Monday, May 20, 2013

"Kermit the Fraud" (horrible title I know, but I couldn't help myself)

If you haven't heard the name "Kermit Gosnell," then you're probably not paying attention to the news. So if that's the case, let me give you a quick summary of this grizzly story.

Gosnell was a "doctor" in Philadelphia who provided late-term abortions for women. Long story short, he occasionally just delivered babies and killed them post-birth (that's called "infanticide" - not "abortion"). He also killed women from lack of appropriate medical care and seemed to have no standards for basic medical hygiene. The whole thing sounds horrific, and it is.

But does this horror exemplify how awful abortion clinics are?

No. Quite the opposite. This case exemplifies everything that is wrong with abortion restrictions.

Prior to Roe v. Wade, this kind of scenario was common. Since abortion wasn't legal, women would resort to illegal abortions that were often performed by incompetent people in filthy conditions.  It would not have been uncommon in these cases for a woman to die from complications of the abortion. Many of these women were already mothers, who left several other children motherless.

When women don't have access to legal, safe abortion, they will instead turn to illegal butchers like Gosnell. And if they are not able to access first-term abortions because of draconian restrictions on their ability to do so, then they will seek out illegal, late-term abortions.  Similarly, if women get no assistance in paying for first-trimester abortions, they will likely wait until they've saved up enough money (if that's even possible) and will be in their 2nd or 3rd trimester before they have their abortion.

If we really and truly want to stop people like Gosnell, and not just make ourselves feel better, we need to ensure that women actually have ACCESS to the full range of reproductive services to begin with. Implying that people like Gosnell are a product of legalized abortion is just false. On the contrary, he and his ilk are products of the severely reduced access to abortion that faces the low-income women of this country. And until we change that, we will continue to see people like Gosnell fill the void.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

The Sky is NOT Falling

It's funny. I drove in to work this morning and didn't see any houses repainted in rainbow colors. No children being forcibly removed from their parents.  No gay people having naked parades in the streets. I didn't get a notice from my son's school that they would henceforth be teaching the kids how to have the gay sex, nor did I see any churches burning down. 

You'd almost think that Minnesota's marriage equality law didn't pass yesterday. I mean, things just seem so "normal." I don't get it.

I guess the bill doesn't actually get signed until tonight, and the law won't go into effect until this August, so maybe the sky will start falling this summer instead.

Of course, this is really going to change things for my family. Now that "gay marriage" is the law of the land, my own hetero-marriage no longer means anything, so I guess we'll be getting a divorce. He will instead marry a man, and I will marry a woman.  It won't be long before our son comes home and tells us his teacher has picked out a boyfriend for him in his third-grade classroom.

And now that I have to actually explain the gays to the kids, they are going to be so confused and wonder why they even need a mom or dad. After all, the only reason we got married and had a family in the first place is because Jesus told us to. Now I just don't understand what it all meant.

I suppose now my best friend's wedding this summer will be cancelled so she can find a suitable woman to marry instead. I hope she keeps the same bridesmaid dresses though, because I already put a down payment on mine.

Yes, many, many changes are coming. It's going to be insane. You'll see. Just wait until the gays start taking over. It's going to be mass chaos on every level. Just you wait. . . .