By request, a post is repeated--along with comments elicited. CC
Thoughts on the Effects of Human Reproduction on World Affairs
Sounds like a thesis project, doesn't it? This morning, I have been exposed to at least a half-dozen stories via radio, newspaper, and blogs that caused a long-delayed posting to exit my skull. Please skip this posting if you find the subject offensive.
Among the stories that caught my attention this morning were 1) stories broadcast on NPR (NPR's website contains write-ups of their articles) concerning the polygamous community that had migrated to Texas, the plight of El Salvadoran people who had been deported from the US, the testimony held in Congress on the situation in Iraq, the blocking of certain searches in one of the largest reproductive health databases, 2) those stories written up in the morning newspaper on the polygamous community and the Congressional testimony, and the brouhaha in my own state of residence over the privacy of women's medical records, and 3) the blog posting, Ronni Bennett's The TGB Interview: Dr. Robert N. Butler. In my opinion, each of these stories (and, goodness knows many others over the last umpteen years) is deeply affected by the issue of human reproduction. This posting allows me to set down a few of my thoughts on the subject.
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"ELDORADO, TexasApril 9, 2008, 08:12 am ET · The scared girl, already a mother at 16, whispered into a cell phone: she wanted out. She'd been forced to spiritually marry a man more than three times her age, becoming his seventh wife.
"Her husband sexually assaulted her, and when he was angry, he would beat her while other women held her infant, she told a family violence shelter in a series of secret calls that triggered an investigation of the polygamist sect here."
The above paragraphs lead the story that I heard on NPR, as posted on their website. I cannot imagine anyone's defending the practices that the polygamous cult seems to have taken for granted. The girl quoted had been impregnated by her "husband" when she was age 14. Deplorable. I choke on bile in contemplating what she and hundreds (thousands? millions? who knows?) of girls have gone through. Where are their protectors? What kind of twisted logic tells the girls' protectors that this treatment of the girls is "right"? Unfortunately, this practice is all too common in communities within our own nation and other nations, on our own continent and others. It is difficult not to hold some religious groups responsible. Villainous! Villainous!
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"El Salvador Struggles to Re-Absorb U.S. Deportees
"by Steve Inskeepand Jennifer Ludden"
"Morning Edition,April 9, 2008 · This week, NPR's Jennifer Ludden looked at what happens when a country — in particular, El Salvador — has to take back a large number of its own nationals deported by the United States."
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"Petraeus, Crocker Warn Iraq Progress Is Reversible
"by Scott Neuman
"April 8, 2008 · Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told a Senate panel on Tuesday....
"Speaking to the Senate Armed Service Committee, the Iraq war commander told lawmakers that there had been "significant but uneven security progress" in Iraq since the so-called surge strategy put 30,000 more soldiers on the ground in Iraq.
"He cited a marked decrease in the number of U.S. and Iraqi deaths since the surge, but warned that an upsurge of sectarian violence in recent weeks showed that the progress made was 'fragile and reversible.' "
So what connection do I see between this excerpt and human reproduction? Plenty! Ignoring the plight of the women in Iraq, which I see as having deteriorated under the new Iraqi government, let's look at the cheapness assigned to life in the Middle East. They breed sons and breed sons which then kill one another and their sisters, mothers, aunts--many in the name of some religion. If human reproduction were more controlled in that region, perhaps life would be more valued.
Oh, by the way, part of the reduction in deaths is directly attributable to the US's paying protection money to some of the men who were among the local combatants. As long as we pay them (and they, increasing, ask for more money each month), they will forego their terrorist tactics. Sweet deal. Why don't they pay you and me? We're not threatening anyone, so we should be paid!
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"Magazine Led to Database's 'Abortion' Search Block
"by Brenda Wilson
"Morning Edition,April 9, 2008 · An inquiry into why the world's largest database on reproductive health blocked searches using the term "abortion" has found the restriction was put in place because of articles from an abortion advocacy magazine available on the site.
....
The block was an "overreaction," says Michael Klag, the dean of Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, which maintains the POPLINE database. When Klag learned that the search function for abortion had been removed, he ordered it restored. The block was taken down Friday afternoon.
Klag says the seven articles that triggered the restriction in late February were from an issue of A, the Abortion Magazine, which is published by Ipas, an international reproductive rights organization.
Ipas' executive director, Anu Kumar, says she knew about the block but didn't know it had anything to do with Ipas.
"We are disappointed," Kumar says. "We know that 40 million abortions take place every year and nearly 20 million of them are unsafe. Women are literally dying while we're dithering about these words.
"The issue in question focused on abortion as a human rights issue and profiled abortion rights advocates around the world.
"The federal agency that funds POPLINE, the U.S. Agency for International Development, cannot by law support abortion activities. Sandra Jordan of USAID says abortion statistics and research are acceptable. But she says the agency did have problems with some materials on the site."
As the article further stated, USAID had not requested that the search term be restricted, someone at the POPLINE database had made the decision because of the USAID objections. As Klag stated, it was an overreaction on someone's part.
The above excerpt does not, itself, address the current administration's ridiculous stand on distribution of information on human reproduction; however, USAID's objections to the cited materials are part and parcel of the administration's policies. The last I knew, at least, any Federally funded program could not only not mention abortion, but could not address effective birth control. In my mind, this is a travesty given that most of the problems in developing countries directly result from lack of effective birth control.
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"Tiller attorney claims grand-jury harassment"
"BY DAVID KLEPPER
"Eagle Topeka Bureau
Comments
"TOPEKA - Do repeat investigations of abortion provider George Tiller amount to harassment? And if not, should a grand jury investigating the Wichita physician get access to patient medical records?
"In a rare special session, the Kansas Supreme Court heard arguments from all sides Tuesday as it considered Tiller's request to block a grand jury's request for medical records.
"Tiller's attorney told the justices that the grand jury investigation -- the second to focus on Tiller -- constitutes harassment. And an attorney representing former patients of Tiller said the need to protect patient privacy trumps any need to see the redacted records."
The above excerpt is from the website of The Wichita Eagle. This sort of thing is nothing new to Kansas. There has been a group picketing Dr Tiller's clinic, for years. As I recall, Dr Tiller's name, address, photos, and family particulars have been posted, online, by fanatical anti-choice groups. I don't understand how people can be so against a woman's having the right to choose what to do with her body. Oh, please, don't tell me about the sanctity of unborn life when we don't take any better care of juvenile or adult life than we do. We send people marching off to die in wars. We batter and kill our youth and allow them access to loaded guns (oh, yeah, the gun was locked up or hidden, or....). We kill and maim people on our highways--to a greater extent because we refuse to recognize the deadliness of vehicle speeds and weights (Energy is still equal to mass times the square of velocity. If I am driving a 3-ton SUV at 70 mph, I am pointing a deadly weapon at my fellow travelers.)
In my own family, every child that has been born (for the seven generations to which I've been exposed) was a wanted and much-loved child; but, there have also been illegal, unsafe abortions performed in my family when the child was not wanted by both parents or when financial conditions did not allow for proper care of additional children. Now, women may choose to have a safe, legal abortion; but, they are harassed and their physicians are threatened. This is sickening, to me. I am a consistent supporter of those who make family planning available. I also support the work of the physicians who provide a valuable service.
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"The TGB Interview: Dr. Robert N. Butler
"RB: One of your most radical proposals is for family planning along with population reduction and stabilization to meet the challenges of aging societies. Many people will recoil. How can you convince them otherwise?
RNB: It was not long ago that people were concerned about the “population crisis”. There has been considerable success, particularly in Europe and Japan. Indeed, more than desirable.
"I do not favor the situation in Japan and Europe where birth rates are below the replacement level. I do favor stabilization of population. It gives us greater control over the financing of health and pension benefits and provides for better quality of life rather than overburdening facilities with huge population growth. Furthermore, we know that population size is not directly related to economic prosperity. Think of prosperous, small countries like Switzerland, Singapore and Norway."
The above excerpt from Ronni Bennett's blog is pretty self explanatory. I can only fervently agree with Dr Butler. A stable population mass, as opposed to the swells and valleys, would prevent the problem that up-coming generations now face in America. Population planning has gotten a bad rap. In my opinion, the solution to the energy "crisis" is not just the invention of new sources of energy. It is learning to live with the renewable sources that are available. My solution lies in population and family planning. In other words, human reproduction is the 8,000-pound gorilla that few seem willing to address. Our current administration denies the issue. OMG!!
"In my mind, this is a travesty given that most of the problems in developing countries directly result from lack of effective birth control."
It is truely a travesty! During humanitarian missions, we see family sizes of 10-14 people in a household! Much of the development aid from the USA is restricted to basic planning (on top of Catholic Churches position on birth control and abortion). The result: millions of people living on less than 2 dollars a day, starvation, and high crime rates in many communities.
Hopefully, policies will change within the coming year/s
Posted by: Jono Anzalone | April 09, 2008 at 06:29 PM
Jono--Thank you for dropping in and adding directly observed information to the posting. You and I had never discussed this issue so your comment is particularly enlightening to me.
All--I shall post a slight correction to the original posting. Although set off by font color, two paragraphs failed to be set off by quotation marks. The two paragraphs are below.
"The issue in question focused on abortion as a human rights issue and profiled abortion rights advocates around the world.
"The federal agency that funds POPLINE, the U.S. Agency for International Development, cannot by law support abortion activities. Sandra Jordan of USAID says abortion statistics and research are acceptable. But she says the agency did have problems with some materials on the site."
Posted by: Cop Car | April 10, 2008 at 08:20 AM
Recently in my community there has been a major dust-up over the opening of a Planned Parenthood facility. On lawns across town there are gold signs with with bold black lettering announcing that Planned Parenthood is BAD! What bothers me so about this is that we are supposed to live in a nation where church and state are separate. Why then, do we argue the issue of abortion? Surely abortion is an ethical choice, rather than a legal matter.
What galls me the most is that religious lobbies who fight against Planned Parenthood because of the abortion issue, also close down all the education on prevention of conception that is so desperately needed by the lower income citizens. I think I heard the argument earlier this month that prevention of conception was as much murder as is abortion. That's a religious belief, yet it was one of the issues on which the argument about awarding a building permit to Planned Parenthood centered.
Ultimately, it's time that each woman be allowed to determine for herself the future of her own body. Until we have that freedom, we are second class citizens.
Posted by: buffy| April 10, 2008 at 03:39 PM
Well said, Buffy. Thanks!
Posted by: Cop Car | April 10, 2008 at 04:32 PM