Sarah Palin had a Downs Syndrome baby last year.

Great CHOICE.

Sarah Palin’s 17-year-old daughter is having a baby resulting from a teen pregnancy.

Great CHOICE.

Image Source: http://gov.state.ak.us/official_portraits.php

Post from: Blisstree

Palin Mommies

Conservative single-issue Pro-Lifers waste their Presidential vote on an ineffectual abortion strategy. Not because they are necessarily wrong in their moral beliefs, but because the strategy is completely ineffective for preventing abortion.

These one-issue voters make their vote for President all about how he feels about the issue of abortion. This is completely ineffectual, and therefore quite frustrating, because the President of the United States is actually the LEAST powerful person to address the issue.

A vote for George W. Bush, for instance, equated to the prevention of not one single abortion.

A vote for George H. W. Bush equated to the prevention of not one single abortion.

A vote for Ronald Reagan equated to the prevention of not one single abortion.

A vote for John McCain would equate (whether he wins or loses) to the prevention of not one single abortion.

Why? Because Presidents have only the power to appoint a Supreme Court Justice. That is their single power on the abortion issue. They don’t get to do it at all unless one of the justices dies or resigns. Its been 35 years and conservative pro-lifers have yet to prevent a single abortion with this strategy.

There are EFFECTIVE strategies to preventing abortion.

Giving women access to healthcare in the way of Free Family Planning Clinics, has prevented 20 million unplanned pregnancies. That’s an estimated 9 million abortions prevented in the last 20 years.

Imagine how many more abortions would be prevented if every woman had equal access to her personal Ob/GYN and had the dignity of exercising responsibility and power over her own reproductive health?

We’re talking millions of abortions prevented in a compassionate and dignified way.

Pro-adoption marketing campaigns are also a very compassionate way to prevent abortion. The more we glamorize the gift of adoption, the more women will choose to carry the child to term.

Boundaries are effective. All or nothing thinking about abortion brings it to an ineffective stand-off.

It’s been 35 years, surely I can’t be the only one tired of the stand-off?

Some pro-lifers are given to extremes on the abortion issue. I totally get that you love all life, but it would be more effective to legislate certain types of abortions that you find most offensive.

For instance, I hear a lot about “partial birth abortion” as a reason for voting for John McCain. Do you realize John McCain is the least powerful person in government to do anything about partial birth abortion? Your STATE Senator and your STATE Congressperson have ALL the power to decide whether to make a law allowing or banning partial birth abortion. It’s ineffective to vote for a presidential candidate based on this issue.

Be Effective. Write state senators and state representatives a letter and get them to pass a law against partial birth abortion. Or run for office and write a bill against partial birth abortions yourself.

The fact is that the MAJORITY of people who call themselves pro-choice believe in abortion boundaries.

The Supreme Court ruled that states can’t prevent all abortion when the fetus is not viable. That word viable leaves a lot of room for legislative action in STATE Government.

Every year, and with every new scientific discovery, babies become viable earlier and earlier.

When Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, babies weren’t viable at 25 weeks. Now babies have a decent chance a living at 25 weeks, for instance. That leaves room for a lot of state legislation with every passing year and every scientific miracle of viable.

Pro-Lifers would serve their own agenda better byfocusing on the boundaries that Pro-Choicers and the Pro-Life/Pro-Choice Majority also find agreeable.

Pro-Lifers would also serve their own agenda better by not aligning with anti-contraception crazies. If you are personally against using birth control – whatever, I believe in your right to have 14 children if you want.

But, don’t. make. me. Do you realize that 16 states entertained “pro-life” bills to prevent women access to birth control last year? Pro-lifers don’t winning any sympathy from the average family by being all wacko about contraception.

Lastly, don’t discount what Roe v. Wade did for women’s physical autonomy. It was instrumental in making it illegal for your husband to rape you, which was still legal until 1979. Prior to Roe v. Wade – women had virtually no rights over their own bodies. Roe v. Wade, if nothing else, made every woman’s physical body protected as her own under the Constitution of the United States.

I don’t know a single woman – conservative or liberal, pro-life or pro-choice – who would reverse that. If we – pro-life and pro-choice alike – acknowledge how much every woman demands we must keep autonomy over our own bodies, we can make serious headway in making reasonable laws that serve as boundaries for abortion, without taking women’s autonomy back 35 years.

Birth control effectiveness has come a long way in 35 years as well. Back when Roe v. Wade was passed the pill was only around 75% effective. Our prevention methods have become extremely reliable with lots of choices and alternatives.

Abortion is at an all time low this year. We’ve never had better numbers.

With Universal Healthcare for every woman on the table we have a real chance – a wonderful opportunity – to give every woman access to her own doctor and access to contraception and that’s going to prevent more abortions than all the Supreme Court appointments John McCain could make.

Image source: Masakhanecenter.org

Post from: Blisstree

Pro-Lifers’ Self-Defeating Abortion Strategy

It’s such a tight rope women walk in today’s world.

Republicans claim to want to reduce the abortion rate.

Republicans claim to think it’s wrong when women who work fulltime and “abandon their children in daycare.”

Republicans claim to hate “entitlement programs” that cost them tax money.

I have to wonder why, when facing a solution to 3 of their main concerns with universal healthcare, they are not jumping on board with glee.

If women have equal access to healthcare they can prevent conception, the most effective means of drastically lowering the abortion rate.

If women have equal access to healthcare they can more easily work fewer hours, more flexible hours untied to corporate 40 in-office hour work weeks, resulting in more face time with their children. In other words – Mary Kay Lady takes on a whole new level of stability.

If women have equal access to healthcare they are less likely to seek prenatal care and give birth with taxpayer money, thus reducing women’s reliance on “entitlement programs.”

Not to mention all the kids who currently receive SCHIPS because they can’t get health insurance due to pre-existing conditions. With both Democrats’ healthcare reforms “pre-existing conditions” (read: any diagnosis) are overruled and EVERYONE gets equal access.

I have to wonder if they really are looking for solutions or if they are getting something out of having these problems to bitch about?

Perhaps they just hate women?

I think they might be getting more out of having these problems than they would by solving them.

Stop Abortion Vote Healthcare!

Healthcare Corruption

Post from: Blisstree

Healthcare Solves 3 GOP Concerns

I found the most interesting facts to be these two:

* The abortion rate is the lowest its been since Roe v. Wade in 1973, with 1.21 million in 2005.

* About 60% of abortions are obtained by women who have one or more children.

Unlike teenagers who only sought 17% of abortions, these women fully understand the responsibility and the cost of parenthood and family-life.

• Three-fourths of women cite concern for or responsibility to other individuals;
• Three-fourths say they cannot afford a child; three-fourths say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or the ability to care for dependents;
• Half say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner.

The key to preventing unwanted pregnancy and therefore preventing abortion is access to healthcare.

• Contraceptive non-use is greatest among those who are young, poor, black, Hispanic or less educated women.
• About half of unintended pregnancies occur among the 11% of women who are at risk for unintended pregnancy but are not using contraceptives.

That’s exactly the same demographic that currently has the least access to healthcare in America.

Compared with men, women are less likely to have employer-sponsored health care coverage because they are more likely to work part-time, on contract, or freelance and to take time out of the workforce to care for their children and their family members. They are also more likely to be covered as dependents on their spouses’ employer-sponsored health plans. As a result, women are more vulnerable to losing their coverage if they are widowed or divorced.

There are 21.5 million uninsured women and these are the same women who are most likely to seek an abortion because they have no access to healthcare. This statistic doesn’t even include women who carry only catastrophic insurance and therefore have to pay for all healthcare expenses on top of their high premiums. These women frequently can’t afford basic OB/GYN care, including contraception.

No one likes abortion. If the goal is to reduce the number of abortions in the United States then pro-lifers should jump on the opportunity to drastically reduce the number of lives lost by providing equal and affordable access to healthcare for women.

People who rate abortion as the most important issue in America, should consider the flip side. Let’s say you win. Roe v. Wade is overturned. The number of abortions won’t be zero. What about all the women who will inevitably seek an abortion illegally? Now we’re back to back-alley butchering of women.

The result is not only the death of babies, but the needless death of women and babies. We now know these women are mothers of other children and therefore the inevitable outcome is the death of women, the death of their fetuses and the orphaning of existing children. As a fellow Christian – I can’t see how that is better.

What’s changed about the pro-life vs. pr-choice debate? Access to healthcare for these disenfranchised women has never been on the table before. (This could also drastically reduce the cost of adoption for middle-class couples.)

If you truly want to prevent the nasty business of abortion – you should vote for healthcare. Not because you’re turning your back on your principles – but because it’s the most effective way to prevent abortion.

Post from: Blisstree

Stop Abortion Vote Healthcare!