Put your money where your mouth is
Kelsey here. Earlier today, I proposed a friendly wager to a facebook friend who supports Planned Parenthood and abortion:
Planned Parenthood says it has raised over $3 million for its emergency breast health fund, to replace the ~$600,000 it got from Susan G. Komen for the Cure. I wager you $100 that Planned Parenthood will NOT perform more breast health services in 2012 than it did in 2011, but that its abortion numbers will rise. What do you say?
So far, my friend hasn’t taken the bet. Smart. According to Planned Parenthood’s most recent annual report (page 6), in 2009, Planned Parenthood affiliates performed 830,312 services classified as “Breast Exams/Breast Care.” In 2010, that number dropped to 747,607, a decrease of almost 10%. By contrast, from 2009 to 2010 the number of abortions dropped only 7/10ths of a percent. That’s an anomaly in the long-standing pattern of annual abortion increases at Planned Parenthood.
If you truly believe from the bottom of your heart that Planned Parenthood is a wonderful women’s health organization that doesn’t have an abortion-first mentality, then by all means, take me up on the offer. (But first, make sure you live in a state where social gambling is legal.) Since I don’t know what my income will be when the 2011-2012 annual report comes out in 2013, I’m limiting this to ten people. Stake your claim by commenting on this post, then email info@secularprolife.org with a way for me to contact you. You must do both of these things to get in on the bet. Deadline is Friday.
Be warned: I plan to donate my winnings to a pro-life organization.
Abortion is never a first resort.
The US is the exception to modern industrialized countries do to the stigma against abortion fostered by conservative/religious activists. By pushing for abstinence only sex education, restricting of access to birth control, and violent attacks against doctors who provide abortion prodecures, the numbers of unplanned/unwanted pregancies is beyond that of any other secular, fully modernized first world country. Since "pro life" advocates are heavily influenced by the religious right, preventative measures including birth control and sex education get sidelined by an errenously fervent commitment to telling women that they must suffer the consequences of getting pregnant. The opposition to Planned Parenthood has more to do with religious affiliation and a desire to control women's sex lives than any commitment to the preservation of human life.
Do even realize that you posted the old "religious fanatics are behind the pro-life cause" argument on a blog by "SECULAR pro-life"?
Yes, the US is the exception in debating this issue, as it should be. Pro-choicers avoid like the plague any discussion of abortion on moral grounds preferring to keep the issue in the realm of "rights" and the preservation of Roe v Wade. A fatal assault on a defenseless, voiceless being is something that should be taken with utmost seriousness if we want to create a more compassionate society. From your comments it sounds like you might prefer the attitude toward abortion found in China, a country that is no model for human rights and in which abortion is not challenged.
Instead of stereotyping prolifers and making sweeping generalizations of who we are (in reality, individuals with a wide range of views) you should appreciate that a violent, inhumane act like abortion continues to be the subject of robust debate here in the US, and open your mind to the possibility that better solutions and approaches exist. But you'll never be able to do that if you dismiss all prolifers as religious fanatics.
There are over one million abortions a year in this country. That is approximately 3,000 a day. Try contemplating those staggering numbers instead of merely being contemptuous of those who would like to reduce those statistics.
Those of us here at *Secular* Pro-life draw our opposition to abortion from scientific and human rights bases, not religious reasons. (http://blog.secularprolife.org/2011/11/no-matter-how-small.html) Many of us have no problem with comprehensive sex-ed and access to birth control.
And yet we still oppose Planned Parenthood! Mind-boggling.
Took the words right out of my mouth, M.
And I couldn't help but notice that Anonymous didn't try to make an easy $100.
"Easy" $100. HA!
Hmm… Anonymous sure isn't very brave. Making stale old comments that are for the self induced ignorant without leaving a name or coming back. Ah, the bravery of the choicers.
Anyway, my real reason for commenting. Bravo to you for looking at the numbers. I have been screaming at the top of my lungs about Planned Parenthood's statistics with no one listening. I'm glad someone else has thought of it.
I have been watching their annual reports since 2002. Breast exams/care is down 30%. PAP tests down 35%. Emergency contraception kits up 131%. STI testing and treatment for men and women up 183%. HIV testing up 207%. and last but not least abortion up 43%.
It's the long term numbers that tell the whole story. No wonder why they want to educate our youth. If people stop being promiscuous they will be out of business. They no longer do preventative care anymore. Only pills and testings.