(Inspired by a Star Tribune Article:
Twin Cities gets abortion message on 18 wheels)
When I was in high school, the senior health class was some bullshit thing called family living. What this white trash suburban school needed was frank discussions about how to get a job without a college degree, how to balance your check book, and the horrors of credit cards. What we got were speakers from different agencies on good days and study hall the rest of the year.
I will give my school credit for one thing. When it came time to talk about reproductive health (again, we'd already had this twice in our school experience) they had a speaker from Planned Parenthood come one day, and some anti-abortion group another day. The Planned Parenthood speaker was amazing; candid; informative; personable; deserving of trust and admiration. The anti-abortion person just sat and showed videos of mangled fetuses (feti?).
Granted, I'd already made my decision that I thought a woman had a right to choose, but to this day I don't understand why they think it's the best way to sell their message. Pro-choice people don't run around showing pictures of the women and children who have horrible lives and horrible deaths simply because they've carried their babies to term. Sure, Unicef shows that, but theoretically our nation is so rich and safe that no one ever starves or gets beaten. These pro-life folks seem to think that every baby, by the miracle of god and birth, once born is clothed in Baby Gap, placed in a pink or blue bassinet, fed the finest food and drink available and raised by none other than Dr. Spock himself.
I'm not saying that the state of parenthood is in a total shambles, but let's give people the benefit of the doubt that they know whether or not they they have the resources to raise a child. Those that scream, "adoption is an option", seem to forget that for some people, it's just as dangerous and damaging to carry a baby to term as it is to carry a baby for 18 years.
If by some horrible horrible political move, we lose the right to choose, then the damned well better get universal health care and permanent dole for those that would have aborted for all the right reasons but are now forced to carry.
Anyway, if you're reading this and you're pro-life, please try to convince your cohorts to find a better way to spread your message than driving an 18 wheeler through downtown festooned with mangled babies, eh? If you just once came up with a real life argument instead of a grisley picture, I'd listen and consider it. Until that day, I'm going to have to categorize you as nuts and the pro-choice people as sane.
Sigh.
