So You Want to End Abortion…

There are many people in this country and around the world who believe that abortion is both illegal and immoral. If this is what you believe, this is what has to be done to stop it entirely.

• Teach our boys and men to respect women.
• Break down all of the boundaries that still prevent females from achieving everything they want to achieve. An educated woman with a solid career is more likely to have a child when she is financially and emotionally ready to be a mother.
• Upon reaching puberty, all boys are required by law to have a vasectomy. When they have proven that they can properly take care of their offspring, the vasectomy is reversed.
• If an unplanned pregnancy occurs (whether via wanted or unwanted sex) and the man refuses to take responsibility, use law enforcement to ensure that both the mother and child are taken care of until the child turns eighteen. If he still refuses, cut his junk off.
• Ensure that every child is given age-appropriate sex education.
• Make birth control easily accessible without charging an arm and a leg.
• Ensure that every pregnant woman has easy access to affordable and reliable medical care until she gives birth. After the baby is born, make sure that the parents can do the same for pediatric care.
• If the mother and/or parents are in a financial/employment bind, the government is responsible for providing additional support. This includes housing, food, etc.
• Reduce the cost of daycare to be proportional to the salaries of the adults in the home.
• From the moment they are born, each child is guaranteed a well-balanced education from pre-school all the way up to college. If they choose to go for an advanced degree, that is on them.
• If the youngster is unable to be raised within the bosom of their family and has to be put into social services, remove the identity labels that prevent some from fostering and/or adopting the minor.
• Add mental health screenings as part of the regular medical checkup. If there is supplemental help is needed, it is marked as preventative by the health insurance companies and charged as such.
• If abortion is determined as necessary by a medical health professional, give the family room to consider their options and do not judge them if the decision is made to end the pregnancy.

P.S. Did you hear that a good amount of Republicans in the Senate voted no on a bill that would help with the baby formula shortage? So much for pro-life.

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Domestic Supply of Infants is Not That Hard to Understand

The difference between being seen as breeding stock and a fully-fledged human being with responsibilities, dreams, ambitions, etc comes down to one word: rights.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito made a very damning and unnerving statement in the body of the leaked draft of the opinion that could potentially overturn Roe V. Wade. Buried in the footnotes is a quote from a 2002 CDC report about adoption within the United States.

“Whereas the domestic supply of infants relinquished at birth or within the first month of life and available to be adopted has become virtually nonexistent.”

I’m going to let NY Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and the late George Carlin take it from here.

What bothers me are two things. The first thing is that it opens the door to a slippery slope. Abortion is low-hanging fruit to these people. What’s next? Losing access to birth control? Taking away the ability to marry for LGBTQ couples and biracial couples? Undoing the 19th amendment and the 14th amendment?

The second thing is that this opinion is based on rulings that are centuries old. I’m not a lawyer, but it seems to me that they are grasping at straws, finding any legal theory (even the archaic ones) that they believe will support their cause.

Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about SCOTUS judges. Their appointments are for life. But we can vote for Democrats at every level. They are the only ones who are both working for the people of this nation and fighting for the freedoms that we all hold dear.

Throwback Thursday-Cheaper by the Dozen (1950)

Our families are at the core of our societies. It is not a stretch to say that stories about families continue to appeal to us generation after generation.

Cheaper by the Dozen premiered in 1950. Based on the book of the same name, the film starred Clifton Webb and Myrna Loy, the film told the story of the Gilbreth family and their brood of 12 children. Living in Montclair, New Jersey in the early 20th century, parents Frank Sr. and Lillian both work as engineers. Their professional training extends to their home life, as everything is done to maximum efficiency. But this is starting not to sit well with their older daughters, who are eager to stretch their wings outside of the family nest.

There are certain movies from this period that modern audiences go back to again and again because they have a timeless quality to them. In a sense, this movie is timeless, but there are scenes that are definitely showing the film’s age.

Do I recommend it? Maybe. As much as I adore some movies from the ’50s, this film is not one of my favorites.

By the way, the movie was remade in 2003 starring Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt. It is as bad as one might expect it to be.

A Note For Viagra? I Love It!

I love it when the tables are turned, especially on men who think they can make an arbitrary decision about a woman’s life choices.

In Kentucky, State Legislator Mary Lou Marzian has come up with a new way to turn on the tables on men who want to tell women if they have the right to an abortion or birth control.

She has proposed a bill that states that if a male needs drugs to deal with erectile dysfunction, he cannot simply receive a prescription and go to the local pharmacy. First, two doctors have to sign off the prescription. Then his wife has to provide written consent and finally, he must swear on a bible that the only person he is using the drugs to have sexual relations with is his spouse. And of course, the cherry on top is that the man must be married.

Only time will tell if the bill is actually written into the law books. Even if it is not, I still relish the thought. Perhaps now these men will think twice about making what could be life changing decisions for women.

 

Why The Hobby Lobby Supreme Court Ruling Is Wrong

During the middle of the classic 1980’s tv series, The Cosby show, an episode premiered in which the adult male characters of the show were pregnant.

The Supreme Court yesterday ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby. The ruling states any for profit company who provides their employees health coverage through the Affordable Care Act can claim religious exemption and not include FDA approved contraception under the provided health insurance.

I’ve come to the conclusion that until the day men get pregnant and have to deal with everything that comes with pregnancy, women will be fighting for the right to accessible and reasonably priced birth control. While the plot of The Cosby Show played for laughs, art does not imitate life.

Having a child is a blessing, but let’s face it, it’s not easy, nor it is cheap.

According to CNN last year, a middle class couple who had a child in 2013 will spend $241,080 from the time the child is born up to age 18. That does not include the sky rocketing cost of college and the exorbitant student loan debt that college graduates have to pay off.

Not every woman uses birth control to prevent pregnancies. Some use it to treat medical conditions.  Without the contraceptives covered until the employee health plan, that’s money  that could be going to something else and maybe time away from the office because they are too sick to work.

Salaries are not what they were. Prices are going up. What happens to the mother who cannot afford birth control because her employer does not believe in it? She goes to the government for assistance. Another child, another family dependent on tax dollars for financial support.

The fact that this ruling exists and is now law creates a dangerous precedence. If a employer can claim religious exemption when eliminating birth control from the employee health plan, what else can they deny their employees? The right to deny an employee the right to add personal touches to their work space because they don’t like what they see? The right to turn down an employee’s request to use a personal day for religious observance because the employer and employee do not see eye to eye on religion?

The Hobby Lobby ruling is wrong. No employer has the right to dictate an employee’s beliefs. Period.