Thursday, July 17th 2008

The Truth:  Miscellaneous

Pulling Out = Murder

By Johnny Firecloud

That’s right, baby killers! The next time you’re tempted to make your girlfriend’s face look like it just went through a Krispy Kreme glazer, you might want to think about the heavenly soul you’re blocking from entering this world. Or the fact that, according to our president, you’re going to hell for it.

The Bush administration has just threatened all health organizations and facilities, including women’s clinics, declaring that they would no longer receive federal funding if they choose not to hire nurses and other employees who refuse to perform abortions or offer birth control. In other words, if Planned Parenthood wants to keep legitimately helping millions of teens each year, it has to agree to hire people who object to doing just that. Either that, or they need to polish up on their conversational skills, ’cause that’s all they’ll be able to offer.

Bush’s proposal, citing a 2001 Zogby poll, defines abortion as any drug, procedure or action that “results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation.”  

Birth control prevents conception. I think we’re all in agreement there. But calling it abortion because implantation of a fertilized egg does not take place is about as psychotically absurd as it gets. Under that same definition, menstruation is abortion. So is pulling out. No sense even talking about condoms.

Last fall, a congressional report declared that abstinence-only education fed students false information about pregnancy and birth control, and that the entire objective was essentially a failure. ”At this point we’ve spent more than a billion dollars on this program that was never proven in the first place,” said Heather Boonstra, a public policy analyst at the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization that specializes in reproductive health issues. 

It’s not about biblical doctrines or evangelical moralistic objectives- this is a matter of control. Control over any sense of sexual empowerment and freedom a woman has. Control over the science-rejecting, fact-raping ideology this administration has come to be defined by. The evidence is clear in the constant attacks on sex, sexual freedom, and reproductive rights we’ve seen in this country.

The fact that the Bush administration’s policies on the issue have been proven time and again to be absolutely useless against sexual activity among teens, unwanted pregnancies, teen pregnancies and STDs is an afterthought. When people’s imaginations and sexual repressions get involved, everything gets fucking crazy. Why educate people on their options and alternatives when you can just point to a book of fairytales about demons ripping you apart for all eternity? No sense doing any of your own homework or getting science involved. Why bother with strange, filthy words like spermicidal lubricant or intrauterine devices when the Bible lays out all the rules, plain and simple? Granted, the argument would then be made for us that casual rape, child & spousal abuse and polygamy are perfectly reasonable, but that’s beside the point. What? God also sends bears to eat dozens of little children in the Bible? And says gays and adulterers should be put to death, as well as the people godless enough to work on Sunday? Damn, Dubya, you’ve been slacking.

Bush was elected largely on the wings of those that believe the literal word of the Bible to be 100% true. It will be that same group who makes sure that if McCain’s elected in November he’ll keep his promise to stack the judicial decks and overturn Roe V. Wade. Abortion would be criminalized faster than you could say “coathanger.”  

186 days.