abortion classic or dud?

"I would like to point out that I have been OTM on this subject, since I am an expert and all"

well, you are!

haha not you P3rry

"raising consciousness about birth control and reproductive choices in general"

I agree with that, I think. But then, well, I got in invitation in the mail yesterday to a baby shower for one of my former participants who is due with her 2nd kid in a couple months. I was at the birth of her 1st a little over a year ago. She updates her FB all the time about Teen Mom. IDK what I'm trying to say or what this has to do with anything but I watch that show and I'm like, "Shit that looks hard etc." and cringe when the girls/guys say things like, "We didn't use condoms because buying them is embarrassing" and yet it doesn't or hasn't had the same effect on some other viewers and I still don't get why. If we knew why then perhaps we'd be able to approach sex ed from a different angle and yeild some different results. idk. It's really complicated and I'm not being very eloquent here.

I find some of the research into adolescent brain development and decision making capability really interesting when it comes to this sort of thing but that's pretty tricky in terms of trying to empower teens while at same time recognizing that they literally might not actually have the capacity to make good and healthy decisions for themselves yet in terms of this stuff.

yeah it is complicated! i am actually really curious about how young women react to the show. my sister and i basically just view at as one big ad for condoms--these girls' lives are so hard! and so many of them are so so careful about birth control after they have their first kid, sort of heartbreakingly. but my sister and i are older and have no kids and are pretty set in our ways as far as reproductive rights are concerned. maybe it doesn't read that way to actual teenagers.

And forget about even thinking about that stuff in terms of abortion because that could be potentially devastating in terms of parental consent laws and stuff. See? COMPLICATED.

Not to derail the thread here but I thought that having a baby shower for your second child was NAGL. We only ran into this because lesbian friends of ours were having their second child, but since the other partner carried the first we thought that the partner carrying the second child deserved a shower but the emphasis was really taken off of presents. Anyway, point being a bunch of people got all up in arms and it caused kind of a rift among our friends.

Back to topic at hand.

I strongly dislike the show teen mom but have prob watched too much considering who I think I am

And just who do you think you are, fantasy?

yeah explain!

Not an expert, thats for sure!

x-post - Yeah from what I understand having a shower for your 2nd kid is considered to be pretty gauche but I don't think these ppl really give a shit about etiquettel. Also, it might be one of those rules that sort of died down in certain circles. Oh and I think it's the father's first kid and he's the one throwing it according to the invite so maybe he wanted to celebrate? That seems valid imo.

errr etiquette

I mean I hate shows that I end up thinking are exploitative, like intervention, and almost all the people on teen mom are prob more horrible than people on addiction shows

oh yeah fair enough

xxxxp Yes, and I also used to work with of disadvantaged teenagers on Medicaid. So my sample group is a little different.

SF not having this crisis pregnancy center crap

Rare good news - federal judge strikes down some of the most offensive parts of the Texas law: the parts that required doctors to show a sonogram to women getting abortions & to force them to listen to the fetal heartbeat

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/31/texas.abortion.sonogram/index.html

I believe all women should be forced to look at smearograms before deciding to abort.

The law "compels physicians to advance an ideological agenda with which they may not agree, regardless of any medical necessity, and irrespective of whether the pregnant women wish to listen," Sparks wrote.

Sparks otm

/The law "compels physicians to advance an ideological agenda with which they may not agree, regardless of any medical necessity, and irrespective of whether the pregnant women wish to listen," Sparks wrote./

Sparks otm

p much

mordy otm

next protest I go to I'm bringing an image of a smearogram on a sign w/o any text or anything

on the back of the posterboard you should write this

i like how yall try to figure the smearograms out

― that's cute, but it's WRONG (CaptainLorax), Thursday, September 1, 2011 11:49 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i just posted them because they look cool

― that's cute, but it's WRONG (CaptainLorax), Thursday, September 1, 2011 11:49 PM (4 days ago)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/us/virginia-panel-tightens-abortion-clinic-rules.html?ref=us

bullshit by any standard but particularly annoying coming from the party of anti-regulation hysteria

HR 358 is on CSPAN right now - Republicans lying outright one after another about whether abortion is covered under Obama's health care bill. Please call your representative about this bill.

this is seriously the biggest waste of Congressional time imaginable - it's fucking appalling that these people are getting paid to debate this nonsense bill during times of massive unemployment etc.

Let's be clear here. Obama added an executive order to his health care bill prohibiting use of federal funds for abortion. (Which were already prohibited under Hyde.) That of course was meaningless to these people - they're now seeking to bar all funding under the health care plan to plans that cover abortion if paid for with private funds. this is why bargaining for the executive order was a complete waste & a terrible idea. it has emboldened them to further restrict women's rights. you should watch these hearings, with their ugly theocratic tone; they are illuminating.

and now, on a lighter note, the "Rosary of the Unborn." Each bead contains a fetus.

http://catholicvirtualmall.com/images/unborn.jpg

somehow this isn't idolatry, don't ask me how I'm busy actually worshipping fetuses.

this thread title always cracks me up

That rosary is kind of cool. How long before people start wearing it to goth dance night.

Spain's new right-wing govmt is going to re-ban abortion except in cases of mental or physical danger to the mother or of rape

Wah I thought that was this after following this story the last few days
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2012/2/3/1328284380199/blue-balls-mystery-sodium-007.jpg

Bournemouth man tries to identify jelly-like balls that fell in his back yard during 'hail storm'

That rosary is kind of cool. How long before people start wearing it to goth dance night.

I am sorry but this is really fucking offensive. No person I know in the goth scene would find this "cool" to wear. I could not let that pass, even if that was meant to be a joke.

Viriginia passed that terrible ultrasound bill, too.

http://www.suffolknewsherald.com/2012/02/03/senate-passes-ultrasound-bill/

Godfuckingdammit.

btw that rosary is pretty cool but it needs more H.R. Giger vibes to it

I am sorry but this is really fucking offensive. No person I know in the goth scene would find this "cool" to wear. I could not let that pass, even if that was meant to be a joke.

cannot concur. old-school LA goths from the mid-eighties would have rocked the hell out of that rosary.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/opinion/sunday/douthat-the-medias-blinders-on-abortion.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

But of course millions of Americans — including, yes, millions of American women — do oppose Planned Parenthood. They oppose the 300,000-plus abortions it performs every year (making it the largest abortion provider in the country), and they oppose its tireless opposition to even modest limits on abortion.

no need to unpack what it means to 'oppose' abortion - just assume it means finding it distasteful, & so naturally choosing to forgo it in one's own life, rather than prescribing that it shouldn't be available to others; no need to consider the statistics of people getting abortions - more than one in four by the age of 45! - instead of people's breezy, stated theoretical preference about it as a social issue.

huge lol at the finale:

But reporters have different obligations. Even if some forms of partiality are inevitable, journalists betray their calling when they simply ignore self-evident truths about a story.

uuugh i know you can all see how awful this article is but just:

In many newsrooms and television studios across the country, Planned Parenthood is regarded as the equivalent of, well, the Komen foundation: an apolitical, high-minded and humanitarian institution whose work no rational person — and certainly no self-respecting woman — could possibly question or oppose.

we're not even gonna unpack a little bit what 'oppose' means, just aggressively brandish the idea of the self-respecting woman

uggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh or to make it sound like planned parenthood's political stance is some fuck you tactic it adopted to shove abortion in churchgoers' faces, rather than something it is forced to spend its money on in the face of like doctor killers & legislative sanctimony

maybe should have been on the nyt thread

I seriously am at the point now where I have to avoid reading articles like these because it makes me feel weary and sad.

Like I mean...I understand the average human being is not a Rhode's scholar, but it isn't exactly a high concept to understand the difference between "being pro-abortion" versus "thinking it should be available as an option".

legislating abortion is about a sensical as legislating what I'm allowed to do with the urine inside my urethra.

Why did they put Komen on such a high pedestal? There were plenty of reasons to question them before this, self-respecting woman or not.

http://selfishgiving.com/secure/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/newmid-kfc.png

if they really wanna be devoted to the cause, they should make pink chicken

xp The entire current Republican party platform is pretty much a fuck you tactic adopted to shove right-wing rightwinginess in 'liberal elites' faces, so you really can't fault him for figuring that everyone else has the same bad case of Political Opposition Defiant Disorder.

cannot concur. old-school LA goths from the mid-eighties would have rocked the hell out of that rosary.

― unlistenable in philly (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Sunday, February 5, 2012

I guess its more that I'm sick of the goth scene being associated with that kind of shit as if its how they all think but since I wrote that I have discovered a perth gothic nighclub has just gotten an arsekicking for running a night with drink specials including the "Date Rape" cocktail. So you know, gluh, I am glad I got out of the scene.