two kingdoms, hundreds of thousands of miles
The Washington Post reports that the National Abstinence Education Association is campaigning to elect officials who will spend government money on abstinence education. The first time I read the first paragraph, it almost sounded like abstinence was a “controversial approach”:
Proponents of sex education programs that focus on encouraging abstinence are launching a nationwide campaign aimed at enlisting 1 million parents to support the controversial approach.
CNSNews reports that a Colorado Constitutional amendment, called the Unborn Personhood Amendment, is going on the Nov. 4. ballot. It would define a person as “any human being from the moment of fertilization.”
If approved by voters next fall, the amendment would guarantee every person, at every stage of life, the right to life, liberty, equality of justice and due process of law, Burton said. And while the initiative would not make abortion illegal, supporters and opponents alike believe it could lay the legal framework to legislate against abortion.“For the first time in 40 years of ‘legalized’ child killing, pro-lifers have moved an entire state to consider the God-given right to life of the unborn,” said Brian Rohrbough, president of American Right to Life, in a statement of his own on Thursday.
I am pretty much as pro-life you can get. I’ve never seen a baby that chose which parents conceived it, so it shouldn’t have to suffer because of that. I realize that the current abortion exception of “the health of the mother” can be stretched to mean she was inconvenienced from playing sports, but I am curious about ectopic pregnancies which do endanger the mom. Will there have to be a judge to approve it?
On the Civil Religion blog of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kim Wallis posts several things about her pro-choice thinking which bear analysis.
Right off the bat, though, she starts with a blanket statement about her side that is refuted by evidence:
And I just want to put this out there: nobody is pro-abortion. Regardless of when you believe that life begins, nobody is advocating or encouraging abortions.
I would like to believe that. Unfortunately we have abortion groups putting on “Screw Abstinence” parties, thus engaging in the behavior that leads to more abortions.
Wallis, a Jew, provides links that state that Jewish law doesn’t consider fetuses children until they are born, yet from her own experience she believes that she felt life in her womb sooner. That is a commendable admission.
The Christian Post reports that Ohio Governor Ted Strickland has signed a bill requiring ultrasounds and counseling for abortion seekers.
According to a 2004 study done by A Women’s Concern (AWC), an organization dedicated to “compassionate peer-counseling to women and couples who are making decisions about unintended pregnancies,” less than a fourth of women chose to pursue an abortion after they were given ultrasounds and made clear their available alternatives to abortion.“This bill is reflective of a national trend that recognizes the ability of ultrasound technology to provide mothers with the opportunity to see the development of their unborn child in real-time,” commented Mary Spaulding Balch, pro-life attorney an
This is intriguing. A full abortion ban, it is argued, forces seekers underground, but this keeps it out in the open and convinces 3 out of 4 moms to keep baby. Is discovery more effective than the ban?
ABC News reports that the United Kingdom is taking up legislation that would make it illegal for IVF couples to choose which child among their embryos will be carried to term, depending on the results of the embryos’ genetic screening.
Discussion of the ban has brought up an interesting fact: deaf parents have been deliberately selecting potentially deaf children. I could possibly imagine how deaf parents may feel inadequate if they have a child who is hearing. This wouldn’t be the first time, though, where a child has different capabilities than his or her parents.
Breitbart.tv has video of Charles Barkley on CNN’s Situation Room. He announced his intent to run for governor of Alabama in 2014 as a Democrat, and he is supporting Obama for president. This is quite funny, because while Mr. Barkley was in the employ of the Phoenix Suns, he was a registered Republican because the Democrats would raise his taxes. Perhaps he isn’t making enough at TNT to feel the pain he did before.
The other major comment that Barkley makes is that conservatives are “fake Christians,” that conservatives are hypocritical because “they’re not supposed to judge other people…They act like Christians, but they are not forgiving at all.” I know the fact that Charles “I am not a role model” Barkley said this actually detracts from the charge. But, alas, he probably got the idea from somewhere else, and so it must be answered, lovingly, of course.
