Some woman from Planned Parenthood is going to do some guest speaking there.
Luckily, I don't have to go (I'm in a special ed class, and I talked it over with my teachers), but still. The idea makes me upset. I doubt she'll discuss abortion, but still. Planned Parenthood. I just hope that my teacher isn't going to find another way to make me believe Planned Parenthood's dirty lies. If only people knew what they did. Lying to women. Protecting rapists. Racism. Margaret Sanger supporting eugenics. Abortion is just the tip of the iceberg.
The worst part is that I know for a fact that there are pro-lifers at my school. Can't they get someone less controversial to tell us about contraception?
--Mary
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Choice: Texas
Read this article: http://www.kvue.com/news/state/Video-game-tackling-abortion-laws-ignites-internet-firestorm-222424551.html
I have to give them credit for being creative, but I hate how abortion seems to be encouraged. Abortion isn't the only way out of a crisis pregnancy.
--Mary
I have to give them credit for being creative, but I hate how abortion seems to be encouraged. Abortion isn't the only way out of a crisis pregnancy.
--Mary
Monday, September 9, 2013
Ugh...
Why does the only pro-life camp in my area have to be for people ages 16-21? And why is it that I'll be so close to being 16 when the next camp is, but I'll still be only 15?
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Exclusion and priorities
I am very pro-life. I am also very much in favor of gay marriage. I get a lot of crap
from people because of that. It seems like most people I know of who are pro-life
are also against homosexuality, and those who are for gay rights are also pro-choice. I will find pro-life groups speaking out against homosexuality and gay marriage (even though the group doesn't advertise themselves as being against gay marriage), and groups that support marriage equality will speak out against restrictions on abortion (even though the group doesn't advertise themselves as being pro-choice). If they advertised themselves as a group that either fought for/against abortion and gay marriage, I'd be fine with it, but otherwise, it's annoying that they would assume that we all have the same views on other issues. Besides, if we want to end elective abortion, we should work together rather than fight about our differences. It's okay to acknowledge our differences or even to debate, as long as we're not excluding pro-lifers who have different views on other issues (except for anti-abortion terrorists. We can definitely exclude them).
I also think that people on both sides have some rather interesting priorities. I've noticed that conservative politicians will often support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage while believing that abortion laws should be left up to the states. I've also noticed that my church (which I only go to because my parents make me) tends to focus more on ending gay marriage than ending abortion! Why is that? Is it more important to stop two people of the same gender from getting married than it is to stop the murder of unborn children?
Many liberals tend to believe that both abortion and gay marriage are essential to equality, but sometimes I wonder if they would support legalizing the abortion of gay fetuses if there were a way to test homosexuality in the womb. I mean, there are plenty of liberals who say they support women's rights, yet they still support sex-linked abortions. What's more important, marriage equality, or control over what's inside one's uterus?
What I'm trying to say is that we shouldn't exclude people from the pro-life movement, and we should make ending elective abortion our main priority. Again, it's okay to discuss our differences or even to respectfully debate, but it's not okay if it's getting in the way of what our main priority should be.
--Mary
Note: Younglings for Life has no official stance on gay marriage. This does not mean we fight about the issue, but we may write from different perspectives (if it also relates in some way to the pro-life movement) about religion, politics, and other things, as we have different political and religious views. We don't fight about it or exclude people, but we acknowledge our differences and find ways to work together despite our differences. We want this blog to be something that all pro-lifers can relate to.
I also think that people on both sides have some rather interesting priorities. I've noticed that conservative politicians will often support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage while believing that abortion laws should be left up to the states. I've also noticed that my church (which I only go to because my parents make me) tends to focus more on ending gay marriage than ending abortion! Why is that? Is it more important to stop two people of the same gender from getting married than it is to stop the murder of unborn children?
Many liberals tend to believe that both abortion and gay marriage are essential to equality, but sometimes I wonder if they would support legalizing the abortion of gay fetuses if there were a way to test homosexuality in the womb. I mean, there are plenty of liberals who say they support women's rights, yet they still support sex-linked abortions. What's more important, marriage equality, or control over what's inside one's uterus?
What I'm trying to say is that we shouldn't exclude people from the pro-life movement, and we should make ending elective abortion our main priority. Again, it's okay to discuss our differences or even to respectfully debate, but it's not okay if it's getting in the way of what our main priority should be.
--Mary
Note: Younglings for Life has no official stance on gay marriage. This does not mean we fight about the issue, but we may write from different perspectives (if it also relates in some way to the pro-life movement) about religion, politics, and other things, as we have different political and religious views. We don't fight about it or exclude people, but we acknowledge our differences and find ways to work together despite our differences. We want this blog to be something that all pro-lifers can relate to.
When does life begin?
(A lot of this is just my personal thoughts and it may not make sense at times...)
I'm pretty sure that most, if not all of you pro-lifers would answer "at conception." But do you really believe that?
I have seen many inconsistencies within the pro-life movement about the whole "life begins at conception" thing. A major inconsistency is that many people who claim that "life begins at conception" are also in favor of certain types of birth control that are likely to keep zygotes from implanting in the uterus. Implantation and conception are two different things. I'm all for birth control that prevents conception or anything before that, but I'm against birth control that kills another person.
Then there are those people who believe life begins at quickening or at birth, but they will also fight against abortion. Which is something I don't understand. If abortion were not murder, that would take away the whole point of being pro-life.
Why is there inconsistencies and hypocrisy? I have a few ideas. One of them might be lack of knowledge about human reproduction and prenatal development. Historically, people have believed that life begins at quickening (when the baby starts moving), which may have been partly because of lack of knowledge about prenatal development. Another reason could be that people want to have control over when a human becomes a real person, whether they realize it or not. They might choose some random time for the soul to enter the body, or they may choose some random thing that automatically makes someone a person (if they don't believe in souls).
I used to not know when life began. I wanted to say "at conception," like all the other pro-lifers did, but I wasn't sure exactly what that meant. When I learned more about human reproduction, I decided that life begins at implantation. That was probably because I didn't want to believe that certain types of birth control were wrong. Shortly after that, I learned that zygotes have their own unique DNA, which made me begin to question my beliefs.
But knowing that life begins at conception means many things. It means that certain types of birth control are murder. I personally believe that we're going to be with our families in the afterlife, and if life began at conception, it would mean that there would be a lot of people in our family that we wouldn't even know about. For many people, religion has helped them cultivate their pro-life views, which is great. Because my family's religion (which I'm still not sure if I'm going to be part of when I'm older) doesn't have an official stance on when the soul enters the body, it gave me more opportunity to decide for myself when life becomes "important." But after a lot of thinking, I decided that there was no good reason for the soul to enter the body at any other time and that a lot of it was arbitrary.
I have no control over when life begins. Neither do any of us. Or else life would never begin for some people, or it would begin before conception. Why is it that, in a world where we know more about things like prenatal development, that we still fight over when life begins, or when it becomes important? Shouldn't we know this stuff?
--Mary
I'm pretty sure that most, if not all of you pro-lifers would answer "at conception." But do you really believe that?
I have seen many inconsistencies within the pro-life movement about the whole "life begins at conception" thing. A major inconsistency is that many people who claim that "life begins at conception" are also in favor of certain types of birth control that are likely to keep zygotes from implanting in the uterus. Implantation and conception are two different things. I'm all for birth control that prevents conception or anything before that, but I'm against birth control that kills another person.
Then there are those people who believe life begins at quickening or at birth, but they will also fight against abortion. Which is something I don't understand. If abortion were not murder, that would take away the whole point of being pro-life.
Why is there inconsistencies and hypocrisy? I have a few ideas. One of them might be lack of knowledge about human reproduction and prenatal development. Historically, people have believed that life begins at quickening (when the baby starts moving), which may have been partly because of lack of knowledge about prenatal development. Another reason could be that people want to have control over when a human becomes a real person, whether they realize it or not. They might choose some random time for the soul to enter the body, or they may choose some random thing that automatically makes someone a person (if they don't believe in souls).
I used to not know when life began. I wanted to say "at conception," like all the other pro-lifers did, but I wasn't sure exactly what that meant. When I learned more about human reproduction, I decided that life begins at implantation. That was probably because I didn't want to believe that certain types of birth control were wrong. Shortly after that, I learned that zygotes have their own unique DNA, which made me begin to question my beliefs.
But knowing that life begins at conception means many things. It means that certain types of birth control are murder. I personally believe that we're going to be with our families in the afterlife, and if life began at conception, it would mean that there would be a lot of people in our family that we wouldn't even know about. For many people, religion has helped them cultivate their pro-life views, which is great. Because my family's religion (which I'm still not sure if I'm going to be part of when I'm older) doesn't have an official stance on when the soul enters the body, it gave me more opportunity to decide for myself when life becomes "important." But after a lot of thinking, I decided that there was no good reason for the soul to enter the body at any other time and that a lot of it was arbitrary.
I have no control over when life begins. Neither do any of us. Or else life would never begin for some people, or it would begin before conception. Why is it that, in a world where we know more about things like prenatal development, that we still fight over when life begins, or when it becomes important? Shouldn't we know this stuff?
--Mary
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Feminist Rookies in the ProLife Ranks by Audrey
As someone who fiercely defends the preborn, people sometimes try to stereotype me as being anti-women's rights. Some might even go so far as to say I'm altogether anti-woman. That's far from the case, though.
I consider myself an empowered, liberated young woman. Someone who has strong (sometimes controversial) opinions, but isn't afraid to talk about them. My pro-life opinion on abortion doesn't come from my upbringing, religion, or any man in my life. It comes from a place of deep compassion for women in desperate situations, from a place in my heart that longs for a world where we don't call an act of violence on our own preborn children a "woman's reproductive right". I want to help create a culture that doesn't force women to choose between carrying their children to term or a career and education and then calls it liberation. I want to help create a culture where we offer nonviolent, supportive and compassionate resources for women and their children (before and after birth).
It boggles my mind that in this day and age, the average feminist is supportive of abortion “rights.” Feminism is about equality for everyone. Not "equal rights when it's convenient". True equality wouldn't make women settle for less than they deserve. It upsets me to see pro-life advocates only addressing the issue in the context of religion, or claiming that "legitimate rape" rarely results in pregnancy. I don't think the way to change hearts and minds is through alienating others. By finding common ground and connecting issues, we have a better shot at abolishing abortion one day.
I'm not against abortion simply because it "takes an innocent life". I'm against abortion because it takes a life. It's not wrong only because the child is innocent, it's wrong because they're human, and all life is worthy of protection regardless of any wrong doings. I'm not here to pass judgments on someone for deciding to abort -- I understand that women choose abortion when they feel they have no other choice. What I want is for women to not feel like they have to make that decision. I want resources and programs in place that empower women and encourage fathers to be supportive and present in their child's life. I think that this is a vital step for pro-life movement, and without it abortion will continue to feel like the only option.
I consider myself an empowered, liberated young woman. Someone who has strong (sometimes controversial) opinions, but isn't afraid to talk about them. My pro-life opinion on abortion doesn't come from my upbringing, religion, or any man in my life. It comes from a place of deep compassion for women in desperate situations, from a place in my heart that longs for a world where we don't call an act of violence on our own preborn children a "woman's reproductive right". I want to help create a culture that doesn't force women to choose between carrying their children to term or a career and education and then calls it liberation. I want to help create a culture where we offer nonviolent, supportive and compassionate resources for women and their children (before and after birth).
It boggles my mind that in this day and age, the average feminist is supportive of abortion “rights.” Feminism is about equality for everyone. Not "equal rights when it's convenient". True equality wouldn't make women settle for less than they deserve. It upsets me to see pro-life advocates only addressing the issue in the context of religion, or claiming that "legitimate rape" rarely results in pregnancy. I don't think the way to change hearts and minds is through alienating others. By finding common ground and connecting issues, we have a better shot at abolishing abortion one day.
I'm not against abortion simply because it "takes an innocent life". I'm against abortion because it takes a life. It's not wrong only because the child is innocent, it's wrong because they're human, and all life is worthy of protection regardless of any wrong doings. I'm not here to pass judgments on someone for deciding to abort -- I understand that women choose abortion when they feel they have no other choice. What I want is for women to not feel like they have to make that decision. I want resources and programs in place that empower women and encourage fathers to be supportive and present in their child's life. I think that this is a vital step for pro-life movement, and without it abortion will continue to feel like the only option.
This article was originally written for the Life Matters Blog Fest
Audrey
Hello!
My name is Audrey, and I'm fifteen. I'm unschooled, a Consistent Life actvist, and a passionate feminist. I'm against abortion because it takes a life, and because I believe women deserve to have more compassionate, less violent options and resources.
I'm an enthusiastic John Green fan, baker of cupcakes, and dedicated lover of anything and everything Broadway related. I'm in a modern dance ensemble, and I am an intern at Feminists Choosing Life of New York
My name is Audrey, and I'm fifteen. I'm unschooled, a Consistent Life actvist, and a passionate feminist. I'm against abortion because it takes a life, and because I believe women deserve to have more compassionate, less violent options and resources.
I'm an enthusiastic John Green fan, baker of cupcakes, and dedicated lover of anything and everything Broadway related. I'm in a modern dance ensemble, and I am an intern at Feminists Choosing Life of New York
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