Many women in the west believe that choice is their right; they’ve the right to choose abortion. But we live in a world of commodity, a world of economics, where being part of the communal economic stream, those same women also think things like “abortion is good because there are too many children living in poverty.” Women in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Chad don’t live in this world, and I’m getting pretty frustrated that people keep thinking they do.

…according to Newsweek, “Women have no legal rights in Chad and most marriages are arranged when women are 11 to 12 years old.” […]

In the aftermath of its devastating civil war, certain parts of Congo continue to be terrorised by militias and rebel armies. Rape, sexual abuse and brutal violence have become common forms of oppression. In a bone-chilling indictment, Newsweek states that “more than 1,100 women are raped in Congo every day”.

So when I read this from the NY Times, I was of course angry that people still don’t realize that in a country where rape is normal, where it occurs regularly, committed by spouses, soldiers, and boyfriends, that abortion for these women could never be a choice. If you live in a country where you have little or no control over your sexual acts, you will certainly have little or no control over your sexual health. To introduce abortion into such a country, without elevating the state of womanhood to bona fide personhood, would only result in further victimization. Abortion does not miraculously create some unique space where a woman suddenly stops being abused if all around her is violence.

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Andrea adds: I thought Jennifer’s words at the end there were worth repeating, emphasizing. “To introduce abortion into such a country, without elevating the state of womanhood to bona fide personhood, would only result in further victimization. Abortion does not miraculously create some unique space where a woman suddenly stops being abused if all around her is violence.”

We also fail to pay attention to the fact that for many women living in DRC, while rape is horrible, so too is abortion. Women there may not see it as the “solution” it is presented as in the West.

This article from China actually has a Planned Parenthood director admitting that there is such a thing as “too many” abortions, and that the procedures carry a physical and mental risk to the mother. Read more here.

Among the 8 to 10 million induced abortions performed on the mainland each year, nearly 47 percent involve unmarried women younger than 25, according to Cheng Linan, director of the center for clinical research and training of the Shanghai Institute of Planned Parenthood Research. […]

A 2008 survey involving more than 50,000 induced abortions in Beijing showed that roughly 70 percent of the women undergoing the procedure were migrants. For many, it was not their first abortion.

According to a nationwide study by the Chinese Medical Association (CMA), of all women having received induced abortions, nearly 56 percent had two operations and 13.5 percent had three or more.

“That not only causes the women certain physical or mental problems, but it also gives the country a huge economic burden of more than 3 billion Yuan” or about $470 million, she said.

Among Chinese women who became infertile, more than 88 percent previously had an induced abortion, a study conducted in 2007 showed.

Other potential health hazards include haemorrhage, uterine or pelvic infection, uterine perforation and cervical laceration.

Though this article argues that more contraception is the answer, another option is of course to educate unmarried young women (especially those that are migrants with distinct socioeconomic burdens) that they aren’t socially obligated to have sex.

I’m starting to think that education is the opium of the elite, and they’ve all been high for quite some time. It boggles my mind, truly astounds me that when results like this are released after years and years of very open sex education there are calls for what? More of the same. 

Young people across the globe are having more unprotected sex and know less about effective contraception options, a multinational survey revealed on Monday. The “Clueless or Clued Up: Your Right to be informed about contraception” study prepared for World Contraception Day (WCD) reports that the number of young people having unsafe sex with a new partner increased by 111 percent in France, 39 percent in the USA and 19 percent in Britain in the last three years.

The following is by Will Johnston, MD and President of Physicians for Life. It’s for the Physicians for Life newsletter coming up, however, he assures me that I can post it, given that they are not vying for advertising dollars. An excellent, short piece. Thanks, Will.

As a society we have largely conquered cold weather, hunger, disease and early death, so in our leisure we now busy ourselves arguing over who to kill.  Are you young enough? Unwanted enough? Old enough? Depressed enough? Inconvenient enough? Does your Down syndrome leave you with too many 21st chromosomes to suit the 21st century?

[Read more…]

That’s every month, but I’m trying to make this October a time when I commit to making an extra effort to do something I don’t normally do or usually have time for.

October is a month when there are several life respecting events taking place. Among these are Life 2011, 40 Days for Life and Life Chain, but if these public events aren’t for you, there are many other ways to promote life and show your support for our seniors, women and children. Try donating to your local women’s shelter (clothing and toiletries are always needed), make a food donation (Feed Nova Scotia is my local program), or volunteer your time to senior facilities, parent centres, and crisis pregnancy centres. Whatever you decide to do to participate this October, do it remembering that your contribution is a statement. It says that Canadians value life from conception to natural death, and these statements, if we make them regularly and often enough, will permeate the culture.

People say, ‘What is the sense of our small effort?’ They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time. A pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions. Each one of our thoughts, words and deeds is like that. No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There’s too much work to do.

–Dorothy Day

Praying for this family today:

I’m not adopted. Well, I don’t think of myself as being adopted. My father adopted me shortly after marrying my mother when I was very young. Regular readers might know that I had never known my birth father, so when at the age of six my parents told me of my heritage I was confused and frightened. It was a lot to take in at that age, but I do remember that after the initial shock had subsided, I felt  a swell of acceptance, inheritance and love.

Now, I know I’m not “adopted”, but I can perhaps imagine what kind of emotion comes with being fully adopted. I’ve held onto my father’s name, even through marriage, in part because of that sense of inheritance that bound me to him. Reading this beautifully written piece in The Guardian, I couldn’t help but feel a tinge of the proud rebellious love that comes with being adopted (even if you’re not really adopted).

Shortly before I left home, my mum told me she was adopted. Although this news was a shock, adoption was not unfamiliar to me: my great-grandfather was adopted, so was my great-aunt. Now my mother’s made a third in the family.

Recently, when I told someone of this history, they gasped and said: “You’ve got no past.” The more I talk about the adoptions, the more I realise how hard it is for other people to get their heads around the idea. […]

The more I think about the three adoptions in my own family, the more I realise that what they mean to me cuts across other people’s expectations of strain and discord. The adoptions have given me a tremendous sense of inheritance, and of luck. I feel lucky to be part of this extraordinary family.

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Andrea adds: For Facebook readers, let me add here that I am not adopted. (This is Jennifer Derwey’s post.) Truly, not in any sense of the word. If I am, the likeness my mother and I share is all the more uncanny. Heading to the Czech Republic soon for my grandmother’s 90th birthday, where I expect to be called “mala Hana” for the week. (Czech for “small Hana.”)

I used to think I had a good idea of what went on inside the human body, and with the advent of Google, there was no symptom I couldn’t diagnose or home remedy I haven’t tried. Doctors, of course, were there to provide second options. But recently I’ve been reading about Natural Family Planning, and can I just say…there is A LOT I didn’t know.

You might think the goings on of the female body would be important information for women, but really there isn’t much emphasis placed on that kind of knowledge, not in our education systems, not in the media, and sadly not even by a woman’s doctor. So what is emphasized? Contraception, hygiene, and generally anything that conceals what a woman’s body does, naturally. Young girls then grow to be women who are left in the dark. They aren’t aware of what is normal and what is abnormal, even though detecting abnormality is exactly what leads to successful early diagnosis for things like cancer and infertility.

Dr. Diane Woodford, a fertility specialist at CRE, said that many women are often unaware they even have PCOS until they try to get pregnant and cannot.

“While PCOS is a leading cause of infertility, it is also associated with many other serious, long term health issues such as diabetes, heart disease and endometrial cancer,” […]

“If over the last 12 months, a woman has had six or fewer periods, she should see a physician and be evaluated for PCOS,” Dr. Susan Trout of CRE said. “An earlier diagnosis means complications like diabetes, heart disease, infertility, and hypertension are more easily managed.”

With the contraceptive Seasonale, you’ll only have one. With newer pills like Lybrel, you may never have one again. Are there so many products designed to keep our bodily functions concealed (and sometimes altered altogether) that we’re out of touch with ourselves? Have women conceded to the expectation of physically manipulating ourselves, even if it puts us at higher risk for disease?

What is in the water these days? First we have a radio station auctioning off a Russian bride. Now Ottawa’s “Hot 89.9” is giving away in vitro. No really. Now I probably don’t need to tell you that Hot 89.9 isn’t a family station. In fact, I’m listening to it right now and they are playing Pitbull. (I had to google that; here, let me help you.) It’s your general umcha umcha I’m blasting this techno beat as I rev my souped up sports car down your quiet suburban street type radio station. Nothing terribly wrong with that. Haven’t we all done it? Anyhoo.

How on earth did they come to this? The signs around town just show a baby and say something like “Win me.” I’m truly at a loss. It could be a publicity stunt. It could mean they are catering to a largely female crowd of roughly my age. It is certainly a sign infertility is a feature of our current culture.

I think it’s gauche and inappropriate; I can also think of worse things. Like giving away an abortion. (But then again, don’t we do that all the time; our tax dollars generally take care of it.) What’s hot, what’s really, really not. To me, this radio thing is somewhere in between.