Today is the 36th anniversary of Roe v Wade.
The theme this year, and rightly so, is “what is your top pro-choice hope for President Obama and/or the new Congress”?
My hope is that our legislatures and our leader recognizes the right of a women to make decisions about her own physical situation. As we have seen in Mississippi, where there is but one state abortion clinic left, those most affected by this continue to be the poorest among us.The private clinics where those with substantial income can go still exist in Mississippi, as they existed in this country long before Roe v Wade. It is very clear those who have had the funds have been able to get abortions even in times where it wasn’t legal. We perpetrate the poverty when we take away choice. We need to make clear to our legislatures that we want protection in states which would deem to take away the rights of those choosing to terminate a pregnancy. Making the means to carry out these choices inaccessible, or in some cases illegal is a crime against the right of a woman.
No one has the right to take away choice, my choice or the choice of any women in this country.
Please get rid of abstinence only education policy and any codicil to policy and funding which require abstinence only education as a condition. Abstinence only education does not work.
Studies have continually shown that abstinence-only students have almost the same number of sexual partners, and have sex almost as early, as students who receive traditional sex ed. In fact, abstinence-only programs may actually increase the risk of STDs and unintentional teen pregnancies. That’s because those abstinence-only students who do have sex tend to be less likely to use protection.
Stop using religious figures and their work as examples in the fight against aids in Africa, ask Uganda where it is possible the success of their abstain, be faithful, use condoms program was undermined by the later sway away from the ABC approach to the US-backed abstinence-only programs, programs which may be responsible for an increase in risky behavior, as comprehensive sex education and condom promotion are no longer mainstream. The decease seen in Uganda with the ABC program appears to be suffering a reversal in fortune as a result.
Rick Warren’s Africa Problem
The history of AIDS in Uganda
Keep up to date at Reality Check and see what else you can do to help.
Choice for everyone means supporting the means of choice, be it the choice to have sex and protect with condoms, the choice of comprehensive sex education, or the choice to terminate a pregnancy.
While you are giving back rights to the world, please leave our rights alone.
Peace
I reprinted a post I made about Roe vs Wade on my blog. Thanks for reminding me that today was the anniversary. I’m one of those people that can’t remember his own birthday, much less any other date. I’m glad I was able to post on this subject again.
John’s last blog post..Blog For Choice Day
I saw the post it was great. Thanks for posting it John, and thanks for stopping by.
You have probably already seen this but I thought I ‘d post it here anyway. This was good to see.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/22/obama.abortion/?iref=mpstoryview
john’s last blog post..Some fun stuff
yea, I was relieved and pleased at the same time.
I didn’t know that about Mississippi, but it’s interesting, and sad, that it’s again the poorer people who suffer.
And I agree with everything you say here. I do not understand abstinence only programmes, they clearly do not work. I remember seeing a TV programme about AIDS in Africa, and school students were asked to raise their hands if they were taught abstinence only, if they were taught about the risk of Aids, and then asked to keep their hands raised if they still had unprotected sex. A lot left their hands up.
yes, the teaching of abstinence, with prevention and protection works better all the way around.
Holy cow this place looks different!
I spruced it up for your homecoming. ;)
It’s good to know he stated his intentions regarding this yesterday.
As much as some groups in this state tried to prove abstinence only worked by presenting only partial statistics it doesn’t work, we know it now.
Attaching funding to abstinence only was the worse kind of blackmail.
kait’s last blog post..Filene’s Closing
See g’s stem cell post too.
So far I’m happy with what the first days. That can change on a dime though.
I can’t imagine anyone having the right to tell me what to do with my body.
We may not have hit the jack-pot but it looks like we at least have a candy filled Easter egg.
g’s last blog post..Looking Brighter Already
Candy filled Easter egg – I like that. That is how I feel.
So glad you blogged about this.
It’s nice to read something with a little substance once in a while.
It good to alternate fluff with stuff, I think.
Change, it is a coming… starting with the removal of that stupid gag order for Africa and other countries.
My friend just posted about the stem cell thing too. I am rather surprised so much in such a short period of time. I rather think, though I know the purpose of two bodies is to make things go slow so nothing is done impulsively, that much of what happens in government should be done a little quicker.
loved this sentence While you are giving back rights to the world, please leave our rights alone.
Roe happened when I was in my early 20′s. NY had abortion for two years prior to that. I find it unbelievable that any of this is still a subject people find worthy debating. That people believe real life begins at conception
it hard for me to imagine really, as it’s always been that way for me.
Every time I click out of my reader, your site looks different!!!
Great post. It’s thrilling to feel the potential for progress, I’d hate to see our country also step backwards.
Tristan | the almost right word’s last blog post..the a.r.w.’s Top Five Albums of 2008
Yea I have yet to find the “it’s me” template I had when I was at blogger, or maybe this is because I never played with dolls and this is an exercise like dressing up dolls would be.
But — what the hell are we gonna do about the Supreme(ly stupid) Court???
Paul Malden’s last blog post..Passing Notes
I’m going to leave that to you.
I have a lot of hopes for this president, but foremost among them would be to bring back a person’s basic right to choose for himself or herself what’s best. Whether that’s who to marry or what to do with their body, it’s all the same. The more you take away from a person the more desperate they become and that’s never a good situation to leave someone in.
mojo shivers’s last blog post..Slow Down, Please, Slow Down, I Need To Find Peace Anywhere In Me, I Feel Like I’m Under Water, Struggling To Get Air
You and me both mojo.
Great post – just hope Obama makes the necessary changes.
Hey, Malcolm, thanks for stopping by.
Great post! I’m so hopeful about the way President Obama (I love typing that–President Obama)immediately lifted the gag rule. It’s a wonderful sign.
actonbell’s last blog post..Be Happy on January 23
You and me both. I imagine a lot of us are happy but holding our breath.
I’m late but the affect is the same. Nice work. I’m hopeful. Yes I am.
You have a very good point about the conditions we’ve attached to AIDS funding in Africa. What on earth were they thanking?
jacob’s last blog post..Freezing Friday