*******************OFF TOPIC: ABORTION*******************
Dan, I too am troubled by the fact that anti-abortion activists, for the most part, seem at best indifferent to, at worst hostile to, education about birth control methods (including, but not limited to, abstinence). Logically, one would think that if they really abhorred abortion so much, they would welcome any reasonable alternative to it.
Some do, of course. But although I have not followed this issue very closely, I get the impression those who object to birth control education fall into two main camps.
1) Those who fear that "sex education" in the schools will increase teen-age promiscuity. I guess the argument is that merely by talking about birth control, in a non-judgmental way, the schools are saying that teenage sex is okay.
There may be some truth in that. Some sex ed courses I have heard about do indeed seem a little...um..goofy. But I personally think that we should let ourselves be guided by the "greater danger" standard: and the greater danger, it seems to me, is the reality of teenage pregnancies (many of which terminate in abortion). So birth control information must be made available to these youngsters (before it's too late), and the schools are the most logical source for it.
2) Those who oppose birth control as such, on religious grounds (largely, but not exclusively Catholics).
If you believe that sex is only for procreation, and that sex for pleasure is a sin, then of course you will object to birth control, because it makes sinning all that much easier.
Again, if you believe that "life" begins even before the fertilization of the egg, then birth control is the same as abortion.
I must say I was appalled by the spectacle of the Pope touring Africa some years ago (when was that, exactly?) denouncing birth control at every stop on the way. In fact, if I recall correctly, the crusade against birth control was the major thrust of his visit. Meanwhile, Africa was, as usual, teeming with starving and/or malnourished children....One of the reasons I was appalled is that the Pope in other areas had taken very progressive stands, but in this area his conception of sexual morality was blinding him to the reality around him, and working against the basic interests of the people he had come to serve and enlighten...
(I am not a Catholic-basher, folks; I was raised as one myself.)
jbe |
