Episode 117 -- Birth Control Misinformation
In Bed With The Right
Adrian Daub and Moira Donegan
4.8 • 661 Ratings
🗓️ 21 January 2026
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For this episode, Moira walks Adrian through the conservative attack on birth control, and in particular the influencer-led, MAHA-adjacent surge of misinformation about menstruation and birth control. At issue is ultimately a deeply reactionary, and deeply troubling picture of the gendered body and women's autonomy. Topics covered include: cycle synching, the politics of "naturalness" and the weaponization of legitimate grievances with the medical establishment for ideological purposes.
Here is the list of books/articles we refer to in this episode:
-- Dorothy Roberts, Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction and the Meaning of Liberty (1998)
-- Mikaeli Anne Carmichael, Rebecca Louise Thomson, Lisa Jane Moran, Thomas Philip Wycherley, "The Impact of Menstrual Cycle Phase on Athletes’ Performance: A Narrative Review"
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Adrienne Daugh. |
| 0:08.8 | And I'm Weir Donnegan. |
| 0:09.9 | And whether we like it or not, we're in bed with the right. |
| 0:13.7 | So, Adrian, I was just talking to you off mic about the fact that I am a little tired today. |
| 0:20.0 | Yeah. |
| 0:20.6 | And there are some people who would tell you that that's because I'm in my Luteel phase. |
| 0:26.2 | I don't know what that means. |
| 0:27.4 | Yeah, neither did anybody else until about two years ago. |
| 0:31.0 | Today, Adrian, we are talking about something that has taken over the algorithms of every woman in America. That's right. We are talking about something that has taken over the algorithms of every woman in America. |
| 0:40.1 | That's right. |
| 0:40.7 | We are talking about birth control misinformation. |
| 0:45.6 | So what do you know about this? |
| 0:48.4 | Shamefully little. |
| 0:49.9 | I follow enough influencers on Instagram to sort of get some of this content. |
| 0:55.0 | So when you were suggesting this topic to me, it was like, oh, yeah, like this. |
| 0:59.2 | I can picture that. |
| 1:00.8 | And of course, I've been friends with a lot of people who are on, some of my best friends |
| 1:04.4 | are on birth control. |
| 1:06.0 | We speak freely and openly about it. |
| 1:08.1 | But, you know, I have never taken it. |
| 1:09.8 | I've never picked out a prescription |
| 1:11.5 | for anyone. Like, I wouldn't know the names or anything like that, so I'm really a babe in the |
... |
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