On the permanent birth control thing, some women can't access it practically in the U.S. for religious reasons.

For context, one out of five hospital beds in the United States are controlled by some Roman Catholic entity or another. Most of these hospitals will not, by matter of policy, perform voluntary hysterectomies on "fertile" women.

The reason is not medical, and the wishes of the doctors and surgeons who work at the hospital are not taken into consideration by the religious people who run the hospitals. They refuse to allow doctors to do the procedures for purely religious reasons.

I was just talking to a woman the other day who wanted a hysterectomy for health reasons less than life-threatening, but could not get one at the Catholic hospital near her without her husband's signed, written consent.

She was incandescent with anger. "It's my body!" she said. "I will decide what medical procedures to have, and my husband doesn't get a veto!"

Well, she had to drive a couple hours from home to find a non-Catholic hospital in her insurance network.

Pretty astonishing for the 21st century, eh?