: informed consent for women. No one is trying to ban anything. To suggest we are is a 2024 agenda to scare women. What we want is for young women to be fully educated about the potentially negative and harmful side effects so they can make the best, most informed decisions for their own health care. Ten minutes in a wellness checkup is not enough time for a doctor to explain the risks of taking this pill honestly and thoroughly to a 15-year-old girl struggling with acne. We have women being prescribed this medication as a band-aid cure-all to myriad other underlying health issues, from illnesses that could lead to infertility if untreated to serious hormonal disorders that require root-cause treatment. I’ve heard of countless stories of women who have described their experience of the pill masking deeper health issues they then were forced to deal with 10-15 years later when they are finally ready to have a baby. Sadly, many were unable to ever get pregnant because they failed to deal with underlying health issues years before trying to start a family. I don’t want that for the next generation.

And lastly, Evie Magazine's Editor-in-Chief Brittany Martinez was also among those interviewed by The Washington Post. She has written a full response to the paper, which you can read here.

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