Yesterday I received and email from someone (whom I had never heard of or met, to the best of my knowledge) asking me my position on abortion.  Here is how I responded:

I support a woman's right to choose safe, legal abortion and believe that reproductive  and health issues must remain a medical matter between individuals and their health care  providers.

The questioner responded back to me with something to this effect:
I'm sorry.  I pray that someday you will live up to  "I pledge allegiance to all life and its interpendent diversity." (referring to my "Pledge to Life" in my left sidebar)

My response, via this blog only (I have invited the person who emailed me to continue the discussion on this blog so that others may also join in - the person responded to that email, after requesting no further email communication, with I understand. The truth is not always easy.):

This person obviously has an egocentric and narrow-minded view of life - "all life".  While entire species and habitats, upon which humans rely for its very existence, are being destroyed and becoming extinct, this person is concerned with only one aspect of life - human life.  People like this expend energy on addressing only human life as if it were the end all and be all of life.  If humans died off, the world would not be in jeopardy. Life would continue to thrive ( dare say it would also not only thrive, but would be better off without the destructive impact of the human species....).   If the blue green algae dies off, as one example, humans are doomed.

"Life" began before humans.  "Life" is being destroyed by humans.  I suspect that the possibility exists that "Life" will likely re-generate itself after the human species dies off because of the destructiveness to "life" it in which it engages.

I encourage people to take some time and view the video clips on life at Global Mindshift.

The Salt Lake Tribune has posted a brief mention of yesterday's rally that I attended.

Today a rally was held at the Utah State Capitol by Planned Parenthood and the ACLU to lobby for a "no" vote to H.B. 235, the bill that originally would have banned abortions in Utah, but has now been reverted back to being a "trigger" bill.

The prevailing message was that women must retain the right to do what they want with their own bodies and the way to avoid abortions is by providing sex education (and not just abstinence) as well as legal and safe abortions if needed.

Pom Poms Not Bomb Bombs, Utah's Radical Cheerleaders, of which I am a member, participated. Here is the appropro cheer we did:

2-4-6-8!
Women's care is second rate!
That's not decent in our state!
We want access not debate!
Uh-uh, uh, uh( Read more... )
Here are some photos:



( Read more... )

A Maine physician has had a post published on Common Dreams:What it Meant When Abortion Was Illegal.

He describes the anger and frustration on the part of his father, a physician who was also a Republican, family man, and well respected community member, when he couldn't save a 16 year old from an abortion-gone-wrong by an unskilled abortionist in the early 1900's.

The article speaks for itself.

The Utah Senate voted down a proposed amendment on abortion (proposed by Sen. Scott McCoy) that would have helped protect at risk minors. The senate gave preliminary approval to the original bill, required that physicians seek parental consent before performing abortions on minors. (The bill is on hold pending a funding measure.)

The current law in Utah, in place since 1974, requires parental notification prior to abortions being performed on minors. The proposed amendment would have waived that noficiation process to minors deemed at risk in the home by abuse.

Sen. Patrice Arent, D-South Cottonwood, proposed a similar amendment when HB85 was before the Senate Judiciary and Criminal Justice Committee. Monday, Arent said the change takes into account real-world situations.
"I think it makes sense for those narrow situations where you don't want to have that girl harmed further," she said.

Utah has an "abstinence only" curricula as part of the health classes that have sex ed as a unit in them. Only the issue of abstinence can be taught. Not even other birth control measures may be mentioned. This does not stop minors from having sex. This bill on abortion will not stop minors from seeking abortions. Just a few weeks ago Salt Lake City Weekly ran a feature on minors crossing borders to get abortions because of the laws in Utah. This bill, if passed, will only continue to exascerbate that issue and force minors in abusive situations to seek help out of state.