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Brain breakage du jour
May. 25th, 2007 08:57 pmThis is from something I heard on Air America on my way to the traffic jam that made me late for work (by 22 minutes, grr):
Apparently someone from a group called the Abstinence Clearinghouse (with a very, very slick website) was debating a new treatment for women which halts one's cycle. This is excellent for, among others, women suffering dysmenorrhea so they aren't in agony at least once a month (for a value of 'once' which can equal two weeks!).
The (female) Abstinence representative went on about how this was a conspiracy of Big Pharma and others against women and babies, how fertility is a gift and we shouldn't be playing God, etc. Yeah, maybe for people who want to exercise that option. Since when is fertility compulsory?
A second clip had a speaker for what I would call the feminist side (i.e., the reasonable one especially in this case) pointing out the medical benefits. The abstinence person interrupted the feminist and the talk host with glad little cries of 'We love babies!' 'We really love babies!' 'We want more babies!'
Uhhhh... hello... abstinence?
There's a letter from one of the Abstinence Clearinghouse members on their website - her sister has fifteen kids. Um, abstinence anybody?
This, of course, doesn't even get to ask the question of 'how many orphaned infants of colour or babies with birth defects have you fostered or adopted, ma'am, since you love babies so much?' What does she want to do with all these babies other people are supposed to pop out for her, anyway?
Maybe 'abstinence' has acquired one of those 1984-ish/Bushian definitions.
Apparently someone from a group called the Abstinence Clearinghouse (with a very, very slick website) was debating a new treatment for women which halts one's cycle. This is excellent for, among others, women suffering dysmenorrhea so they aren't in agony at least once a month (for a value of 'once' which can equal two weeks!).
The (female) Abstinence representative went on about how this was a conspiracy of Big Pharma and others against women and babies, how fertility is a gift and we shouldn't be playing God, etc. Yeah, maybe for people who want to exercise that option. Since when is fertility compulsory?
A second clip had a speaker for what I would call the feminist side (i.e., the reasonable one especially in this case) pointing out the medical benefits. The abstinence person interrupted the feminist and the talk host with glad little cries of 'We love babies!' 'We really love babies!' 'We want more babies!'
Uhhhh... hello... abstinence?
There's a letter from one of the Abstinence Clearinghouse members on their website - her sister has fifteen kids. Um, abstinence anybody?
This, of course, doesn't even get to ask the question of 'how many orphaned infants of colour or babies with birth defects have you fostered or adopted, ma'am, since you love babies so much?' What does she want to do with all these babies other people are supposed to pop out for her, anyway?
Maybe 'abstinence' has acquired one of those 1984-ish/Bushian definitions.
