According to this CNN article,

The declining teen birth rate is a well-documented trend in the United States. Between 1991 and 2008, the rate dropped steadily at an average of about 2.5% a year. In the past four years, it has dropped even more dramatically at a rate of about 7.5% per year. […]

“The results of our analysis indicate that exposure to ’16 and Pregnant’ was high and that it had an influence on teens’ thinking regarding birth control and abortion,” the researchers write. […]

Kearney said that while she and Levine did a lot of “fancy economic work” to make sure their conclusion was right, the most compelling evidence came from the teens’ social media language. “The text of the tweets are phenomenal: ‘This reminds me to take my birth control.’ ‘Watching 16 & Pregnant, going to take my birth control,’ ” she remembered reading.

So it seems (but I don’t have sufficient data to back this up) that it’s not necessarily a matter of teens having less sex, but having sex and trying to use contraception more often and possibly having more abortions.

So nothing to really scream for joy at it just yet. I’d like to see more data.

But it closes with a note of good news for parents who want to encourage their kids to put off early sexual activity:

And parents, Albert says, are often shocked to learn that teens say their parents have a major influence on their decisions about sex.

We Need a Law published an article I wrote today…

The other reality is that I’m six months pregnant. My son, Jack, seems intent to dance his way to the ninth month, whether that’s in his waking prenatal hours or in his sleep. The boy is kicking and stretching incessantly.

So while my laptop is propped up on a pillow just past my ever-growing belly, as I read about abortion procedures, Jack might kick enough to knock aside a page that is resting on my stomach. While I read pro-choice arguments that ring increasingly hollow, about choice or bodily rights, Jack is making my sweater ripple and bunch with his activity.

And this makes me feel sick, this reading about the killing and the rhetoric in defence of killing children just like my Jack.

Read the rest here.

The topic of disabilities is raised not infrequently in the abortion debate. As in: Should preborn child X with disability X be aborted? Would it be the kinder/more compassionate thing to do? The conversation circles around whether it’s kinder to immediately take the life of the child than to let the child live with its disabilities.

Anyway, when I saw this article posted on Facebook regarding community celebration of people with disabilities, simply because they have disabilities, written by someone with a disability, I thought it was well worth sharing. The effect of “inspiration porn” is not something I’ve had to think about, but it’s important to know the impact these pictures, posters, memes are having on the people depicted.

What’s “inspiration porn”?

Inspiration porn is an image of a person with a disability, often a kid, doing something completely ordinary – like playing, or talking, or running, or drawing a picture, or hitting a tennis ball – carrying a caption like “your excuse is invalid” or “before you quit, try”.

What are these images and posters really communicating?

Let me be clear about the intent of this inspiration porn; it’s there so that non-disabled people can put their worries into perspective. So they can go, “Oh well if that kid who doesn’t have any legs can smile while he’s having an awesome time, I should never, EVER feel bad about my life”. It’s there so that non-disabled people can look at us and think “well, it could be worse… I could be that person”.

In this way, these modified images exceptionalise and objectify those of us they claim to represent. It’s no coincidence that these genuinely adorable disabled kids in these images are never named: it doesn’t matter what their names are, they’re just there as objects of inspiration.

But using these images as feel-good tools, as “inspiration”, is based on an assumption that the people in them have terrible lives, and that it takes some extra kind of pluck or courage to live them.

For many of us, that is just not true.

Read the rest here.

I read this guest blog post over at Rage Against the Minivan with interest. Two comments in particular caught my attention.

The first:

Another usual reaction I get is the one that comes from my age group. It’s the question of “Should-I-have-dated-around-like-crazy-and-had-some-fun-before-I-tied-the-knot?” This is a fun reaction to deal with because frankly when discussing this with someone my age, what we’re really discussing is whether or not I should have whored it up for a while when I was still young. You know, because that’s what youth is for. Anyways, I’m still young and I do have fun. I happen to be married to my best friend and we have a blast together. And the best part of it is that I didn’t have to spend years of my life looking for him in all the wrong people.

The second:

The last reaction that I get is really just ignorance. It’s the thought that because I’m married and have a family, my life is over. I should have kissed all of my goals and dreams goodbye on my wedding day, tied on a pretty pink apron and put my baby making face on while climbing into a little domestic hole. That’s fine for some women because there is no shame in being a housewife and a mom, but I’ve had big plans for myself since a was a little girl and I read that marriage certificate and nowhere on it did it say I was signing over those dreams. I just get to do them with an amazing support system by my side. My husband knew me and what I hoped for my future as soon as we started to get to know each other. That’s the beauty of real love, not only do you accept the other person’s dreams, but you take them as your own. You gain a whole new set of goals that become just as close to your heart as your own. And those sets of goals and dreams come together to build up a future even better than the one you imagined years before.

My husband and I met very randomly and very briefly three weeks before law school started and then we reconnected when I was suprised to recognize him on the first day of school. A friendship quickly developed and then turned into something more. By the end of second year, we were married.

I remember the reaction of some colleagues when they learned that we were engaged when we returned to school in September for second year: shock. One woman just took my hand to confirm I was wearing an engagement ring, dropped both my hand and her jaw and then scrambled back to a group of other students to confirm that yup, we were engaged – after knowing each other for just a year. It was comical, if not a bit disconcerting.

And we were both 23 when we were married, not 18 like the author of the blog post and her husband. But more than once I was questioned (and even mocked) for choosing to marry at such a “young” age. I was asked by co-workers how I could possibly know what I wanted from a man or a marriage this early on in my life. Others hinted this could limit my future career or life options. I hadn’t even started my career yet! I was also strongly encouraged by several to sign a pre-nup. (I was in law school, so this type of feedback should probably be expected.)

But my experience reflects to some extent that of the author’s. Marriage has been my greatest adventure. My husband and I jointly hold each others’ dreams carefully in our hands, encouraging each other and believing in each other. It’s a pretty incredible thing to experience. We’re growing, dreaming and building a life together, while still exploring unique and personal interests and passions. Heck, I even worked into my wedding vows that I’d be his “greatest cheerleader.” (Yes, non-conventional.)

Marriage at a “young” age (as some in my life considered it to be), hasn’t stalled my personal growth. It hasn’t stunted me in any way. Rather, it has required that I grow up and mature a little faster. All my decisions directly affect another person. That makes a huge difference. And not a negative one.

And, like the author notes, we’re developing a whole new set of dreams and hopes for our shared life. In some cases, this includes dreams that neither of us had considered before we met.

So what does this happen to do with PWPL? I don’t know. I’m sure Andrea could come up with some elegant way to tie this blog post to PWPL’s greater mandate. The author’s blog post was a little (or a lot) counter-cultural and I wanted to touch on that.

photo credit: Martin Gommel via photopin cc

Just a short follow-up to yesterday’s post. It is a sad day. You can read more here.

And Kim Pate, executive director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies called it a “sad day.”

“We have now confirmed that it’s okay to buy and sell women and girls in this country,” she said. “I think generations to come, our daughters and granddaughters will look back and say, ‘what were they thinking?’ ”

This post isn’t about abortion, but Andrea said we could post about anything so here goes.

As most of you know, the Supreme Court of Canada is releasing its decision in the Bedford prostitution case tomorrow. Here’s what you need to know for what follows:

The Bedford case is a challenge to three of the key laws that inhibit prostitution in Canada, which would otherwise be completely legal. One of the laws whose fate we await is the Criminal Code provision that makes it a criminal offence to live on the avails of prostitution, or the pimping law.

This provision was struck down at the Ontario Superior Court, then rewritten at the Ontario Court of Appeal so that it would “only apply in circumstances of exploitation.” It has been argued before the Supreme Court and in the media by pro-prostitution groups that this provision prevents women in prostitution from hiring bodyguards, drivers, or even bookkeepers, thereby making their ‘work’ less safe. It’s a charming chapter in a fairy tale version of prostitution, in which the men involved in the prostitution industry are benevolent fellows whose interests lie in assisting and protecting prostituted women. But the thing about fairy tales is when you look a little deeper you often find something darker and more ominous.

I’ve never believed that fairy tale. And what my colleague Julia Beazley at the EFC heard about few weeks ago only further confirms that this fairy tale is a myth.

A mass text message was sent to women engaged in prostitution in the GTA warning them that if they were currently working independently and they didn’t put themselves under the thumb of a pimp by December 15, there would be serious consequences. The text opens with the words “Attention All Bad B*****s/Working Girls/Escorts/Strippers… Exile Season Starts December 15!”

Julia doesn’t post the text message in its entirety because the language is just too horrifying, but here is her summary:

The exile season warning is directed at all women known to be prostituting in the Greater Toronto Area, and possibly even more widespread, whether on the streets, in massage parlours, escort services or in strip clubs. Intended to intimidate and threaten, it is a less than subtle directive that failure to ‘choose’ a pimp to work with on a ‘100% basis’  would result in those women no longer being permitted to work, period. The text makes it clear that enforcers – whose nicknames aren’t fit for print – are ready and willing to deal with non-compliers. The message is unambiguous: working independently, anywhere, will not be tolerated; and those who don’t play by the rules will face consequences.

I was sickened by what I read. I’m told this type of communication is just part of ‘the game,’ and must be taken seriously. These men are not drivers or bodyguards. They are dangerous individuals, exercising a perverse sense of power and entitlement, and bent on maintaining control.

There has been no news coverage of this mass text message, and this story should be getting coverage, especially in light of tomorrow’s decision.

Is legalizing prostitution really pro-woman? Is this best we can offer our country? According to Julia’s research, 90% of women would leave prostitution if they could. That says something.

For more information on the case, and to learn about alternatives to our existing prostitution-related legislation, read Julia’s post.

Like this book: The Anonymous Us Project: A Story-Collective on 3rd Party Reproduction, edited by Alana Newman.

I discovered the Anonymous Us Project website a few years ago. It’s a sobering piece of internet real estate to visit. Children born of third party reproduction (sperm and egg donation and surrogacy) share their own stories about what it means to be conceived in that way.

Many testimonies reveal heart-break, loss, confusion and anger. Here are a few snippets:

“Who are you to deny me half of my family tree—branches rich and strong with stories I may never be told? Who are you to give away my heritage, knowing it will be replaced with something false?”

“I am a human being, yet I was conceived with a technique that had its origins in animal husbandry. Worst of all, farmers kept better records of their cattle’s genealogy than assisted reproductive clinics … how could the doctors, sworn to ‘first do no harm’ create a system where I now face the pain and loss of my own identity and heritage.”

“As a donor-conceived person, I have a sense of being part of an underclass … Having a child is a privilege not a right.”

This article includes a review of Alana Newman’s book and some additional commentary on the consequences of third-party reproduction:

We must acknowledge the painful truth that, as infertile couples seek to remedy their suffering through third-party reproduction, they are unwittingly inflicting pain on their future children. Eventually, those children must wrestle with the circumstances surrounding their conception. In aiming to satisfy their very natural desire for offspring, infertile couples go to great lengths to create children who are destined to experience complex crises of identity and purpose.

Check out the Project website and read that article (and buy me a copy of the book). It’s a lot of food for thought. And this issue and these children deserve our consideration.

There is an option if a woman takes the RU-486 abortion pill and changes her mind. Here’s a story from LifeSiteNews:

Her pregnancy was confirmed at seven weeks, but they didn’t let her see the baby or hear the heartbeat. She was given RU-486, the “abortion pill,” and was watched while she swallowed it. She was immediately remorseful and knew this was going against everything she believed in. She did not want an abortion, she just wanted love and support. She asked the abortionist what she could do if she changed her mind, and she was told that if she did not complete the procedure and take the pills to induce labor, that her baby would still die, but if it didn’t then it would be born deformed or mentally deficient.

Ashley was heartbroken and wanted help. She confessed to her mother what had happened and what she had done. But instead of rejecting Ashley, her mother hugged her and offered the support only a loving mother could. They called the local crisis pregnancy center, who then called me. When I answered the call, I had no idea what to do, but told them to send her over to talk…

And here’s some medical research:

Health care professionals should be aware of the possible use of progesterone to reverse mifepristone in women who have begun the medical abortion process by taking mifepristone and then change their minds.

And progesterone is so readily available.

This morning I watched a 20 minute episode of Facing Life Head-On. Brad Mattes, the host, explored a sex and relationship high school program in Cincinnati called Healthy Visions. I’ve included the episode below. This program’s message has pulled kids from suicide, self-harming behaviours and toxic relationships and taught them they had worth. All while teaching them about sex and relationships.

Well that’s impressive.

Check out the panel interview at the 11.36 minute mark and the 19:40 minute mark if you don’t have time to watch the whole thing. You’ll want to invite the program’s coordinator, Russell Proctor, on a cross-country speaking tour.

Anyone want to bankroll that?

Imagine if this  program was offered in high schools across Canada?

Here’s more on the program:

Rather than just focusing on discussing the issues, Healthy Visions focuses on the individual. It meets students where they are and communicates a message of self-worth, self-respect and self-confidence. Using the value of each person as a foundation, it helps the teenagers develop better decision making skills by demonstrating how actions have consequences. It teaches them how to weigh the potential risks of certain behaviors against the alleged benefits. This skill equips students to deal with situations including alcohol, drugs or sex.

Another focus of the program is on relationships—from dating, to friendships, to family. They compare negative behaviors like jealousy, anger and disrespect to positive ones such as trust, security and importance of core values. Strong relationships are critical to the teens’ ongoing support and encouragement. The program also addresses harmful behaviors like substance abuse, eating disorders and even suicidal thoughts. The idea is that students can find forgiveness and healing, and can change their lives for the better.