Jackson Free Press

It was peaceful in Fondren this week, the "no public restrooms" signs gone from store windows, locals lunching outside Basil's without worrying about their children's growth being stunted by horrifying political photos.

Not only did the heatwave end over the weekend—for now—but the invaders from Mars, or Florida, or wherever, with their pickled fetuses and fake funerals and burning Korans and rainbow flags, left us to tend our Gates of Hell for ourselves. For now.

The Nuts Formerly Known as Operation Rescue didn't exactly win friends or new believers with their blow-ups of third-trimester fetuses to scare us into closing a clinic that does not perform abortions past 16 weeks.

Even the head of Pro-Life Mississippi, Terri Herring, spoke out against the organization's tactics in the media this week. That's something, considering that her mentor, Roy McMillan, was right in the middle of the "Save America" crowd, hoisting up his 30-week fetus photo, hoping people are too dumb to know that nine in 10 abortions are performed within the first trimester, half in the first eight weeks.

Through it all, one theme has fascinated me, as it always does in the abortion-rights debate—the idea of "life." Protecting life, improving life, prolonging life, respecting life, pushing life, helping life. I find it sad when every "life" discussion ends up in one place—in these folks' case, the "preborn," as they call fetuses at any stage of development. It's as if the only "people" whose lives are worth protecting are those who haven't been brought into the world to become sinners, yet—or the children of sinners—for them to relegate to hell.

It's bizarre logic, to say the least.

Any discussion about "life" should be about L-I-F-E—a full conversation allowing imperfect people, and forgiving mistakes without hate-filled judgment. That talk must allow that not everyone believes alike, and don't have to in our country, and that rigid human judgment gets in the way of a real discussion about promoting life—even of the "preborn."

I feel just as strongly as the most rigid abortion opponent that it's immoral for the government to force a woman to have an unwanted child. I also believe to my core that it's immoral for that government to then wash its hands of that child and blame the mother for not having the skills or resources to raise the tot well—being that she knew she wouldn't be a good mother in the first place.
And it is mind-staggering to me to see people lined up outside UMC—the "gate of hell" where the first heart transplant occurred—scaring the bejeezus out of people as, a mile or so away, unwanted children go hungry and see crime as their prime opportunity.

My heart weeps for people who define "life" so narrowly and judgmentally.

Still, I respect people who believe abortion is wrong. Many of those people, in turn, respect my position, too.

I want to see as few abortions performed as possible. I want to see young women resist easy love in the arms of young (or older) men who seek sex—we don't need birth control, baby—wherever they can find it—and with society's approval. (Boys will be boys, after all.) I want to see abortion, when chosen, be safe. I want people to realize that birth control is one of the gentlest pro-life tools at our disposal.

I also want to see reality faced. The elephant in the room is that criminalizing abortion raises abortion rates, especially among poor people. This is the real research done by groups like the Guttmacher Institute (guttmacher.org). In Romania, for instance, abortion was outlawed in 1966—and abortions, and abortion-related deaths, skyrocketed. Then, in 1990, the country re-legalized the procedure, and the abortion death rate dropped below where it was in 1966.

In the U.S., the abortion rate has been steadily dropping in the years since Roe. Guttmacher reports that in 2002, 1.29 million abortions occurred in the U.S., down from 1.36 million abortions in 1996.

So, my argument goes, why not put aside politics and join me and others in an effort to actually decrease the number of abortions, rather than punish women (and presumably men) who end up in unwanted-pregnancy situations? And in case you're wondering, the research shows that outlawing abortion doesn't decrease the desire, or practice, of sex, either.

I challenge the majority of you who do care about "life" in all its glorious forms: Let's improve life. Let's make sure that pregnancies are wanted in the first place—before it gets to the point where a women feels she must make a near-Solomonic choice of aborting her baby or not being able to care for her child properly.

This will take all of our pro-life options. First, Guttmacher (and common sense) point out a direct correlation between abortion rates and women without access to good birth control. Guttmacher's Mississippi section states: "Contraceptive use is a key predictor of women's recourse to abortion. The very small group of American women who are at risk of experiencing an unintended pregnancy but are not using contraceptives account for almost half of all abortions—46 percent in 2000."

Yet pro-life leaders like Herring do not actively promote the use of birth control. "We don't center around the pill because we have so many battles to fight," Herring told the JFP in 2005. Such people approach the subject as if "life" is cut and dried—a woman abstains until you meet the perfect husband, you get married, you have the babies that result. Meantime, for many people living in poverty or with a violent spouse, this utopia is a naïve mirage.

Birth control is not enough, of course. Teaching kids passion for something other than flesh is a good start; I can't tell you how many young women I've mentored out of having sex too quickly. We must educate young (and older) people out of negative societal lessons. Like, it's OK for males to troll for sex, but evil for females to respond. Like, teaching girls that it's OK to speak up, talk back and say no—and not just about sex, so they'll be in the habit. Like, there is nothing glamorous about having children you can't afford—and it's not children's place to hold relationships together.

Life is very, very precious—and we must do everything we can to improve it for as many people possible. Criminalizing abortion, and demonizing women, will do the exact opposite. There is nothing pro-life about that.

Previous Comments

ID

73199

Comment

Nice Work, Donna. Don't ever let anyone tell you you don't earn your paycheck.

Author

GLB

Date

2006-07-26T19:53:31-06:00

ID

73200

Comment

By the way, that was meant entirely as a compliment. When I reread it, I thought it might have sounded sarcastic. Just wanted to make sure it wasn't taken that way.

Author

GLB

Date

2006-07-26T19:56:01-06:00

ID

73201

Comment

I am a pro-lifer, but I was sad when I saw the busses arriving at a local church. I value the lif eof the woman as mucha s the baby, and she certainly isn't helped by these photos and protests. When I think of protestors, I think of pride. It takes a lot of pride to hold up those awful pictures and trample on the already torn up emotions of the girls who have chosen abortion. When they walk through those protesters, it only makes a bad experience worse. Sigh...

Author

Heather

Date

2006-07-26T20:00:10-06:00

ID

73202

Comment

Brilliantly done!

Author

Kacy

Date

2006-07-26T20:35:20-06:00

ID

73203

Comment

Donna, thanks for articulating my frustration with the 'pro-life' movement. It just kills me that there is such a waste of time and effort over criminalizing abortion, when, if society put as much effort into improving health care, child care, maternal health, education, etc, it would do way more to lower the abortion rate than anything else. The legality of abortion is not the root cause of abortion. Heather, I really appreciate your comments. Abortion is a tragedy, and most people know that. It's just that sometimes, it's the lesser tragedy in a woman's life. The protesters who insist on making these women feel even worse are *really* hard to understand.

Author

kate

Date

2006-07-27T10:31:27-06:00

ID

73204

Comment

Does anybody remember the statement made by Dr. Joycelyn Elders (U. S. Surgeon General under Clinton) about the pro-lifers' "love affair with the fetus"? As I hazily recall, she said they were hell-bent on bringing unwanted babies into this world while doing little to ensure that they were provided for once they got here. It caused a political uproar, but when I heard it, I distinctly remember saying to myself, "Right on, Doc". Now I say, "Right on, Donna"!

Author

Kacy

Date

2006-07-27T11:57:14-06:00

ID

73205

Comment

Its hard to take anything elders said seriously.

Author

Kingfish

Date

2006-07-27T12:03:15-06:00

ID

73206

Comment

In that instance, she was right on the mark! Granted, she was outspoken. I like that in people, even when I don't happen to agree with them.

Author

Kacy

Date

2006-07-27T12:16:55-06:00

ID

73207

Comment

*snerk* This isn't the place to start on her. Let's keep on the "Pro-Life" people who embarrass everyone.

Author

Ironghost

Date

2006-07-27T13:41:01-06:00

ID

73208

Comment

pro-lifers have Falwell, the Pro-choicers have elders.

Author

Kingfish

Date

2006-07-27T14:20:00-06:00

ID

73209

Comment

Falwell isn't as bad as the people who actually show up and picket blindly. Those are the idiots that concern me.

Author

Ironghost

Date

2006-07-27T15:08:13-06:00

ID

73210

Comment

Thanks, all. BTW, didn't I mean the first LUNG transplant at UMC, rather than heart? Harumph.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2006-07-27T15:22:23-06:00

ID

73211

Comment

Donna, fantastic op-ed. Great, great work. Re Falwell and Flip: I'd say Flip is 200 times as crazy but 1/200th as consequential. Truth is that without Falwell, there would be no Flip. He owes his livelihood to the Moral Majority movement Falwell started in the 70s, as do all charlatans on the religious right. Falwell, FWIW, is probably someone I could probably sit down and have lunch with without instinctively wanting to dive out the nearest window. Flip does not fall into that category. Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2006-07-27T16:25:46-06:00

ID

73212

Comment

And I think Joycelin Elders has gotten a bad rap. There's nothing wrong with her ideas; just her articulation. Her famous masturbation comment, the one that cost her the Surgeon General gig--and isn't it ironic, considering that if her boss had taken her advice, we might have been spared an impeachment scandal--anyway, her masturbation comment was obviously supposed to suggest that we should teach that masturbation is normal and healthy rather than that we should actually teach people how to masturbate. ("And ONE and stroke and TWO and stroke and...") And "love affair with fetuses" is equally clumsy wording for a very acute observation about how so many folks on the right are very concerned about embryos and fetuses, which have not been shown to be persons, but are willing to dismiss these same embryos and fetuses as "thugs" and "welfare queens" worthy of poverty, starvation, abuse, and occasional execution after they're born. So there's nothing wrong with the woman's actual ideas. She just suffers from a bad case of Dan Quayle Syndrome. Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2006-07-27T16:31:10-06:00

ID

73213

Comment

Tom, even a 1st grade child knows there's no "e" in "Dan Quayl". {:)

Author

GLB

Date

2006-07-27T16:46:54-06:00

ID

73214

Comment

Tom: If you read up on her, she has more than Foot-In-Mouth disease....

Author

Ironghost

Date

2006-07-27T17:02:27-06:00

ID

73215

Comment

I don't see anything problematic in her wiki bio; what am I missing? Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2006-07-27T17:14:39-06:00

ID

73216

Comment

Let me see, she came out for drug legalization AFTER her son got busted. Wanted sex ed for kids who were not teenagers. Sorry, 8 year olds shouldn't be taught that. Those are just the ones that come to mind without even doing any research. She was a disaster for Clinton and he was well served by her leaving. His administration didn't start doing better until Panetta and other grownups were brought into the fold.

Author

Kingfish

Date

2006-07-27T17:20:18-06:00

ID

73217

Comment

Kingfish writes: Let me see, she came out for drug legalization AFTER her son got busted. And Cindy Sheehan came out as antiwar after her son was killed in combat. Wouldn't you expect a family tragedy to get someone worked up about a cause? Wanted sex ed for kids who were not teenagers. Sorry, 8 year olds shouldn't be taught that. Shouldn't be taught what? Where babies come from? That they should tell their parents or another trusted adult if they've been molested? And when you get up to 11 and 12, you're dealing with kids who are in many instances already losing their virginity. Shouldn't they know about the risk of STDs and unintended pregnancy? Yes, it'd be nice if we didn't have to teach kids about this sort of thing, but our broader culture already does and that's a fact that we need to face. Sticking our heads in the sand only ruins more lives. She was a disaster for Clinton and he was well served by her leaving. She certainly didn't belong in front of a microphone, but she has said some things over the years that needed to be said. Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2006-07-27T17:29:15-06:00

ID

73218

Comment

BTW- I know that of which I speak. I was allowed to read pretty much anything I wanted as a kid. This included college-level A&P textbooks, existentialist novels (I remember reading Camus' The Stranger for the first time when I was 8 or 9), Greco-Roman mythology... I had free reign. Now I'm 28 and still saving myself for Ms. Right, so from my admittedly small sample size, I see no correlation between being educated and being promiscuous. People in this culture are already being educated about sex, but what they learn isn't contextualized; in the words of Pope, a little learning is a dangerous thing. Kids should know the context of what they're hearing from the larger culture. Kids should know how to protect themselves from predators. And as soon as they reach an age where there is any substantial chance that they will become pregnant or contract an STD voluntarily, they need to know how to protect themselves from those problems, too--because no matter how much we wish they wouldn't have to, 11- and 12-year-olds are getting STDs, are getting pregnant, and that is a problem we need to address. Obviously the primary message the curriculum needs to be driving home at that age group is abstinence, but non-abstinent kids don't deserve to have their lives ruined for political reasons. Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2006-07-27T17:37:49-06:00

ID

73219

Comment

"The number of Down’s Syndrome infants in Washington state in 1976 was 64% lower than it would have been without legal abortion." --Elders, from the Wiki and other sources. That's either euthansia or a warped Quality of Life over Life itself debate. That Wiki article is woefully short. Naturally, the conservative sites would have all the best dirt. ;) I do know she was involved in a banking scandal, with shady loans and all that, but I don't know the outcome.

Author

Ironghost

Date

2006-07-27T18:02:54-06:00

ID

73220

Comment

Okay, I definitely can't defend the Down's Syndrome quote. Thanks for this, IG--I learned something new today! Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2006-07-27T18:22:38-06:00

ID

73221

Comment

It's cool. :)

Author

Ironghost

Date

2006-07-27T20:11:16-06:00

ID

73222

Comment

Anyone know if Medicare/cade covers Vasectomies? I know that won't help in the STD department however if we could get male contrateption down to the art of popping a piece of candy we would stop the issue at the source, which is men that can't control themselves. I know that may be over simplifing it for some of you but hey maybe the pro-life movement could start giving vasectomies for free. Good work Donna.

Author

wade G.

Date

2006-07-28T09:49:23-06:00

ID

73223

Comment

Salon picked up on the protests in Jackson. The article's a tad depressing, if you're of a pro-choice mind set. A couple of quotes: Even when girls and women manage to learn about birth control, getting it isn't always easy. Besides private physicians, the only places that provide birth control prescriptions are the Jackson Women's Health Organization and the offices of the State Department of Health. Once a woman gets a prescription, there's no guarantee she'll be able to fill it. Mississippi is one of eight states with "conscience clause" laws that protect the jobs of pharmacists who refuse to dispense contraceptives. It's especially hard to obtain emergency contraception. According to a survey by the Feminist Majority Foundation, of 25 pharmacies in Jackson, only two stock EC. Booker said he's written several EC prescriptions, only to find his patients unable to fill them. There's no indication that Mississippi's policies have led to increased chastity. There is, however, plenty of evidence that both women and their children are suffering. Mississippi has the third-highest teen pregnancy rate in the country and the highest teenage birth rate. It is tied with Louisiana for America's worst infant morality rate. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, more than half of the state's children under 6 years old live in destitution. and: By Mississippi law, women seeking abortions must sign informed consent forms, certifying that they've been told about the risks of abortion, including "danger to subsequent pregnancies, breast cancer, and infertility." Thus doctors in Mississippi are legally required to mislead their patients. At least, that seems to be the intention. Booker gets around it by taking the wording of the law literally. When patients come in for a consultation, he tells them about the links between abortion, breast cancer and infertility, explaining they are nonexistent.

Author

kate

Date

2006-08-04T09:04:56-06:00