Wayne Besen - Author, Activist, Columnist, Public Speaker

Monday, February 27, 2006

Thanks to the Bush Mafia at the Food and Drug Administration, the states are having to grapple with whether to make the "morning-after" pill available without a prescription. More than 60 bills have been filed in state legislatures already this year. The resulting tug of war is creating an availability map for the pill that looks increasingly similar to the map of "red states" and "blue states" in the past two presidential elections -- with increased access in the blue states and greater restrictions in the red ones.

Here is the sad joke: The red states are worse than the blue ones, as a whole, when it comes to unwanted pregnancies. This is partly because of the fact they are more likely to teach "abstinence only" sex-ed, which all thinking people know is a sham. The ruling class in the Red States simply don't care about the health or future of young women. It is more important to prove a religious point (that sex is bad) than help women avoid unwanted pregnancies. This is really an abdication of leadership and morality.

It is heartbreaking that Plan A for Red State women is to visit more enlightened Blue states for Plan B. Unfortunately, by the time they will often get there, it will be too late. This surely will lead to more abortions, making the right wing accomplices in countless such procedures. And they call themselves pro-life?

9 Comments:

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posted by Anonymous, at 2/27/2006 10:52 AM

NEW RULES

Dear Kurt and other incoherent right wing blowhards who are probably getting paid by the right to answer this web-site and have way too much time on their hands:

1) I am for "free speech" - so you get one reply per topic.

2) If your reply is longer than my original entry - it gets deleted. If you write more than I do, it makes it your blog, and it is clearly not, as this is Wayne Besen.com

3) Don;t bitch - your one comment is a hell of a lot more than your beloved right wing gives me. (Sorry to offend you with the word Hell)
posted by Wayne Besen, at 2/27/2006 11:01 AM

Now, back to your "abdication of leadership and morality".

FOTF and other groups (including the ministries at those links) agree that it's not enough to say "young women (or men), DON'T HAVE SEX." You've got to say "why"...you've got to make young people understand that there's something better in store if you wait, rather than just decide to satisfy your lust and, as David Bowie once wrote, just "race some cat to bed".

Let alone all our talk about "hormones"...the sexually charged atmosphere at so many of our schools alone today is so sad. You've got kids, insecure enough as it is, seeing images in TV, film and ads that the only way you're going to be accepted is if you have a face and a body that looks "just so". They are getting to the age where they WANT opposite (or same-) sex companionship, but oftimes have no clue how to build such relationships healthily. (And oftimes their parents haven't always helped model that.)

Before I go further, I've got a question for you thinking people of this board.

What, genuinely, makes a "man"?

(If you can truthfully answer it you're ahead of far too many people today, and on the way to solving the crisis Wayne says is the crux of this thread.)
posted by Anonymous, at 2/27/2006 11:08 AM

Wayne, I understand...but if you're making a point that's wrong (as in the case of your statement that that the religious people think sex is bad) don't you want to be aware of evidence that contradicts that...just as you are working to make groups as Exodus aware of evidence that contradicts their claims?
posted by Anonymous, at 2/27/2006 11:10 AM

We who read this blog daily all know that kurt is just an obnoxious right wing shill who's wasting his time if thinks he's going to convert anyone here to his fascist intolerant points of view. I've already stopped reading anything he writes. When I see his name at the bottom of the post I just skip over it and will continue to do so. He has nothing to say that we havent all already heard, and REJECTED! And spare me any of your snide critical epistolaries kurt; you're a disgraziato.
Gary (NJ)
posted by Anonymous, at 2/27/2006 11:43 AM

Gary,

All you want to do is bathe in hate, anyway, so truth won't make a difference to you...it'll just make you angrier.
posted by Anonymous, at 2/27/2006 11:54 AM

Diz: The truth makes a difference to us gay people more than you'll ever know. You see, it's the truth that set us free from the bondage of homophobic prejudice and self-doubt. It was the truth that gave us back our self-respect in the face of barbaric attacks by those who would claim to be followers of the Price of Peace. It is truth that has freed us to live authentic lives in the face of so much counterfeit Christianity. Truth is the center of our lives. I hope you can say the same for yourself.
posted by Anonymous, at 2/27/2006 12:00 PM

Chris L...I was "Diz".

Gary, I apologize for what I said after your response...it was ungentlemanly and uncalled for.

I'm not going to break Wayne's rules any further and will never respond more than once to a post again. If I do respond I'll first back off (after reading his words) and think about my response rather than just typing an answer immediately.

BTW, Chris L., I appreciated talking with you last week.
posted by Anonymous, at 2/27/2006 1:45 PM

Kurt W.: debate and discussion is a good thing, and I enjoyed posting last week also.
posted by Anonymous, at 2/27/2006 2:15 PM