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Stupidity Kills, Too

Posted by xJane on June 7th, 2008 at 8:00 am · 5 Comments

Today is the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision Griswald v. Connecticut, which ruled that Americans have a right to privacy under the Constitution (based upon the fact that things like “unlawful search & seizure” violate your privacy). Specifically, that married couples could practice contraception in the privacy of their homes and the State (of Connecticut) has no right to impede that practice. This is generally sited as one of the first legal rulings supporting contraception in the United States.

In order to celebrate mourn this anniversary, the American Life League has organized a new holiday: the Pill Kills Day. Christina Page over at RH Reality Check puts it perfectly:

Tired of the same-old lame protests outside of abortion clinics? Looking to impose your religious beliefs in other people’s lives in a new and exciting way? The pro-life movement would like to expand your horizons. [...]
The national day against contraception, Protest the Pill Day ’08: The Pill Kills Babies, was started to convince the American people of a simple and imaginative idea: attempting to prevent abortion is abortion too. These arguments have been confounded by diabolical scientists and experts who insistently point out there’s no evidence to support that the birth control pill works the way these groups claim. As we all know, however, if ideology waited for science to prove scientific points, our ancestors would have never have spent all those years wandering the then-flat earth.

What honestly confuses me about “pro-life” organizations is that, although they loudly claim that they’re “pro-woman”, there is no form of contraception that is acceptable to them (oh, except abstinence, and we know how well that works): not pills, not condoms, not diaphragms, well maybe anal sex… So while their stated goal is “saving pre-born babies”, their actual goal seems closer to “barefoot & pregnant in the kitchen”.

So I would like us all to celebrate Stupidity Kills, Too Day and remember that abstinenceonly education causes more harm than good and that the majority of the information provided by these kinds of groups is medically inaccurate.

Tags: Activism · Current Events · Education · Fantasy · Feminism · Gender · Sexuality

5 responses so far ↓

  • 1 wren // Jun 7, 2008 at 7:06 pm

    I’m pretty sure the radical ones don’t approve of alternative sex methods or even natural family planning. The radicals don’t even want people to do anything but the missionary position. For the radicals, the purpose of sex is reproduction and nothing more. They’re not down with George Michael’s claim that “sex is natural, sex is fun” but they do agree with him that “sex is best when it’s one on one.”

    I wonder how they feel about this guy.

  • 2 Bored in Vernal // Jun 7, 2008 at 11:59 pm

    This is actually why I have 8 children and have never used birth control. Years ago I did a lot of research and became convinced that the pill was abortifacient. I think that the lower dosage pill used today causes less breakthrough ovulation, but from what I learned, at least in some cases, the egg is fertilized.

    Anyway, I can see where they are coming from.

  • 3 John // Jun 8, 2008 at 7:48 am

    xJane, this has long been one of my biggest beefs with the American Christian antiabortion movement–that it places such overwhelming value on the life of the fetus but then comes out so strongly against both contraception and public sex ed. This communicates to me that the control of sexuality is waaaaay more important to the pro-life movement than the life of the unborn child. Even during the handful of sad little years that I was a conservative pro-lifer (I once grilled the former Republican governor of New Jersey and the Bush EPA appointee who resigned when she realized she was being undermined by the VP, Christine Todd Whitman, about her pro-choice approach), I couldn’t drink the whole pro-life Kool-Aid: I strongly advocated pro-contraception and sex education in public schools.

    Ironically (in the context of BiV’s comment), it was learning of the prevalence of natural spontaneous abortions (varies according to study, but 25% before 6 weeks is one figure for women in the U.S.) and of fertilized eggs that go unimplanted that made me reconsider the idea that god had issues with early term abortion. At the time, this caused some serious cognitive dissonance–if the life at conception was so precious, why design a system that rejected so many of them? But it made sense when I applied the principles of natural selection.

  • 4 djinn // Jun 10, 2008 at 8:13 am

    More uptodate information puts the rate of natural spontaneous abortion at between 60 and 80% of all pregnancies.

    Survival probability of human conceptions from fertilization to term.
    AU Boklage CE
    SO Int J Fertil 1990 Mar-Apr;35(2):75, 79-80, 81-94.

    Preterm death of the human conceptus is common. A consistent biphasic pattern in the rate of loss from biochemical pregnancy detection to term suggests that most wastage occurs prior to clinical recognition. After simple adjustments for varying methods, existing data show that at least 73% of natural single conceptions have no real chance of surviving 6 weeks of gestation. Of the remainder, about 90% will survive to term.

  • 5 xJane // Jun 10, 2008 at 8:56 pm

    wren: that was a pretty funny story. I would say that he was not “having sex with” a picnic table but that he was “masturbating with” [the aid of] a picnic table. Maybe I’m drawing fine lines but it seems to me that inanimate objects can’t really have sex with animate ones. If so, I’ve had many more partners than just my husband (and I keep them in a drawer…). Although it also sounds as though he was in his backyard. And proximity to school notwithstanding, I totally support the ability of a person to be naked in their own backyard. And certainly to masturbate (in the privacy of their own homes, which I include the backyard in) with whatever inanimate objects they desire. Also: where did you find that story…?

    BiV: I’d like to explore this issue of the pill as abortificant. How do you define abortion? Does your view of the pill as abortificant have anything to do with ensoulment? Generally, the argument against the pill being an abortificant involves discussion of the fact that it doesn’t expel, merely disallows implantation. Any expulsion happens during withdrawal bleeding (the placebo week); would a non-withdrawal pill (like Seasonale) solve this issue for you? What are your views on condoms/barrier or other forms of birth control?

    I’m not trying to single you out or attack you, these questions are asked in honest desire for dialog. It’s rare that I can participate in such with a reasonable party (family members often degenerate to personal attacks) or in a safe space (which I would hope this is for you as well as me). You are welcome to respond via email if you’d rather (xenocideJane gmail).

    John: the argument that it-happens-naturally was never a compelling one for me. The same argument could be made for murder: people die naturally, so slipping a knife into someone’s ribs is no different. But the way you put it, viewed from the point of an omnipotent being who invented the system, I can see how it would be compelling (to those who believe in the omnipotent being). Monty Python comes to mind, of course.

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