Pick-A-Day

May 2008
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Oral Killing

I hadn’t realized the source of all the problems in the United States until yesterday, and Samee wanted me to write about it.

It was back on June 7, 1965, when the US Supreme Court ruled that it was okay to break the law and sell unmarried women birth control pills in Connecticut—and thusly an era in which somewhere between 200,000,000 and 300,000,000 babies have been killed. According to the American Life League’s The Pill Kills, that is.

Of course it’s rather absurd to believe this—the basic premise of their argument is the strange belief that access to birth control will encourage people to go out and get laid, even if they are not married.

The world that exists in the protestor’s minds must be fascinating because, as far as I can tell, they actually believe that people didn’t have sex outside of marriage before The Pill.

Like callow young sailors upon reaching shore in the 1770s never sought out the young lasses for a few minutes (or seconds) of thrusting affection. (Although, on the ship, I’ll assume that the sailors found each other.)

Meanwhile, back in my world, I continually notice that it’s the abstinence only educated who are far more likely to go out and get preggers—blown up bigger than a cheap dime store balloon complete with excessively judgmental fundamentalist parents who either try to beat the girl or are so ashamed that they up the stakes and move to another city.

One of the biggest problems that the judgmental religious types have is that they assume that if you’re not Pro Life, you are Pro Abortion. Here’s the thing: I am Pro-Choice, and I suspect that most pro-choice individuals are like me in that we hate abortion. I would strongly prefer that there was never another abortion—and to that end, I want The Pill made available, I want kids taught how to use condoms, and I want “unwanted” children put up for adoption.

However I realize fundamental truths: not all girls are courageous enough to get the pill; condoms are not 100% effective; and there are an awful lot of “unwanted” children who are not getting adopted.

I also know that in every country where abortion is illegal, an awful lot of women are injured or killed by botched back-alley illegal abortions.

Since we already know that prohibiting abortions doesn’t work, I prefer that it be safe, legal, and rare: educating boys and girls about safe sex and giving them free condoms and access to the pill only means that when, and if, they go out and get laid, that the odds that they will end up pregnant are a whole lot lower than the kids who are educated in the ways of abstinence only.

(The Pill Kills found via The Stranger Slog)

5 comments to Oral Killing

  • Jul

    Excellent post!

  • That’s pretty much how I feel about kids. I can’t wait until my nephew starts demanding things so I can laugh at the justice of what happened because my dad didn’t use a condom in 1975.

  • @Jul: Thanks!

    @CQ: You Schadenfreude, you…

  • Samee

    Thank you! Yes, it is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard.
    If you are anti-pill, don’t freaking take it!!! But do not tell the 15 yr old that is going to have sex anyway not to do it – because then, she’ll have sex AND a baby.
    Condoms and oral contraception do 2 different things. One prevents STDs (condom, for those of that missed 7th grade sex ed) and one prevents pregnancy(the pill, for those of you that also missed 9th grade sex ed).
    I have girlfriends on the pill that take it because of endometriosis, so they can save their changes of having children later on. I also have girlfriends that take it so they don’t pregnant.
    If you don’t like tattoos, don’t get one. If you don’t like abortions, don’t get one. And if you don’t like the pill, don’t take it!
    But for those self-righteous idiots out there… wait until your daughter gets knocked up.

  • Samee

    This kind of shameful nonsense is remniscent of the abstinence-only policy for funding international HIV/AIDS interventions and project.
    Courtesy your outgoing leader.