"Pro-life", "Pro-child". That's a lie.

[Jackie97]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26623-2004Dec1.html?sub=new

“Many American youngsters participating in federally funded abstinence-only programs have been taught over the past three years that abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, that half the gay male teenagers in the United States have tested positive for the AIDS virus, and that touching a person's genitals "can result in pregnancy," a congressional staff analysis has found.”

“The report concluded that two of the curricula were accurate but the 11 others, used by 69 organizations in 25 states, contain unproved claims, subjective conclusions or outright falsehoods regarding reproductive health, gender traits and when life begins. In some cases, Waxman said in an interview, the factual issues were limited to occasional misinterpretations of publicly available data; in others, the materials pervasively presented subjective opinions as scientific fact.

Among the misconceptions cited by Waxman's investigators:
• A 43-day-old fetus is a "thinking person."
• HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, can be spread via sweat and tears.
• Condoms fail to prevent HIV transmission as often as 31 percent of the time in heterosexual intercourse.
One curriculum, called "Me, My World, My Future," teaches that women who have an abortion "are more prone to suicide" and that as many as 10 percent of them become sterile. This contradicts the 2001 edition of a standard obstetrics textbook that says fertility is not affected by elective abortion, the Waxman report said.”

“Congress first allocated money for abstinence-only programs in 1999, setting aside $80 million in grants, which go to a variety of religious, civic and medical organizations. To be eligible, groups must limit discussion of contraception to failure rates.”

“Nonpartisan researchers have been unable to document measurable benefits of the abstinence-only model. Columbia University researchers found that although teenagers who take "virginity pledges" may wait longer to initiate sexual activity, 88 percent eventually have premarital sex.”

My conclusion: They don't care if kids die. No way in heck would I give my child permission to be in a class like this. I'm hoping that some of you all won't either. This class is dangerous.

I guess parents are going to have to protect their kids in the way that they hopefully have been willing to protect them the whole time, by talking to them. Otherwise, their kids will get pregnant and/or get AIDS because they were not given the legal right not to be mislead about their reproductive health and other health in school.

[Quetzal]

1. Parents, College and High School Students

Here is an excellent site that can help you regarding sexual information

http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/

[deadparrot]

2. These people are pro-birth.

If one was really "pro-life," they would care about a person's wefare at all stages of development, including after birth.

[kcass1954]

3. I agree completely...

Their concern with "life" ends at birth.

[Jackie97]

4. No, the concern does not end with birth....

remember that if you're ever dying of a painful disease and want to put an end to it all, these people will be right there trying to keep you from legally doing it.

I think some anti-abortion people even oppose shutting off the machines for people who are braindead (which means they can't donate their organs).

Remember the statement that a lot of them make "from conception until natural death".

[REP]

5. Those in Long-Term Persistant Vegetative States Cannot Be Organ Donors

If someone has been keep alive through TPN and vent for an extended period of time, they are not suitable organ donors.

Those who are organ donors *are* keep on heart-lung machines while their organs are harvested; dead organs from a dead body are of no use to anyone.

[Jackie97]

6. Thanks for the information.

I don't think I meant the people who are kept on machines for a long time though. I mostly meant people who are in an accident or something.

"Those who are organ donors *are* keep on heart-lung machines while their organs are harvested; dead organs from a dead body are of no use to anyone."

True. That's my point though. Some "pro-lifers" actually think we should keep the person on machines until their heart gives out so they can have a "natural death". Hello? They are dead, dumbasses.

[Warpy]

10. Not quite

Kidneys can be harvested from cadavers for several hours. Collagen, skin, bone, corneas, and other non organ materials can be harvested for a couple of days if the body is properly kept.

It's getting to be like the joke about the pig, they use everything but the oink. Much of what makes us up can be used by others if it's in good enough shape when we die.

[flaminbats]

16. they are giving something up for a living person's happiness..

I would do the same thing if it means that someone who is alive doesn't have to spend hours just connected to a dialysis machine!

Donating an organ should always be personal decision. But after I die, what do I have to gain from having my organs burned at some funeral home? Nobody said death would be pleasant! Yet if someone is truly pro-life and Christian, then they should be willing to donate those organs to help those who always live in misery.

[renaissanceguy]

7. But many pro-lifers support the death penalty.

They claim that the convicted person has already committed sin, so it's too late. What about all their talk about redemption?

Hypocrites.

---------------------------
Buy liberal, anti-Bush, and outspoken political merchandise at www.cafepress.com/liberalissues

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[moobu2]

17. I think it’s more “pro forced pregnancy/gestation”

It’s about controlling a women’s personal medical decisions concerning her own body. It’s about reducing women to second class citizens.

They care little about live natural births or what happens to the child afterwards or they would work to make affordable healthcare more easily available and other things.

[Warpy]

9. I'd send my (fully informed) kid into that class with the instruction

to take notes and to bring all teaching materials home. I want to see what these shitheads are up to. There was an article in Harper's some months ago with excerpts from this garbage, and it is appalling.

My mother got into trouble in the 1950s in several successive neighborhoods for teaching teenagers the facts of life. We moved a lot, and she didn't give a shit. I suppose I'll have to start following in her footsteps whenever the opportunity arises. I knew where babies came from at 4, how they got there at 8, and how to prevent it from happening at 14 (got my menses late). I was a very late bloomer, sexually. Knowledge had a role in that, I think. Ignorance certainly doesn't stop kids from being sexually active, and we're seeing pregnant children as young as NINE YEARS OLD.

This is nuts. We, all of us, have got to counter this insanity any way we can, in our own neighborhoods, in our churches, at our workplaces. The alternative is too horrible to contemplate.

[Deanna Troi]

11. Republican Human Rights:

Begins at conception, ends at birth.

[intheflow]

12. Hi Deanna!

I love your screen name. Welcome to DU! :hi:

[Tony_Illinois]

13. HELLO?????

You are just too grounded in your sad little reality-based world. STOP IT. In the faith-based world that these people inhabit, your silly little facts and numbers are meaningless. You have not read from the only book that counts. So please go away and don't bother them with facts and data. Don't you get it? There is only one true way--and the bus boards on the right.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JohnLocke]

15. "Me, My World, My Future" has "Character of Our President"

Scary -- http://www.teen-aid.org/Character_Education/Character_of_Our_President.htm

[ForeverWinter]

18. That is one of the more shocking...

...and ridiculous things I've ever read. Clearly Clinton has no character because he eats pizza, reads Maxim, and watches R-rated movies. Conversely, our country is saved because the current resident demands his visitors wear ties, starts meetings on time, and won't allow his full staff to have comped meals while at work. Dude that wrote that is... brainwashed... or something.

[mwooldri]

19. Abstinence only is not the way to go.

I guess they're stuck on the first letter of the alphabet. They need to learn B and C.

Oh, and get real with HIV/Aids, when babies are really babies. At 43 days (7 weeks) that is not a viable baby; it is an organism that has the potential to become a baby.

Kids are going to have sex some time or later - outside of marriage. They'll get drunk, and some bloke will pressure her to get laid. And hey presto! Pregnant!

Oh, and touching a person's genitals can result in pregnancy? Oops. Better not change my niece's diaper then She'd get pregnant!

Mark.

[Dreamsoldier76]

20. What kind of Life is worth it?

Ive always found it irritating that so called Pro Life people claim to love children so much and yet they care less about the quality of life that child has to endure. As if its ok for a child to live in hellish poverty, be abused and neglected, and have little to no hope of escaping soul crushing poverty and oppression. When I ask them about this they always fall back on the same lame statement "Its all part of Gods plan". If there is a God and thats part of his "plan" then he must be a psychopath.