Letters to the Editor
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Christian fascism on the march
Its clear the a move to ban birth control is merely another form of social control being pushed by the religeous extremists in the "land of the free". Is there any difference between the likes of Ms. Worthington and the religeous police of such havens of freedom as Saudi Arabia?
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Irony or hypocrisy, not sure which
I checked out one of the websites (Quiverfull) and found a picture of the founder and his family. Obviously they are a mixed-race couple. Am I the only one who finds this ironic? This couple is enjoying the freedom to create a family of their choice, while using Bible verses to deny everyone else a similar choice.
The kicker of course is that interracial marriage was soundly criticized by generations of "Christians", using rhetoric as nonsensical as that of the anti-birth control activists.
On the bright side: maybe this will wake up some of those in the Republican party who remember when it was the party of small government, not the party of the radical right. Maybe,.
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What is really "bogus"
Using bogus fearmongering to scare women about the "dangers" of a tiny group of anti-contraception cranks, Salon fights for a culture in which scare-tactics create interest in a stupid, manufactured story.
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An "antidote for demographic collapse"
The article makes little mention of another purpose behind limiting contraception- a straightforward desire for more babies and bigger families to combat focused breeding in non-Christian nations. A top-level article on noroomforcontraception.com by Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D. refers to the West's demographic death spiral and includes the sentence:
Without [mothers'] contribution of a healthy, functioning next generation, all the strength of the U.S. military won’t be enough to protect us from the primal force of Islam that believes in itself enough to replace itself.
Limiting contraception is a lot of things; it's also apparently an important tactic in the religious clash between Christianity and Islam.
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TV Ads
Here in the Midwest, there have been a number of televised ads promoting "natural" birth control, i.e. the rhythm method. The clear implication in the ads is that other forms of contraception are somehow untested, dangerous, or at least contrary to nature.
I note that the "One More Soul" website is promoting the "Feast of the Annunciation" on its home page. Clearly, some segment of the Catholic Church is behind this drive. The Catholic Church has never been reluctant to use civil law to enforce its own version of personal morality. This includes not only birth control and abortion but other issues such as forbidding divorce and requiring stores and shops to close on Sunday.
A lot of folks may be too young to remember that contraception was once illegal and criminal in most states. A Supreme Court decision based on a constitutional "right of privacy" overturned these laws. There are likely some out there who would like to return to the days when contraception was a criminal act.
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Life in Texas
This is in response to Appoggiatura's statement: "Using bogus fearmongering to scare women about the 'dangers' of a tiny group of anti-contraception cranks, Salon fights for a culture in which scare-tactics create interest in a stupid, manufactured story."
Try living in a town where a pharmacist denied emergency contraception to a rape victim and very close to another town where another pharmacist refused to dispense standard birth control pills to a married woman. There are certain parts of the U.S. where the "tiny group of anti-contraception cranks" are making it very difficult for women to receive legal, doctor-prescribed medications. Even worse: imagine living in a small town with just one local pharmacy, run by one of these right-wing fascists. Maybe most of this country doesn't have to worry about this issue, but some of us indeed do have a cause for concern.
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mixed race marriage and "godly" families
Quiverfull's pages do depict a mixed race couple. I am old enough to remember when it was illegal for mixed race couples to marry let alone secure an apartment or a loan for a home.
Since the Supreme Court recognized a mixed race couple's right to marry, to have housing, it is indeed ironic that these folks now have a Supreme Court that may ban abortion.
These folks aren't going to stop there. They want us all to engage in sexual intercourse to have children.
How come we are supposed to protect their rights while they work against ours?
And if people are angry about this turn of events they have their own laziness and ignorance to thank. Get off your asses and vote!
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snip it
I hope that this piece inspires men to have vasectomies, which are a form of birth control that have no discernable downside. I had one in my early thirties (I'm 43 now), without having first fathered any children, and the choice was an excellent one. Adopt a kid if you want to and are able, but please recognize that there are plenty of humans here already, and give women a break while you're at it; hormonally based contraception seems like a drag, no?
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Let's lay it on the table.
Let's stop being kind and gentle about this kind of thing and call it what it is on its face: bollocks. Complete and utter idiocy.
There is just no other word for it. These people are idiots, hypocrites and bald-faced liars. There are few things horrible enough to shiver and shake the very foundations of our humanity.
Forced motherhood is one of them.
So long as these people argue for women to be forced to birth unwanted babies, they will disgust me. I used to be a Catholic, then I grew up.
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outsourcing cannon fodder
as one person pointed out, one of the arguments for having large families is to provide combat fodder for future conflicts. I say, let's outsource soldiers the same way we have virtually everything else to China. They will have tens of millions of young men that have no chance of having a wife so by making them our soldiers for a reasonable fee might be a good solution for for both the US and China.we don't need to breed enough of our own young healthy intelligent adults for killing off and they don't need to worry about having girl children contaminating their culture.