There’s a new web site for people to be able to anonymously tell their stories about “reproductive technologies and family fragmentation.” Check it out.

This is a post about euphemisms and double standards.

Carol Downer was just a guest on CBC’s The Current. I got a call (thank you) to tune in, and only caught the end, but Carol advocates for Do It Yourself Abortions. Only she doesn’t call them abortions. She calls an abortion  “menstrual extraction.” Funny that, I’m pretty sure women who get unexpectedly pregnant don’t generally feel crappy because it’s just one heck of a period.

So the lady is not a doctor, a nurse or a medical person of any kind and she wants to do abortions at home, but won’t call them that.

Introducing your “women’s rights advocates,” my friends.

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Brigitte adds: If you have the stomach for it, go read the description Wikipedia has for “menstrual extraction”.

Boy, this is sad. (And – gentle warning – verbally graphic and explicit.)

[h/t]

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Andrea adds WAY MORE THAN A GENTLE WARNING. This article is VERY EXPLICIT. And depressing. But I didn’t make it through because I found it too explicit. So I just thought I’d add that.

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Brigitte is all blushing now: Yes, sorry – I should have been clearer. But you know, this sort of stuff is all over the place, very much including in your average teenager’s online life (there’s a companion story on that, here – also very explicit verbally and visually, and depressing to boot, so be warned). We’re talking junior high kids, not college-age young adults (which would be bad enough). I wish we could safely ignore this stuff. But I don’t think we can afford to.

These people say so:

RedState has uncovered evidence – confirmed by the CDC’s own press office – that the Obama administration is deliberately playing “hide the ball” on nationwide abortion statistics. For apparently the first time in 40 years, the CDC’s annual “Abortion Surveillance Report” was not published, and there are “no plans” for the data to be produced at this time.

Whatever you feel about abortion and its legality, virtually all people agree that transparency and factual accuracy are important in the abortion debate. That is why even Planned Parenthood spends a substantial amount of money each year funding the Guttmacher Institute’s studies on abortion statistics. While pro-life groups have long contended that Guttmacher’s methods systematically undercount abortions, that is beside the point; the Guttmacher studies have long provided a consistent source for studying abortion trends over time. Which aggregate data, we re-emphasize, is important not only for both sides of the ideological debate, but is also important medical information.

Yet, in the wake of numerous damaging disclosures about unscrupulous practices by abortionists (from Kermit Gosnell to Planned Parenthood clinics across the country), the Obama Administration has apparently ordered that the only Federal government report on abortion statistics – again, a report that has run continuously for 40 years – be deep-sixed. The immediate question this raises is: what is the Obama administration trying to hide?

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Andrea wonders: Is something similar happening in Canada?

So the Advertising Standards Council has a pretty funny ad campaign out these days. One of the TV spots shows a teenage girl climbing out of her window at night. In walks her Dad and she says, “I was going to the library…” Then the lights start flashing, music starts playing and some funny looking men come out dancing. Altogether quite funny and the punchline is that just because you dress something up, it doesn’t make it true.

Oh Advertising Standards. I saw this and was reminded of a time when the Advertising Standards Council dressed something up to take a truth and make it untrue. Yes, it’s true, when it comes to things abortion-related I have a memory like an elephant. An elephant, I tell you. (In other areas, God Help Us All if I lose my iPhone and am expected to actually show up to any appointment of any kind. Or work. I digress.)

Back in May 2008, the Advertising Standards Council rejected ads from Life Canada which showed a pregnant woman and stated that in Canada, an abortion can be had throughout all nine months of pregnancy. This, they found to be deceptive, which stands contrary to the facts as stated in Canada’s lack of an abortion law of any kind, and statistics, as put forward by Statistics Canada, which shows hundreds of late term abortions are conducted annually.

So join me, friends, in remembering an ad campaign that was completely truthful, but because of ideology, or the abortion distortion, or [insert dancing men, disco lights and the soundtrack from Saturday Night Fever] got pulled by the Advertising Standards Council.

A walk down memory lane and a new slogan was born. Just because the Advertising Standards Council disagrees, doesn’t make it untrue.

We’re all aware of some of the awesome powers of baking soda combined with vinegar. It bubbles, it unclogs sinks, and years ago when I became pregnant I replaced all my highly toxic pre-made household cleaners with home-made baking soda scrub and vinegar spray. I felt much safer knowing myself and my new infant weren’t ingesting dangerous chemicals off the kitchen table or (in baby’s case) off the floors. But nothing had not quite prepared me for the No ‘Poo revolution.

What is No Poo?

For folks who aren’t familiar with the idea of No ‘Poo, it’s a haircare regimen that involves washing and conditioning your hair without any harsh chemicals. The cheapest, easiest way to do this is with our old friends baking soda and vinegar.

Why do I love No ‘Poo? Well, aside from the obvious fun of saying it, there are 3 reasons.

1. IT’S CHEAP! A box of baking soda costs me less than a dollar, if I buy in bulk it costs even less. Apple Cider Vinegar is around 2 dollars for a small bottle, again bulk is the better bargain. These last me about a month for general household cleaning AND my family’s locks. I even use the baking soda as face wash and the vinegar as toner (a little goes a long way!). For parents, having items that can multipurpose is a must, and the more affordable it is to have and raise children the better.
2. IT’S SAFE! Baking soda and vinegar have been around for hundreds of years. They’ve been tried and tested far longer than any beauty product on the market today. Not only are they better for Mother Nature, but they lack irritating chemicals, like sodium lauryl sulfate. Last February CBC ran a documentary entitled The Disappearing Male that claimed our use of synthetics was effecting the male reproductive system and “may be starting to damage the most basic building blocks of human development”. And last but not least…
3. LESS MONEY FOR BIG PHARMA. Oh yes, Johnson & Johnson make a lot of money on baby shampoo, and they make even more money with their reproductive control products (offered at any Planned Parenthood). For every $10 face wash, shampoo or conditioner I don’t purchase, it’s less money in their pot. And thankfully, with the dream team of baking soda and vinegar, this doesn’t mean I have to live in smelly protest. No ‘Poo for Life anyone?

Who thinks of sending people dressed up as a pimp and a prostitute into a Planned Parenthood clinic to ask for advice? Lila Rose does, that’s who.

So here we have on tape a Planned Parenthood counsellor giving the pimp advice on how to run his business.

It’s a bit surreal. Starting with the pimp being so very concerned about his underage sex slaves but definitely ending with the Planned Parenthood counsellor giving him advice on how to skirt the law and ensure his non-English speaking 14-year-olds can still get abortions without a problem. She tells him she wants as little information as possible. Sounds like the hallmark of a very fine counsellor to me.

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Update: Always good to read a pro-abortion take on things. For example “forced abortions for victims of human trafficking” translates as “reproductive freedom for the disenfranchaised.”  Enjoy.

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Update No. 2: And the Planned Parenthood staffer in the video gets fired. This is good news. There’s truly no excuse, however, for the writer in my first update above, who defends her behaviour.

Abbotsford Right to Life is hiring. For more info, check their web site.

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Update: Apparently Thrive Ottawa is looking too.

You’ll recall back in November that the student association at Carleton University banned the pro-life club. One of their fearless leaders, Ruth Lobo (pictured above being arrested by Ottawa City Police, handcuffs and all, because she expressed pro-life views on campus) challenged that decision.

Sadly, the club remains banned.

Yes, more of this please.

PICTURES OF KATLYN GUNN’S little girl line the walls, cover the fridge and top the tables. Her baby’s name — Kylie — loops across her inner wrist, a tattooed reminder when the child isn’t in her arms.

“She’s my everything,” the 18-year-old Dartmouth mother says. “If I didn’t have her, I don’t know where I’d be.”

Perhaps the same could be said of where she actually is — a unique apartment complex, once a 1950s parochial school, tucked away behind a Dartmouth church.

These days, it’s a sanctuary of sorts for young single mothers like Katlyn. And the staff of volunteers guides the girls to far greater life lessons. Like how to bond with their babies, how to balance their chequebooks, how to rise above the people or places or behaviours that have been keeping them down.

The non-profit Supportive Housing for Young Mothers (SHYM) opened this 14-unit dwelling in October 2007, after extensive renovations funded by the federal government.

The organization bought the building — owned by Halifax Regional Municipality and used as a storage facility — for $1.

Single mothers aged 16 to 24, mostly teenagers, live in most of the units, although two units are set aside for staff, one of whom is a permanent resident. The girls stay for up to two years, occasionally longer. Most have no place else to go.

Katlyn used to live in group homes.

Former resident Amanda Young used to be homeless, going from friend’s house to friend’s house — and spending a month at a Halifax shelter with her now 3½-year-old son Jordan — until she came here.

“For one reason or another, they’re not able to live with their families,” says SHYM executive director Wendy Fraser. “Those reasons can be anything from financial, to capacity of the family, to mental health or drug and alcohol issues.

“There’s not really any one scenario that would fit for any of them. The common denominator is that they were young and didn’t have family that was able to provide the support they needed.”