Wonderland or Not

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