YOU LOVE TO SEE IT: Male Contraception For The Win

Friends:

Good things are happening! Research shows promising results for a new kind of birth control, and overpriced asthma inhalers could soon be no more. Plus, a state utility just harnessed an exciting new energy source, more taxpayers will be able to file their taxes for free, and a gentler form of investing gains traction.

👋 I’m Jean Yi, and I’ll be writing You Love To See It for the next few months as the Lever’s new editorial fellow. I’m a Los Angeles-based data journalist and have previously reported for various California news outlets and the national politics site FiveThirtyEight. With this newsletter, I hope to provide readers with an uplifting end to their week and to contribute investigative reporting and data visualizations to the newsroom. I love to cook in my free time and hope to also branch out into recipe development and food media.

Rock the boat.

Male Birth Control Works

A picture is worth a thousand words — so every week, I’ll feature some positive news in a data visualization.

Last Sunday, researchers with the National Institutes of Health presented findings on a new birth control gel that suppresses sperm safely and effectively — suggesting the option is more effective than using condoms alone.

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Current hormonal and long-acting birth control methods place the responsibility for avoiding pregnancy solely on people who can get pregnant, which some have called a sexist double standard. Pharmaceutical companies have not yet brought male birth control onto the market due to concerns that men would be less motivated to use these methods and that women would not trust their male partners to use these forms of birth control reliably. Making male birth control options available is an important step forward for reproductive justice.