Does picketing family planning clinics really change all of this?

2010-04-20T22:17:00.001-04:00

If you are the kind of person that likes to picket family planning clinics, thinking you are doing something positive that can help make a difference, repeat the following after reading each of the statements in the following list: "Picketing a clinic will help change this."

About half of all pregnancies in the US are unplanned (about 3.1 million each year)
70% of pregnancies to women in their 20's are unplanned.
About half of all American women will have at least one unplanned pregnancy during the course of their life.
About one third of all unplanned pregnancies end in abortion. (about 1 million each year) Very rarely does a planned pregnancy ever end in abortion.
Slightly less than half of unplanned pregnancies are the result of birth control failure.
About 20% of those birth control failures are caused by improper use.
Slightly more than half of all unplanned pregnancies are the result of the failure to use birth control at all.
Many Christian pro-lifers preach abstinence as the best and only acceptable method of birth control, failing to understand that married people also end up with unplanned pregnancies, and abstinence isn't really the best option if you want to stay married.
Christian pro-lifers do not want sex education taught in schools, which includes education on birth control. They only approve of educational programs that preach abstinence.
Christian pro-lifers do not want free condoms distributed to sexually active teens.
Many pro-lifers are also against universal healthcare, which would make birth control more affordable to more people, and make medical care for children more affordable too. They are unwilling to provide any real help to women that choose to keep their babies or help to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
There is a severe shortage of families willing to adopt minority children and children with special needs, and a severe shortage of foster families willing to take those children until adoptive families can be found. Minority women that opt for putting their children up for adoption instead of having an abortion are dooming their children to being raised in institutions. The same goes for any woman that opts to have a baby they know will have severe disabilities, that they know they are unprepared, unwilling, and unable to care for.
Many Christians do not want gay and lesbian couples to have the right and ability to take those children out of those institutions and give them a proper home with a loving family, and a chance to live a normal life.

Still think picketing a clinic is something positive that will help change things?

The Birth Control Riddle

Pro-life and Pro-choice Can Be Two Sides of the Same Coin If That Coin Is Education

2008-06-28T18:58:00.007-04:00

I am both pro-choice and pro-life and the 2 views are not in conflict with each other because I am also very pro-education.

In a perfect world, every child would be born to 2 responsible parents that loved it, wanted it, had the means and skills required to take care of it, nurture it, properly educate it, and help it to become a productive member of society.

But we don't live in a perfect world, do we?

And people do make mistakes. That is why there are erasers on pencils and backspace keys on keyboards...and abortion.

Unless and until we can find a way to eliminate the mistakes before they are made, then the eraser is still needed, and the backspace key...and abortion, and all of those will continue to exist.

If you want to end abortions, then end the mistakes that lead to them...by educating people to make better choices.

Instead of telling kids that babies come from the stork or by swallowing watermelon seeds, start at an early age and tell them where they really come from.

And don't tie the hands of educators that want to provide children with knowledge by forbidding them from teaching how the human body works, how and why pregnancies occur, how one can prevent pregnancies. This is valuable information they will need, even if they do wait until marriage to have sex.

Arming your kids with the facts doesn't lead to wild orgies of teens having sex. On the contrary... Show a classroom full of 14 year olds a video of a live birth, with a nice close-up of the woman's twat opening wide to pass the head of a baby, and it's likely to scare the crap out of them and give them something to think about and make them not want to have sex for at least a year.

Telling them about birth control choices and making them available prevents them from getting pregnant, in the event that they do decide to be sexually active. And don't forget to educate them on the psycological effects of abortion and the lingering effects it has on the mind of the mother that decides to take that route, so they won't see abortion as a first line birth control choice.

Do whatever it takes to change the attitudes of young women who regard taking care of a baby as being all fun and games, like playing house, or playing with baby dolls, so they don't deliberately get pregnant with a child they are unable and unprepared to care for. And make them understand that caring for a child isn't like caring for a pet dog, cat, or hamster. They need to understand this before they get pregnant with the first one and not find out after the fact, which can lead to aborting a second pregnancy.

Give them enough information and better choices and they won't make so many damn mistakes that lead to abortion. There is so much to consider before getting pregnant. Teach them this and don't wait till after the fact to tell them. End abortion by ending unwanted pregnancies...end unwanted pregnancies with knowledge and understanding.

If my daughter made a mistake, which is highly unlikely because I have educated her myself, I would hope she would seriously consider giving her baby a chance at life, like I did, but I would also hope she would make that choice after careful consideration about what kind of life that baby would have and how it would impact hers, and exactly how she will provide for it and not eventually become a burden to her child at the same time. But in the end, the choice is hers and not mine, and I don't have the right to make that choice for her. If my daughter decides she is not ready to be a mother, than I am not ready to be a grandmother, as well.

Whether you like the definition or not, babies are perfect parasites, by the technical definition of what a parasite is, and not one that can be cured with a little bit of medicated soap.(funny how we don't see "save the pubic lice" protests, huh?)

Parenthood is a permanent condition. When you decide to have a baby, you are stuck with it and it's effects for life, not just till it becomes legally an adult. Even if your child dies before you do, you don't stop being a parent...you just become the parent of a dead child.

I wonder how many old women died from falling out of bed, severe bone fractures caused by the osteoporosis that began with a baby leeching the calcium from their bones when they were young.

Yes, you may have contributed to the cause of death of your mother by your actions before you were born. Kids also need to know and understand things like this before they get pregnant.

And just like you can't end typos by outlawing backspace keys, you can't end unwanted pregnancies or abortions by making it illegal...you only end legal abortions, driving women to seek their abortions illegally, putting them at great risk of death by having an abortion performed by an untrained person in a tattoo parlor or butcher shop, or doing it themselves with a coat hanger at home, rather than a nice safe medical clinic by a trained doctor.

Outlawing abortion can kill both your daughters and grandchildren at the same time, which is much worse than just losing your grandchildren, and I would never forgive the one that takes my precious daughter away from me with their thoughtless laws.

Cranial Soup

Does picketing family planning clinics really change all of this?

Pro-life and Pro-choice Can Be Two Sides of the Same Coin If That Coin Is Education