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The “Bruinooge effect”

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Think social issues lose elections? Think again. An excellent assessment of Harper’s second minority win in today’s Edmonton Journal from PWPL’s very own Rebecca Walberg.

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Brigitte says: Hear! Hear! I sure can’t vote for anyone these days, and haven’t done so in well over 10 years. Plenty of people to vote against, but nobody out there stands up for what I believe in – not even partly. Many politicians I know understand my problem; some of them even claim to sympathize. But they never do anything about it, and then they wonder why mushy-middle platitudes about the need to show restraint and the virtues of incrementalism and whatever other rhubarb they always manage to spout, fail to change my mind. Duh.

This isn’t difficult

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Read here about Catholics voting for Obama, in spite of his extreme views on abortion.

This isn’t difficult. If you are pro-life, don’t vote for Obama. He’s extreme on the issue and there’s Supreme Court judges to appoint. But look, that Catholics might support Obama isn’t exactly news–if every Catholic truly thought abortion was unthinkable–we wouldn’t have abortion in North America.

When the Catholic church speaks out against abortion, this is also not a difficult issue. It’s what they do, or should be doing, whether there’s an election or not (speaking out against taking innocent life–I think there may be something in the ten commandments about that). But enter academics at Catholic universities:

Also in the National Catholic Reporter, Lisa Cahill, a professor of theology at Boston College, wrote that certain bishops have crossed the line from extolling church teaching to becoming political partisans. [W]hen the Catholic Church is perceived to be cheerleaders for one political party a rich faith tradition is badly damaged and loses its prophetic voice.”

Another point that’s not really hard: When any church (and bear in mind, I don’t think abortion is a religious issue) starts to think taking life is AOK–that’s precisely when they lose their “prophetic voice.” But hey, if you want to understand why and how Catholics might not see abortion for the issue it is, look no further than those academics, sitting pretty in their ivory towers at so-called Catholic schools, searching for prophetic voices. Louder than their own, I mean.

Suicides on the rise

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Suicide rates are on the rise for both women and men. Read about this, here.

Suicides for white adults ages 40 to 64 rose 17 percent from 1999 to 2005, researchers said. For middle-age white men, the rate rose 14 percent to 26.9 per 100,000 in 2005 from 23.1 per 100,000 in 1999. For white women in that age group, the rate rose 19 percent to 8.2 per 100,000 from 6.9 per 100,000.

From time to time, pro-abortion advocates tell me that if abortion were so bad, really, we’d be seeing an epidemic of wounded women. Which, they then say, we’re not seeing.

Really? Seems to me we do have some problems in our culture, generally speaking, with too many people on anti-depressants, and visiting psychiatrists and all.

Now I know the difference between causation and correlation, and I am not saying abortion is causing or even correlated to this increase in suicides. What I am saying is that there’s a problem when suicide rates go up that much that suddenly–and we won’t necessarily ever be able to find a direct link. Oftentimes social problems experienced broadly can’t be directly traced to one single source.

Yet there’s no doubt that abortion causes an increase in depression, suicide and suicide ideation–on that the literature is quite clear, in spite of what the American Psychological Association claims. And so when I saw this report about increased suicides, it made me think of a possible link to abortion. The walking wounded–they are all around us–if we care enough to see.

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Tanya thinks this is no coincidence. Quebec not only has the highest abortion rate in Canada, it also has the highest rate of suicides. In fact, it has the third highest rate of suicides in the industrialized world.

Some things are not a choice

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I understand the anxiety of wanting to know your baby is alright, while in the womb. But look–how many couples do I know in my own life whose prognosis from these ultrasounds was poor and the baby was perfect? (Three, since you asked.) Does that reduce anxiety? And since the doctors are quite open about there being no treatments when abnormalities are detected–this seems like one more way to make abortion easier, all in search of the “perfect” child.

Unfortunately, little can be done to treat most of the physical anomalies that may be detected early, such as skull malformations. …When the ultrasound delivers bad news, women who may decide to terminate a troubled pregnancy can make that decision earlier.

Some things are not really a choice at all. Killing your disabled child at an earlier stage doesn’t make it any easier.

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Véronique asks: Did you count me in those three? My youngest was diagnosed by ultrasound with a symmetrical intra-uterine growth retardation, which I later learned — once I went into neonatal bioethics — was very bad news indeed. Thank goodness I didn’t really know what the deal was back then or I would have panicked. Anyhow. Do I need to add that he was born a healthy 7 pounds 4 and completely “normal” (in quotes because he is 2 1/2 today and what toddler is normal, I ask you??)?

Since I started studying bioethics, I have been dumbfounded by the number of people who terminate (abort) on the sole basis of an ultrasound. Granted, the physicians I know would encourage further testing. But I also observed that people who are frightened by the possibility of a disabled child will terminate so fast, it makes your head spin. Almost as if they wanted to do it before they could change their minds. Very troubling.

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Brigitte wonders: Here’s what the doctor in charge of the program says:

When the ultrasound delivers bad news, women who may decide to terminate a troubled pregnancy can make that decision earlier.

“It’s safer to do it early on. There are less complications,” he says.

Safer? Complications? Whoa, where did that come from?

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Andrea adds: No, I didn’t count you, Véronique. So make that four.

Why imagine? This is real life

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This link asks us to imagine strong pro-life women running for office:  

Imagine a strong charismatic crunchy conservative pro-life woman with special needs baby running for for office. Now imagine that same woman with years of national and foreign policy experience. That is a very very scary thing to the pro-death left.

This article goes on to talk about Michele Bachmann, a strong, pro-life Republican in Minnesota.

At 13, Bachmann was forced to become almost financially independent after her parents divorced. She used her babysitting money to buy her own clothes and lunches at school and saved up enough to purchase her first pair of contact lenses. Between college semesters at Winona State University, she took her hardworking streak to Alaska where on one memorable day she cleaned 280 salmon.

In Canada, there’s no political alignment on the life issues: you can be left, you can be right. So I’ll imagine more and more strong right and left wing women rising up to assert why they are pro-life, while being the very best in their fields. Meanwhile, I’m glad to hear about women like Bachmann, Palin, Laura Ingraham…

Strong pro-life women are a very scary thing to the pro-abortion side. Not to belabour the point, but they should be worried. We’re not just coming. We’re already here.

Musing over election politics after the fact

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Can’t tell you how many people I meet who are fiscally and politically left–and pro-life. So the question is, how many swing votes would a party win if they added the life issue to the roster? Parties only ever consider who they might lose–but done carefully, I think there are many votes to gain. Too late, I know, but it’s a conversation I had this past weekend.

Women on a wave of mutilation

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A moment of random associations for you. Saw this story in the Times about Women on Waves–sailing the high seas offering free abortions. Reminded me of a band I used to like–The Pixies–and their song Wave of Mutilation. Lyrics: “You’ll think I’m dead, but I sail away…”

But I’m sure Women on Waves ensures they get the job done.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOav64UR3xQ&feature=related]

Sense and Sexuality

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Dr. Miriam Grossman’s pamphlet, Sense and Sexuality, landed on my desk this week. Like this part:

Look, there are irritations you may face in college that are out of your control: roommates who endlessly hit “snooze”; weird dorm odors; mandatory Friday morning lab; a computer crash at the worst possible time. They may seem disastrous, but someday, when you recall them, you’ll laugh. Then there are challenges you may face in college, or later, that will never bring a smile. Blisters or warts in private places. Meaningless, regrettable sex. Pre-cancerous conditions. Age-related infertility. These are huge issues that affect women more often than men. They can throw your life plans off track. They can stand between you and your dreams.

Though written on pretty pink paper, there are parts of the pamphlet that are both graphic and gross. This is necessary, however, given that girls are engaging in all the activities she describes therein, thinking it is normal and necessary, and furthermore, that when they feel bad the morning after, they are abnormal for that–that they are alone. You’d be hard pressed to find any acknowledgement of the stats, pretty much anywhere that say that 91 per cent of girls have feelings of regret after a “hook-up.” Look–women mostly have higher expectations of sex and certainly experience a greater burden when things go wrong–which with hook-ups, is almost guaranteed.

Why are so few willing to say this on campus? (Carleton University, for one, links here. If you fail to find the advice there helpful, you’re not alone. “Don’t brush your teeth or floss right before oral sex”? Sad to say, these are “the experts”. No wonder Dr. Grossman sees girl after girl in her office, suffering from mental and physical illness.)

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Rebecca adds: That is really interesting and deserves to be widely circulated. As far as I know, lots of sex ed curricula still describe oral sex or “mutual masturbation” (for lack of a less cringeworthy phrase) as safe alternatives. From a purely physical perspective it may well be safer than vaginal or anal sex, but it’s clearly not risk free, and it’s irresponsible not to give this information to teenagers and university students.

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