Every year about this time, the Catholic church across the street from where I live does their 40 Days for life cross display. They have a big sign stating how many abortions are done every day, and rows of little white crosses made out of white plastic tubing.
I think what angers me the most about the pro-life crowd is that they are not about life at all. They don't give a shit about the woman who needs birth control, or a pap smear, or has an UTI. They think that every woman going into Planned Parenthood is there for the 'evil abortion'. That is NOT what Planned Parenthood is about!
The way to prevent abortions is NOT by protesting the abortion clinics! Shocker, I know. To prevent abortion, we have to prevent the actual unintended PREGNANCY. That means BIRTH CONTROL, people.
I have a Catholic friend who miscarried her first child at around 20 weeks or so. She was devastated. Her and her husband had so been looking forward to having a child. A week or so after her daughter was born, I was talking on the phone to her about it. She couldn't understand why someone would willingly terminate such a perfect being. I refused to say anything besides comforting words to her, because that would have been SO uncouth of me, but I was thinking "what about all the single girls who had no means of supporting a child? Don't they get a choice? It's their bodies after all, not yours. Just because you and your husband, who are financially stable, btw, choose to have as many children as you can and never use birth control, what right do you have to take that choice away from someone who isn't in your shoes?" And.... my (very Catholic) friend used birth control up until the day she got married.
Don't talk to me about the evils of abortion until you show me the money you've put into helping women PREVENT pregnancy. Don't talk to me about the evils of abortion until you show me the receipts for all the women you've provided neo-natal care for since they couldn't have an abortion. Oh, and show me how many children you have adopted that would have been aborted otherwise.
There are over 800 Planned Parenthood clinics in this country. Every day, during the "40 days for life", Emily X is posting how many protesters she(they) see going into work every day. If you can, make a pledge.
Get some education about what Planned Parenthood does for women in this country, it may be the most important thing you ever do.
5 comments:
Ask the Pro lifers how they feel about the death penalty. Most are for it. So pro life they are!
Well, the thing that pisses me off, more than saying "no abortion", is when you start throwing in combinations - eg -
You say that children should have abstinence only eduction. (Which basically means, don't have sex, it's bad, mkay, and not much more.)
Then, you add to that, the whole "masturbation is bad" thing...
Then, you say that no one should use birth control, and prevent knowledge and limit availability
And then, you throw in no abortion too...
End result? Babies in dumpsters and young single mothers in crisis.
Sad reality
If parents had a healthy conversation about sex (and masturbation), you might have the unexpected result of people waiting longer to have sex, and being more responsible about it.
I hold out faith in our slow move to sanity.
I'd like to see some of these Pro-Lifers put their money where their mouth is, and take in all these children born to mothers who don't take care of them.
That, and they are probably among the first to complain about welfare.
A couple of my very good friends have had abortions. One of them was rather recent. (She got prego, had the abortion, then had her tubes tied, and somehow got pregnant AGAIN between the abortion and tubiligation...I told her that clearly, her little girl was going to be born, dammit, and there wasn't anything she could do about it!) I love them both, and would have supported their decisions no matter what, had they come to me for advice about them. I would have driven them to the appointment and held their hands, if they'd asked.
But I also have a niece that was born when I was 11 years old. I've never met her, but her family stays in touch with my family, and we keep each other in the loop on stuff that's going on. My sister was 17 when she got pregnant with her. She was getting ready to head off to college. (For the record, they tried the "pull out" method, and it failed. Duh, right? :)) She gave Amanda to her new family, and then started her freshman year at USC a semester late.
My best friend had a little girl when she was 17, too. Went through the same adoption company that my older sister went through when she had her daughter 7 years prior. In her case, it was a broken condom that caused the pregnancy to happen. (Well, the sex helped, too, I'm sure. But they were attempting to use some form of birth control!)
I know it isn't the best option in every case. But I wish it was more of a part of the education process when it comes to what women can do in cases of unwanted pregnancies.
Janet,
Excellent post! I will go check it out.
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