Friday, December 10, 2004

Post With Redeeming Social Value v. I (As promised to my mom)

I volunteer once a month at the Planned Parenthood as a clinic escort. Escorts make sure that people have unfettered access to the clinic and that the christo-crazies who stand out on the streets can't scare women with their "medical" brochures and brutally fabricated pictures. (WWJP-What Would Jesus Photoshop?)

This Saturday I was called the following things by these little lambs of god: "scumbag piece of shit", "souless devil", "murderer", and "probably a Jeeeew". They also said they'd poisoned my coffee with strychnine and arsenic.

So much for the "culture of life" they're always talking about.

These people make me crazy. It's so unbelievably nonsensical- they don't believe in sex ed, family planning, abortion, or (and here's the real bitch of the thing) welfare. They won't teach you about sex or how to prevent a pregnancy, they won't let you terminate it when you do get pregnant, but neither will they pay into a system to help support a child they've forced into the world. The disconnect in the logic is so enormous it's like someone who's asked a yes or no question looking at you and earnestly responding, "sandwich".

I believe in plurality and in discourse. I believe that people have a right to question, to argue, to protest and to fight for what they believe in- even if it's diametrically opposed to the things I fight for and believe in. The problem arises when one person belief's preclude any other. I don't take issue with someone who's faith informs their behavior- but I do take issue when this person's faith starts informing them of what the hell I should or shouldn't be doing.

You can be anti-abortion without being anti-choice. And as the debate heats up over the coming months and years I think we need to re-evaluate the way we talk about it. If you don't believe in abortion then DON"T HAVE ONE. Anti-abortion is not a problem- anti-choice is. And it's not just abortion that's the issue. By not allowing real sex ed in schools, by pushing this abstinence only shit- people's lives are put at risk. Do these people really think that not showing kids how to use condoms is going to stop them from fucking? No- all its going to do is stop them from fucking with condoms.

If you haven't visited this site- I beg you, I implore you, I insist that you do. The Planned Parenthood Action Network gives people an easy (read: lazy-proof) way to send e-mails and faxes to their member of Congress on issues relating to family planning, sex education, and reproductive health.

Look at it this way: We have an evangelical president, a conservative congress, and impending vacancies on the Supreme Court. Either pay attention and get involved now, or warm up to the idea of wire hangers and wearing two rubbers for the rest of your life.

Seems like an easy choice to me....



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