Saturday, January 24, 2009

Pray For Compulsory Abortion

Sorry, but I couldn't resist the snarky title. It's my way of mocking the anti-choice signs and bumperstickers that read "Pray To End Abortion."

I'm a little late getting to this, but the other day was the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Of course, this brought out the anti-choice crowd:

Tens of thousands of abortion opponents rallied Thursday on the National Mall to mark the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade amid concerns they could face political setbacks under the new president. The rally and subsequent march to the Supreme Court came two days after the swearing-in of President Barack Obama, which many demonstrators said emphasized their need to become more vocal with their message.

It didn't take long for their concerns to be validated:

President Barack Obama on Friday struck down the Bush administration's ban on giving federal money to international groups that perform abortions or provide abortion information — an inflammatory policy that has bounced in and out of law for the past quarter-century.

This elicited predictable denunciations from members of God's Party, excuse me, the Republican Party:

"Coming just one day after the 36th anniversary of the tragic Roe v. Wade decision, this presidential directive forces taxpayers to subsidize abortions overseas — something no American should be required by government to do," said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.

Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., called it "morally wrong to take the taxpayer dollars of millions of pro-life Americans to promote abortion around the world."

These guys need to get a friggin' clue. While they are so worried about the fate of a fertilized egg inside the uterus of a woman or teenage girl in the developing world, they don't seem particularly concerned with the dangers that pregnancy can pose for women.

From UNICEF's "Progress for Children : A Report Card on Maternal Mortality", comes this sobering statistic: "Each year, more than half a million women die from pregnancy-related causes and an estimated 10 million experience injuries, infections, disease or disability that can cause lifelong suffering."

The report adds, "Most of these deaths and disabilities are avoidable."

And while UNICEF's report "Progress for Children: A World Fit For Children Statistical Review" reports that child mortality rates are in decline, "an estimated 9.7 million children under the age of 5 died before the age of 5" in 2006.

So let's see if I got this straight. If a woman terminates a pregnancy, it is, to quote Rep. John Boehner above, "tragic." But if that same woman dies or is seriously injured from delivering her baby due to lack of adequate medical facilities, or the child dies from malaria at the age of 4, well shit happens, right?

Maybe George Carlin was right about these people after all.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe George Carlin was right about these people after all.

Or maybe Leonard Cohen was right about these people after all:

Destroy another fetus now,
We don't like children anyhow..


the other day was the 36th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade.

Yeah, right, ... `bout that ...

Tommykey said...

Destroy another fetus now,
We don't like children anyhow..


Yeah, I hate children so much that I have two of my own.

Poodles said...

Carlin was absolutely right. I heard a story on NPR a few years ago from experts who studied abortion statistics and they said that there were fewer abortions under the Clinton administration than under the Bush presidency. It is due to the fact that people were financially better off under Clinton and when women feel financially secure they choose to have the babies.

Funny that the republican idiots don't get that.

Christopher said...

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but let me point out something else: the ban on federal money that Obama reversed applied to organizations that perform abortions or provide birth-control information even if no federal money was used to perform abortions. In other words if an organization provided other services (treating malaria or AIDS, for instance) they'd still be denied federal funds, even if the federal money were only used for providing other services. It was a ridiculous blanket policy.

tina FCD said...

You go Obama!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I hate children so much that I have two of my own.

Yes, I know, and I want to congratulate You on this. So, what is it then? Cognitive dissonance?

Tommykey said...

So, what is it then? Cognitive dissonance?

Are you serious? Is that how you really view the world?

My wife and I had two children because that is how many we wanted and realized we could handle before my wife reached the age of 40.

And that is the crux of it. People tend to bear children when they are prepared to make the commitment. A 20 year old college girl who has an abortion because she wants to finish her degree and get established in her career is making a rational choice for herself. More than likely, she will have children later in her life, because she wants to have children.

To make a blanket assertion that people who are in favor of abortion rights must therefore hate children is absolutely ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

OK, thanks for clarifying Your position (with which I whole-heartedly disagree, but that's another question altogether).

Anyway, I just wanted to leave here something to piss You off even further. >:) :D -- Am I succeeding?

Tommykey said...

Anyway, I just wanted to leave here something to piss You off even further. >:) :D -- Am I succeeding?

Not really, because I don't bother clicking on the links. However, if you don't like what I have to say, you are always free to not come back.

Anonymous said...

you are always free to not come back.

I think it's starting to work.. >:)

Tommykey said...

I think it's starting to work.. >:)

No... It's just that I don't understand what you think you're trying to accomplish by coming here. Most of the time you don't have anything meaningful to say or I just don't understand what you're trying to say.

Then again, I suppose I should be flattered that somebody in Romania takes such an interest in an obscure atheist blogger on Long Island, New York.

Anonymous said...

You atheists are just no fun.. :-( Does atheism always make people so dull and distant? :-\

Tommykey said...

Does atheism always make people so dull and distant?\

I'm sorry, did you say something? :-)

Anonymous said...

How very English of You, Tommy, to ask me something like that... :-)

Anonymous said...

Hurrah for blog trolls.

Birth control is just one of those important things that separates us from most other animals, we are capable of exercising restraint in when and how we reproduce, to help ensure maximum viability and success when we're ready, I think it's really important that we as a culture begin to think very carefully about how we manage our population, we're not in any danger right now, but the nature of population growth can be very volatile.

Good post Tommy.

Anonymous said...

Yes, Cerus, You're absolutely and perfectly right: No beast or animal, no matter how wild or savage it is, does the grotesque acts that supposedly-evolved apes do: not even apes, for that matter!

Darwin *WAS* wrong: we did NOT `evolve` from monkies: we devolved from them!

Tommykey said...

Darwin *WAS* wrong: we did NOT `evolve` from monkies: we devolved from them!

You mean "monkeys"?

It would probably be better if people resolved their disputes the bonobo way.

Anonymous said...

It would probably be better if people resolved their disputes the bonobo way.

Hmmm... "bonobos", You say? Well, here's a little something from the Wiki-article about them:

They also do not seem to discriminate in their sexual behavior by gender or age, ...

Bonobo males frequently engage in various forms of male-male genital sexual behavior (frot). In one form, two males hang from a tree limb face-to-face while "penis fencing". Frot also may occur when two males rub their penises together while in face to face position. A special form of frot called "rump rubbing" occurs to express reconciliation between two males after a conflict, when they stand back-to-back and rub their scrotal sacs together.

... same-sex sexual contacts, however, which are very common in Bonobos
.

Yes... Quite so. :-\ Indeed...

Is there something You want to tell me by all these color-codes and fauna-references, Tommy? :-\ -- I mean: is this the way You might want to, -let's say-, "resolve" our "disputes"? :-/ Hmmm? :-/

Tommykey said...

Oh, you know it baby!

Anonymous said...

Regarding the video You've posted: as I've already said before, Americans are doomed to choose every four years between some who'd kill unborn ("not really human") in the name of human rights, and some who'd kill strangers ("casualties") in the name of (exporting) democracy.

The hymn of the former should be Leonard Cohen's "The Future":

Destroy another fetus now,
We don't like children anyhow,
I've seen the future, brother:
It is *muder*
!

And the hymn of the later should be Rammstein's "We're all living in America". (link)

Oh, you know it baby!

Thou sayest it.

Tommykey said...

Well, we do have one thing in common, we're both on Rhology's wall of shame.

Anonymous said...

we're both on Rhology's wall of shame.

I'm ashamed on sharing the same shame-wall with You. :-) :D

Tommykey said...

Well, you'll have to take it up with him then.