Pain Killers December 8, 2006
Posted by threadingwater in abortion, feminism, politics.trackback
Welcome ‘carnival’ readers. Thanks for stopping by.
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There’s been a lot of ink, both real and virtual these past couple of weeks on attempts to pass a piece of legislation known as the fetal pain bill which would have required doctors to tell women contemplating an abortion that a fetus could feel pain, and to offer anesthetic to the fetus. It was yet another attempt by the self-proclaimed pro-life crowd to discourage abortion with misinformation and inflammatory propaganda. The measure failed.
While that’s good news, another related matter has received little attention. The outgoing Republican Congress, while accomplishing very little, did manage to trim federal funding to local communities attempting to collect child support money from delinquent parents. Not just a little trim, mind you, but for my moderate sized city alone, it amounts to over $9.4 million in cuts over the next two years.
Whether or not a fetus is capable of experiencing pain is unproven, but babies and children who do not receive adequate food, shelter and medical care most certainly do experience pain that is real and often results in a lifetime of disadvantage. I know. In a former life, I was a single-parent who relied upon child support checks. Sometimes they arrived. Sometimes they didn’t.
Those who would call themselves “pro-life” and who pursue their anti-woman, anti-child agenda with vengeance and single-mindedness, should take a look at their fellow citizens filling up the roles of public aid programs.
That is what pain truly looks like.
This (and an earlier post of yours on the cleaning guy) triggers an interesting memory of two bumperstickers I saw on the SAME car (which by the way also had a fish emblem on it so i dont think it was just a joke to pair the two).
Sticker 1: “Abortion stops a beating heart”
Sticker 2: “So many pedestrians, so little time”
So… save ‘em now so i can kill ‘em later? (or as you are saying: save ‘em now so i can neglect them later…)
I don’t think anything surpasses proper education in the decision making process to terminate a pregnancy. Each time there should be a process to explain the medical and psychological aspects of the procedure but whether or not the fetus experiences pain seems a bit ridiculous as you are about to kill it. I happen to believe that the fetus is alive but I am very much pro-choice. I still find it amazing that people are getting pregnant in today’s world with so many options available to them. But the world will never be a perfect place and ignorance will continue to run amok so please don’t continue to bring unwanted children into this shitbox we call our life. I was a kid who was raised by a single mother and never knew if the child support check would come or not. I thought I hit the lottery one year when the state garnished his wages and we got the check on a regular basis. I was finally able to get the basics all the other kids got. I hope one day we can educate people to the point where they stop making such poor decisions that affect their children. I was lucky to survive my childhood and ran and never looked back to escape the ignorance. Give these women the option to save a child a lifetime of heartache and skip right to whatever if anything comes after this life as they aren’t all lucky like me and can fight their way through.
[...] I love how we started people out on illustrating the carnivals, and the people who have followed it have done it so differently than we did, and so well! This one is really beautiful. I’m delighted that Sandy included our Insults, Profanity, and Metaphor post, and even more pleased to find some new bloggers and new topics. Just to name two: Tara at Aetiology has great things to say about science fiction readers and sexy women (two related topics close to my heart), and Threading Water has a heart-rending post about fetal pain versus children’s lives. [...]
A lot of times the people with the most anti-abortion bumperstickers have loose small children walking around the back seat.
So yes, they don’t care about them once they come out.
Killing is killing. Why must we kill?
Threadingwater is a terrific blog. You a pro-choice person that I disagree with but respect greatly.
The person with a “shitbox” life is an example of a pro-choice person I don’t respect. I love my life. How do you know that you will save a murdered baby “a lifetime of heartache?” You don’t. So don’t kill a human.
And dragonet2: pro-filers with “loose small children walking around the back seat” means all pro-lifers are stupid?
When will humanity understand that we are killing innocent babies?
as opposed to killing innocent people?
in my country abortion is illegal. we also don’t have death penalty.
from what i understand, you (as in nation, not individuals) have both. texas has the highest rate of death row kills of all. and you (again nation) have waged a stupid war led on by a stupid child with too much power on his hands and too much money in his pockets, on which innocents are murdered. and not to mention inborn terrorist, who claim themselves christians.
if you’re against abortion, fine, be against abortion. it’s your choice. but do not come at me with that crap of jesus willed it so, or god does not approve. and especially of it being wrong because they are innocent babies. death in any case is wrong, when it is done for stupid reasons.
i just don’t happen to believe that abortion is a stupid reason. if a person comes to that choice, it is not without thought, struggle and pain. trust me. even though i didn’t go through with it, just considering the option was bad enough.
i had a choice, and i chose. many people don’t get to be so lucky. hence the amount of abandoned children around the planet.
i have grown used to being put in the same box as whores merely for being born in brazil. yes, it has happened.
not much different from the “pro-filers with “loose small children walking around the back seat” means all pro-lifers are stupid?” comment is it?