Sexual Repression, American Style
I was really upset at the news contained in this Star Tribune editorial:
For as long as he's occupied the White House, President Bush has been denying U.S. funding to the U.N. Population Fund, an agency which is generally thought to have averted more abortions, assured more safe births and saved the lives of more mothers and infants than any other entity on Earth. By denying it U.S. funding, Bush is fueling the very fire he wants to extinguish: abortion.
This UN agency provides contraceptive and other reproductive health advice to women in developing countries, especially in those countries where women traditionally have few rights. Burdening them with unwanted pregnancies and keeping them ignorant on such issues as pre-natal and post-natal care only adds to the hopelessness of those women and their children and their nations.
The surest way to reduce all these troubling numbers is to guarantee that women everywhere have access to contraception and other reproductive health services. Yet as the UNFPA notes, nearly a quarter-billion women lack such access -- virtually all of them in developing countries.
The President and his Administration, hopelessly mired in the rhetoric of the Religious Reich, have refused our share of funds to this agency which has aggressively worked to stop the policies of such nations as China which required abortions in the past in addition to providing vitally needed assistance which prevents conception. The result?
More abortions, more hopeless families, and, quite probably, more "insurgents" and "terrorists." Why? Because some folks are having sex and have to pay the price.
I think this not only mean-spirited but also obscene. I also believe that this philosophy is also, at its root, quite anti-Christian.
For as long as he's occupied the White House, President Bush has been denying U.S. funding to the U.N. Population Fund, an agency which is generally thought to have averted more abortions, assured more safe births and saved the lives of more mothers and infants than any other entity on Earth. By denying it U.S. funding, Bush is fueling the very fire he wants to extinguish: abortion.
This UN agency provides contraceptive and other reproductive health advice to women in developing countries, especially in those countries where women traditionally have few rights. Burdening them with unwanted pregnancies and keeping them ignorant on such issues as pre-natal and post-natal care only adds to the hopelessness of those women and their children and their nations.
The surest way to reduce all these troubling numbers is to guarantee that women everywhere have access to contraception and other reproductive health services. Yet as the UNFPA notes, nearly a quarter-billion women lack such access -- virtually all of them in developing countries.
The President and his Administration, hopelessly mired in the rhetoric of the Religious Reich, have refused our share of funds to this agency which has aggressively worked to stop the policies of such nations as China which required abortions in the past in addition to providing vitally needed assistance which prevents conception. The result?
More abortions, more hopeless families, and, quite probably, more "insurgents" and "terrorists." Why? Because some folks are having sex and have to pay the price.
I think this not only mean-spirited but also obscene. I also believe that this philosophy is also, at its root, quite anti-Christian.
posted by Diane at 4:03 PM
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