Pro-Life, Pro-Birth Control

[Phoebe]

Here is a riddle I just cannot solve, and I have had this conversation with hundreds of pro-life people over my lifetime. You would think that since easy access to birth control is shown to reduce the number of abortions, it would be a no-brainer for most pro-lifers to support easy access to birth control. Some pro-lifers have a problem with some kinds of birth control, but there is usually at least some kind they consider God-approved, and even the exceptions to the rule have weird nearly useless methods they train people in. Yet when it comes to any government investment in this, or even asking their own private pro-life organizations to invest in this, the answer is NO WAY!

Suddenly they will argue that every person has easy access to birth control, and if they don't they should or could, and if they still don't they should keep their legs shut and exercise willpower. It's always about keeping the legs shut and not keeping the pants on for the men, btw.

Anyway, I remain mystified by this hostility to birth control, given the strength of evidence that it reduces the number of abortions. But the general response of the pro-lifer is that the individuals who caused the pregnancy need to take personal responsibility, and therefore it is no one's concern whether they have access to birth control or not; the only important issue is that they can't be allowed to have an abortion. If someone told us that wearing a green shirt made it impossible for you to murder another person, we would be making it our business to make sure that everyone had access to a green shirt. And even though most people can afford to buy their own green shirt, we would see charitable organizations and public institutions constantly campaigning to make sure we all had one to wear in case murderous rage bubbled up. But today's pro-lifer is just like, screw you, buy your own green shirt you s***, and if you kill someone because you don't have one then that's on you. This seems to me like a really not pro-life attitude.

[Mike]

I've long said that there should be universal support for free access to government funded birth control for all, coupled with comprehensive sex ed for all, as the simplest and cheapest method of reducing the number of abortions.

[Tahlvin]

But you're missing the point for most of those people: for them, God only wants married, opposite-sex couples to have sex within the bounds of holy matrimony.

Forget the fact that many of them had sex before marriage themselves. By golly, now that their married and getting it regularly and "legally" according to their "faith", that means everyone NOT married should shut their g-darn legs, fall to their knees, and pray for forgiveness for their sinful thoughts!

[Phoebe]

[Mike]

[Phoebe]

Nobody wants to hear about abstinence education premised on the idea that baby-productive sexual contact represents a failure of imagination as much as anything. More hypocritical priorities.

Republicans could have made abortion illegal across the land. They chose not to. They want it to be illegal in most but not all places, and don't want to bear the responsibility for being the ones who did it. They know the backlash when it comes is going to be tremendous, and they have to make it a choice for the states to minimize that effect. 1000% they need some states to keep it legal so they still have an option for their own families. Not at all joking about that. Their guiding ethos: What is good for thee is not for me. Maybe someday the frustratingly dumb voters I live among will realize that they didn't get a tax cut.