Abortion
(Check the Population page before you make up your mind about this.)
Catholic Leader Says Woman Should Die With Her Fetus -- When Did Woman-Hating Go Mainstream? (5/24/2010)
Maternal Mortality FAIL in the U.S. (3/12/2010)
Why We Should Disregard a New Study Showing Abstinence-Only Ed Works (2/2/2010)
Utah Governor Signs Law Charging Women and Girls with Murder for Miscarriages. (3/9/2010)
A Pro-Life Death Sentence (2/25/2010)
The abortion issue, pushed by 'conservative' religious groups, is a leading cause of domestic terrorism. It represents a level of intolerance that makes these religions a threat to the political process. (See Religion.)
Christian supremacists including evangelicals and Catholics (not to mention their Republican benefactors) have held up health care reform so they can impose their will on the abortion issue. Abortion, one of the most personal of health issues for women, might better be thought of as a women's right to choose.
You have to wonder about Republican's 'values'. Because a large fraction of the US population is without access to health care, there are many thousand unnecessary deaths, untolled suffering, bankruptcies, insecurity, and economic dislocation. Republicans claim to be pro-life, but most think the death penalty is appropriate for many crimes. If Republicans were really pro-life, they might take action for the 16,000 children worldwide who die of starvation each day.
When intolerant religious fundamentalism leads to violence and paralysis of public governance, it is time to fortify the wall between church and state. Religious schooling should be subject to public oversight so that it does not breed ignorance and bombers. Churches that breed violence at the very least should not be tax exempt. We are paying plenty for their wars.
Women should abandon medieval religions where they are second class members. So should anyone else who cares about them.
Women are not allowed into the Catholic hierarchy, and tend to be second class members of fundamentalist or evangelical religions as well.
According to one version of 'Freakonomics', children who are wanted do much better. Considering that population has already exceeded the planet's carrying capacity and that the environment is rapidly deteriorating, limiting further population increase is prudent.
It is clear that religious intolerance concerning abortion has incited terrorism and violence. Just as the Taliban does.
Whose Team Is It, Anyway ? Katha Pollitt (The Nation)
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The Tiller Murder Wasn't a Lone Killer's Sick Plot; It Came Out of the
Radical Anti-Abortion Movement |
The Abortion
Rights Activist
Reports news on activist issues and violence alerts.
Left Out
Pro-life philosophy.
National
Abortion Federation
The voice of abortion providers.
Planned Parenthood
Excellent pro-choice statistics and arguments.
Bearman and Bruckner ...note that communities with the highest populations of purity ball attendees also have some of the country's highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). In Lubbock, Texas, where abstinence-only education has been mandated since 1995, the rate of gonorrhea has risen to double the national rate, while teen pregnancy has spiked to the highest level in the state. A congressionally funded study of adolescent behavior, Add Health - the most comprehensive of its kind in history - revealed another dirty secret of the Christian right: White evangelical women lose their virginity on average at age sixteen, younger than any group besides black Protestants. (from Max Blumenthal's excellent book Republican Gomorra Page 157)
Catholic Bishops Put Sex Obsession Ahead of Mission to the Sick and the Poor
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Why the Catholic Bishops Who Pushed Through the Stupak Amendment Are Hypocrites
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Freakonomics on the relation of abortion and crime.
The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime
(Note the next paragraphs shamelessly taken from notes to 100 Ways America is Screwing Up the World: John Tirman. This is number 80.
80 The Global Gag: Family Planning the Extremists’ Way
“Our continuing research shows the gag rule is eroding family planning and
reproductive health services in developing countries,” says the Population
Action International and a coalition of other organizations on their
Global Gag Rule web site. Their
campaign deserves close attention.
The Science magazine article is “The Mexico City Policy and U.S. Family Planning Assistance,” by Richard P. Cincotta and Barbara B. Crane, from an October 2001 edition. Michele Goldberg’s excellent coverage in Salon from June 2002 contains statistics as well as analysis. The news item about China is cited by Sierra Club and others.
“Since 2001, the US government has used its power as a leading donor to family planning programmes to pursue policies in conflict with global agreements on reproductive rights. Prominent among these policies is the Mexico City Policy (or Global Gag Rule), which restricts non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in developing countries that receive USAID family planning funding from engaging in most abortion-related activities, even with their own funds. This paper reviews the history and political origins of the Gag Rule under several Republican party presidents. The Gag Rule has not achieved an overall reduction in abortions; rather, where it has disrupted family planning services, the policy is more likely to have increased the number of abortions. This paper concludes that the Gag Rule is a radical intrusion on the rights and autonomy of recipients of US funding. Regardless of whether or not it is rescinded in the future, the underlying issues in the politics of US reproductive health assistance are likely to persist. NGOs that wish to free themselves from the constraints it imposes must find the means to end their dependence on USAID funding, including turning to other donors. NGOs should also take the lead in opposing policies such as the Gag Rule that violate global agreements.”
Or try: Exportable Righteousness, Expendable Women by Ann Hwang – “The U.S. government is the largest donor to family planning programs around the world. But the country's backward-thinking "global gag rule," championed by "right-to-life" opponents of abortion, is actually likely to result in the deaths of more women.”
Planned Parenthood is of course a leading organization on this issue. See also Center for Reproductive Law and Policy
Bibliography
Before the Shooting Begins: Searching for Democracy in America's Culture War: James Davison Hunter
Links
International Planned Parenthood Federation
National Partnership for Woman and Families
The Abortion Rights Activist -- Reports news on activist issues and violence alerts.
Left Out -- Pro-life philosophy from -- surprise -- a liberal's point of view.
National Abortion Federation -- The voice of abortion providers.
Planned Parenthood -- Excellent pro-choice statistics and arguments.