PHOTOS: This Potato Was Found Growing On This Woman's Va'gina

  A 22-year-old woman in Colombia thought a potato placed in her va'gina could keep her from having babies — because that’s what her mom told her. She left it there for two weeks — two weeks! — and the potato subsequently grew ROOTS in that very sensitive place, which caused this poor young woman agonizing stomach pain and landed her in the hospital. See more photos

Luckily for her, doctors were able to remove the potato from her va'gina without resorting to surgery, according to Colombia reports and other local media there.

Assuming this story is true and not exaggerated or a hoax (the original story is now unavailable, but that could be from an overload of online readers), the naivete and lack of knowledge about birth control on the part of a 22-year-old woman are disturbing enough, but the fact that her own mother encouraged her to do such a thing is even worse.

And sadly, potatoes are not the only ill-advised form of “contraceptive” women have tried using. There have been reports of women putting everything from lemons to Coca Cola and even mercury in their vagi'nas to kill sperm and prevent pregnancy. Heaven help us.

As those educated about birth control know, not only do those false remedies NOT prevent pregnancy, they can do serious damage and cause infections.

It’s actually pretty heartbreaking when you think about it.

We women have — for thousands of years — wanted to enjoy being in love and close to our partners, but we haven’t always wanted the burden of children. It’s easy to see how these rumors of how to keep from having them spread in the 1500s, but it’s simply unacceptable that in this day and age, any woman would not have the knowledge that can spare her an unwanted pregnancy.

With so many choices modern medicine has given us in the form of birth control, it’s hard to imagine how a woman could get to 22 without having access to — or information about — any approved methods that actually work. Or at least don’t cause damage and pain.

Yes, this happened in another part of the world, but let’s face it: Birth control education isn’t even comprehensive and accurate everywhere in the United States, let alone other countries. And if some had their way, it would go away entirely. It’s just plain wrong. Women — and men — need to know how to control their destiny and do it in healthy ways.

If you take that away from us, what’s left? I know the idea is to stop young people — women in particular — from having se'x entirely, but come on. Those efforts just don’t work on a consistent basis. So do we want women to be so heartbreakingly clueless when it comes to the care and keeping of their own bodies? Do we want them to risk unwittingly bringing innocent children into this world because they weren’t properly protecting themselves during se'x?

As a mom of two daughters, I say hell no. The consequences can be devastating, and ignorance in this case is definitely not bliss. Let’s hope this young woman got an education at the hospital and went home with a true, safe method of contraception for the future. And let’s hope her own bad experience will inspire her to teach others not to take similarly dangerous, foolish risks. Starting with her own mother.