On voting to Lower Abortion Rates
Open Letter to Catholic Voters
Abstinence is a Myth
On Voting to Lower Abortion Rates
Don't count on anyone who claims to be the "Pro-Life Party" - it just doesn't work that way...A relative recently asked me why I am actively against our war which has killed 655,000 Iraqis yet "turn a blind eye" to the abortion issue? First, I assured her that I am against any and all killing, and an advocate for adoption, but I feel that the war is a more immediately controllable issue. One that our government started - and must end.
As far as abortion is concerned, does the fact that over 1 million fetuses are aborted each year in the United States bother me? Of course. I'm quite sure that it bothers anyone with a conscience (even those evil Pro-Choice people). I am also bothered by the fact that 30,000 kids die each day globally because of hunger or hunger-related illnesses. And the 9,000 people who die each day from AIDS.
Republicans proclaim, "Vote for us because we are anti-abortion. We are the Pro-Life party..." While they frame the Democrats as pro-abortion - baby killers. Yet when elected, the issue is not effectively addressed.
It's like someone gave you a set of movie tickets because you gave them your vote. When you arrive at the theater with your date you’re told the tickets are worthless. You've been duped. And, the guy still has your vote - you can't get it back.
The approach of promising to make abortion illegal is ineffective on two levels. First, the promise is seldom acted upon. But, more importantly, it doesn't address the ROOT CAUSES of abortion. Outlawing abortion would be just as effective as making illicit drugs illegal. Drug use is still epidemic. Underage drinking is illegal – but still rampant…
Essential to bringing the abortion rate (or any troublesome issue for that matter) under control, is not to make it illegal - but to LOOK AT THE UNDERLYING CIRCUMSTANCES that cause the problem in the first place.
Looking at just one set of the many statistics on abortion, one can easily discover the underlying issues that force a decision to abort:
Two-thirds of women who have abortions say they do not see how they could afford to raise the child. The 30-year trend confirms this. Abortion rates move in tandem with unemployment rates of women over the last 30 years. Black and Latina women tend to be poorer and more unemployed - their abortion rates are two to three times higher than white women.
What can you determine from these statistics? That poverty and/or unemployment are important underlying issues in the abortion issue.
So, when you're searching your soul for your RESPONSIBLE VOTE TO END ABORTION, ask candidates if they are working to ensure a living wage for American families. Look for a party platform that demonstrates a desire to end poverty. Look for voting records more in line with the interests of the lower and middle classes. Look for social programs that support the mother and baby AFTER the baby is born.
Let's all do our homework before we step into the voting booth. Then we can cast a vote that is REALLY Pro-Life.
- Tim Nyberg
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Thank God some people of faith are finally speaking up in a manner that actually makes sense. Here is an open letter from the National Association of Catholic Nuns (NACN) http://www.ncan.us/
An Open Letter To Catholic Voters
The Board of the National Coalition of American Nuns strongly encourages all Catholic citizens to vote their own consciences in the November elections.
In their 2004 document Faithful Citizenship, the U.S. Catholic Bishops urged us not to be single-issue voters and to "act on our faith in political life." This is what all of us try to do - to live and act as Jesus did. We realize that not everyone who reads the gospels will arrive at the same conclusions, but we hope that our votes will be informed by some of the following principles:
1. Jesus encouraged us to love our enemies and not to repay violence with violence. We believe that we as individuals should not respond to others with violence, and that as a nation, we must attempt to solve conflicts by diplomatic means rather than by untimely recourse to war. Therefore we recommend that:
a. no war shall be waged without verifiable information, sufficient debate, and the informed consent of 2/3 of the members of Congress;
b. no pre-emptive war or wars, especially those with aerial bombardment causing extensive deaths and injuries to civilians, will ever be undertaken;
c. our legislative bodies pass loophole-free laws which will make the acquisition and ownership of firearms extremely difficult with severe penalties attached to disregarding these laws.
d. conscientious objector status be available and honored for those whose conscience precludes their participation or continuance in any particular war;
e. our school systems train students in a nonviolent response to conflict.
2. As descendants of generations of immigrants, we want today's arrivals at our borders to be received with compassion and regard for their dignity and to be treated as we would want our own family members treated.
3. We encourage respect for the moral adulthood of women and will choose legislators who will recognize the right of women to make reproductive decisions and receive medical treatment according to the rights of privacy and conscience.
4. We believe that citizens in committed relationships - whether marriages or civil unions - should retain all rights consonant with their state including, but not limited to, adoption of children, ownership of property, inheritance, health, and end-of-life decisions.
5. We believe all children should be safe from sexual predators in their homes, schools, churches, in government offices and on the Internet. Severe penalties should be levied on those who abuse this trust. Statutes of limitations must recognize that the traumatizing effects of such abuse can remain hidden for years.
6. We call for the end of the system of apartheid, so called by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in Israel and Palestine.
7. We pledge ourselves to initiate, invite, and support deepening actions on behalf of social justice, particularly as these impact women, racial/ethnic minorities, and gay or lesbian persons.
WE INSIST THAT LEGISLATORS AND VOTERS ALIKE CAST THEIR VOTES IN ACCORDANCE WITH THEIR CONSCIENCES AND DEEPLY-HELD VALUES WITHOUT INCURRING SACRAMENTAL PENALTIES BASED ON THEIR VOTING RECORDS.
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Brits: Abstinence is a myth
By Melissa McEwan
Posted on December 1, 2006, Printed on December 2, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/mcewan/45000/
A hearty thank-you to Britain's Telegraph for reporting so bluntly on American research revealing the failure of American abstinence programs:
Sexual abstinence as an effective tool in reducing teenage pregnancy is a complete "myth", the Government's advisory body on the issue claimed yesterday.
The Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy said that research from the United States showed that contraception was the way to bring down rates. Researchers from Columbia University and the Guttmacher Institute examined the relative roles of abstinence and contraceptive use in the "remarkable decline" in US teenage pregnancy rates, which dropped 27 per cent from 1991 to 2000. They said that 86 per cent of the decline in teenage pregnancy was due to improved use of contraception.
Only 14 per cent of the drop amongst 15- to 19-year-olds was linked to reduced sexual activity, according to the study, published in the latest edition of the American Journal of Public Health.
Much obliged for the factual and uncompromised-by-faux-"two sides"-objectivity reporting, Britain!
And if that didn't blow your mind, check out what Gill Frances, the chair of the governmental advisory group, concluded from this information: "Providing young people with good information, advice and contraceptive services, is the way to reduce teenage pregnancy. It is a myth that abstinence is a better approach and this US study confirms it."
Yoinks. It must be awesome to live in a real country run by grown-ups.
Melissa McEwan writes and edits the blog Shakespeare's Sister.
© 2006 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/mcewan/45000/
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Reference links you may find helpful:
Pro Life Statistics - Stassen, Sojourners
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