Watch where you wank that motion.

Yesterday my co-blogger posted the results of her magisterial investigative efforts.

fern hill showed us the creepy face of the homophobic, racist and Dominionist fetus lobby that is currently attempting to erode women's procreative and sexual rights through Woodworth's M312.

Today we learn

Religious and ideological websites can carry three times more malware threats than pornography sites, according to research from security firm Symantec. [...]

Symantec found that the average number of security threats on religious sites was around 115, while adult sites only carried around 25 threats per site--a particularly notable discrepancy considering that there are vastly more pornographic sites than religious ones.

From here.

So, if you pay a visit to Mike Schouten's gynophobic website, make sure to protect your laptop or device with as much security as possible, essentially the electronic version of this:

More DAMMIT JANET! posts about M312.

And now for something completely different ...

In the hoohaw leading up to the G-8/G-20 spectacle and photo opp for Stevie Spiteful, we missed a delicious little tempest in a teapot about $arah, Bristol and a US political satirist.


This is what set off the fury of Palin's groupies - a blogpost and a cartoon for Florida's Sun-Sentinel.

Back during the 2008 presidential campaign, when Sarah Palin and her family were introduced to America in all their homespun glory, I couldn’t help but imagine what the Republican spin machine would have done had Joe Biden’s daughter been the one to get pregnant out of wedlock as a teenager.

Because it was Sarah Palin’s daughter, however, the pregnancy became a celebration of life and an affirmation, somehow, of the emblematic American family. Hypocrisy is a commodity that has never been in short supply in American politics. The latest, most titillating case is that of U.S. Congressman Mark Souder of Indiana, a fierce protector of traditional family values (with all the usual anti-gay riffs), who just resigned from office.

Not only did he have sex with a staffer, but he even sat for a video interview with her touting the virtues of abstinence.

Well. The usual mob of fundamentalist religious rightwing zealots went ballistic, deliberately obfuscating the point of Lowe's observations (Bristol Palin marketing herself as a 30K per-appearance motivational speaker? that's a nifty mash-up of political opportunism and greed) while spinning it as an attack upon the sacred $arah and her holy progeny. This is typical:

Every parent viewing Lowe's cartoon should be outraged at his salacious, left-handed effort to demean Bristol Palin and to encourage America's daughters to embrace immoral practices.

As we've often observed when writing about Bible Spice and her traveling freak show, we just couldn't make this sh*t up.

Divide the Religious Right

Canadian (Catlick) LifeShite sniffs: 'Trend Shows National Association of Evangelicals Joining Contraception Bandwagon'. Oooh, contraception is a bandwagon, is it?

The National Association of Evangelicals appears to be shifting away from its neutral stance on contraception in favor of a qualified endorsement of a practice. A new survey released by the NAE, which claims to represent 45,000 evangelical churches, reveals that Evangelical pastors overwhelmingly believe in artificial forms of contraception.

Qualified? Ninety (90) per cent of evangelical leaders are 'open' to both barrier and hormonal contraception.

“Most associate evangelicals with Catholics in their steady leadership in pro-life advocacy, and rightly so,” said Leith Anderson, president of the NAE, in a press release. “But it may come as a surprise that unlike the Catholic church, we are open to contraception.”

They did their own survey and released the results. Another poll, by Gallup in 2009, supports the numbers.

Evangelicals are overwhelmingly OK with contraception. Who knew?

Also this past week, Ted Haggard, past-president of said National Association of Evangelicals and 'survivor' of a narsty homo paid sex and drugs scandal, announced his new church.

Since the scandal, Haggard has undergone intensive therapy and has emerged as someone who claims to be heterosexual with "homosexual attachments" or urges that he says are now under control. With that kind of background, it made sense for reporters to ask whether his church would welcome gays and lesbians. Haggard was adamant that yes, they would be welcomed, saying: "I would tell them to study the scriptures. I would tell them to explore that with God. It is an individual walk for them."

Zow. Contraception- and gay-friendly. This ain't your Old Timey Religion. Though WTF it is remains to be seen. But, hey, anything to divide the right is okey dokey with us.

More on same-sex marriage.

Legal arguments smoothly follow one another, punctuated by emotional testimony of how Proposition 8 humiliates gay men and lesbians who wish to wed, inside the courtroom where the constitutionality of the ban on same-sex marriage is on trial. Outside, banners and hand-held posters reduce them to statements that are as pithy as a tweet on twitter.

Vanity Fair's Open Bar Blog offers 5 requirements for those who wish to debate the legitimacy of same-sex marriages. Here's one that would eliminate a considerable number of rightwing religious conservative zealots - and not only those in politics.

No. 2: Any person who has or who is at this very moment committing adultery, or any other action which directly undermines the “traditions” associated with marriage, also hereby forfeits the right to tell same-sex couples that they can’t try to stay loyal and honest in their relationship. These liars, cheats and scoundrels (of both sexes) have done more to undermine marriage over the centuries than any two men kissing could ever dream of doing.

Indeed.

The Un-Laid and the Un-Aborted

My co-blogger is boggled by the inclusion of $arah Palin on somebody's list of best communicators of the year. Me, I was incredulous, so clicked her linky.

Oy. Number two on the list is college football player and darling of the Religious Reich Right Tim Tebow

You all remember how we lefties/feminazis got slammed by the RR for supposedly wanting $arah to abort her last child, the special needs kid.

Well, Tebow is revered by the RR precisely because his mom did not abort him.

Tebow was born on August 14, 1987 in the Philippines to Bob and Pam Tebow, who were serving as Christian missionaries at the time. While pregnant Pam suffered a life-threatening infection with a pathogenic amoeba. Because of the drugs used to rouse her from a coma and to treat her dysentery, the fetus experienced a severe placental abruption. Doctors expected a stillbirth and recommended an abortion to protect her life. She carried Timothy to term, and both survived.

All of the Tebow children were homeschooled by their mother, who worked to instill the family’s Christian beliefs along the way. In 1996, legislation was passed in Florida allowing homeschooled students to compete in local high school sporting events. The law specifies that homeschooled students may participate on the team of the local school in the school district in which they live.The Tebows lived in Jacksonville, Florida, and Tim played linebacker and tight end at the local Trinity Christian Academy for one season.

Tebow recently made Lifeshite's list of good news stories of 2009, for, dig this, confirming that he's a virgin and that he's saving it for marriage.

And there's going to be much more glurge about this non-laid, non-aborted jock.

When football fans watch the Super Bowl next year, they may see a pro-life ad from Focus on the Family focusing on the mother of potential future NFL star Tim Tebow. Tebow is the Heisman Trophy winner and University of Florida star quarterback whose mother decided not to abort him in a crisis pregnancy.

You got that, feminazis? Not only is abortion NEVER medically necessary, abortion kills future star athletes.

Religious Right vs Religious Left

We at DAMMIT JANET! often have harsh words for the religious right, or, to be more precise, the misogynist, homophobic, anti-sex, panty-sniffing, fundamentalist nutbars. (See DAMMIT JANET! passim.)

So, it was with some relief that I saw yesterday a story on the closing gap between the religious right and the religious left.

Yet as the numbers show, the religious right is increasingly being matched by a nascent "religious left." Some 24 percent of the adult population, about 45 million Americans, shares the "traditional" religious mindset of conservative religious activists, but 18 percent, about 38 million adults, shares the "modernist" mindset that is characteristic of progressive religious activists.

That's still a lot of fundy nutbars, but the good guys seems to be gaining.

The author goes on to discuss some of the fascinating details of a large survey of the religious in the USA.

Their so-called values couldn't be more different. The left is concerned with social justice: poverty, income inequality, hunger, human rights, universal health care, that kind of good stuff. The right, as we know all too well, focus on panty-sniffing alternating with panty-twisting 'personal morality'.

During the Morgentaler Order of Canada brouhaha, I ran across a story of a couple of good, religious people who whole-heartedly supported the honour so richly deserved by Dr Morgentaler. Here's a link to the letter to the editor in the Ottawa Citizen that caught my eye.

That report I read yesterday got me wondering how Fred and Bonnie Cappaccino were doing. So I googled them*. Here's a story from September 20 about their visit to the Unitarian Congregation in Mississauga. Photo swiped from that link.

Caption reads:

Selfless service. From L to R : Dr.Gagan Bhalla, Fred Cappaccino, wife Bonnie along with Uma Bhalla seen here at a function held this Saturday at Swagat Banquet Hall. The international charity helps women and children in four countries with food, education, shelter, health care and clothing. It was set up in Canada by the Cappaccinos and celebrates its 24th anniversary this year. Photo by Steven Der-Garabedian

Here's the website for their charity, Child Haven.

I don't use the word 'inspiring' lightly. Read about this truly inspiring couple and their work here.

It's happy-making to think that the number of such big-hearted, committed, and caring religious people may be on the rise. (And just as happy-making to think that those old dinosaurs on the medieval traditional side will be dying off.)

ADDED: I just saw this lovely example of the caring religious right. SUZY ALL-CAPS: If a woman gets falling down drunk, gets raped, it's her fault and she shouldn't have the 'Get of of Jail' card of abortion.


*Well, despite the lovely name -- Cappaccino -- I couldn't remember it. I had to appeal to my smarter co-blogger, deBeauxOs, for help. Smoochy thanks, dBO, for finding the bricklefritzing post at Birth Pangs.

They're Not Mad, They're Opportunists.

When you know fundamentalist judeo/christian conservatives and The Fetus©™ fetishists can command MASSIVE financial and legal resources to "protect" pregnant adolescents from their pro-choice parents, you wonder why they're wringing their hands and standing by passively while anticipating this particular girl will be murdered by family members.

A 17-year-old girl who fled to Florida after converting from Islam to Christianity will almost certainly be forced to return home to Ohio, experts say, despite her fears that she will become the victim of an honor killing for abandoning her parents' faith.

Rifqa Bary, who hitchhiked to an Ohio bus station earlier this month and took a charter bus to Orlando, remains in protective custody with Florida's Department of Children and Families. A judge is expected to rule Friday on the jurisdiction of the case, but several legal experts contacted by FOXNews.com say the girl is bound to be sent back to Ohio. ...

"Anyone who converts from Islam is considered an apostate, and apostasy is a capital crime," Chesler wrote FOXNews.com. "If she is returned to her family, if she is lucky, they will isolate her, beat her, threaten her, and if she is not persuaded' to return to Islam, they will kill her. ... "She escaped from her family's brutal tyranny and shamed her family further through public exposure," Chesler said. "Muslim girls and women are killed for far less."

Republicans and religious conservatives are loudly lamenting Rifqu Bary's plight but will they take up her cause to the Supreme Court? Bary is far more useful to them - if she is killed as FOXNews claims she will be - because she would be a political and religious martyr that can be used to justify and fuel their rightwing attacks against all Muslims.


Much like the deaths of Zainab, Geeti and Sahar Shafia and Rona Amir Mohammed have been exploited in Canada by ReformaTories to attack feminists and progressives, Chesler and her acolytes are willing to sacrifice Bary to further their cause. I think that all this shrieeeking is bullshit rhetoric fluffed, fanned and promoted by FAUXNews. Otherwise they really are the depraved political opportunists I believe they are.

Shrieeekkk! Religious groups denied standing for court challenge.

Fundamentalist christian neocon groups persevere in their belief that they have the right to butt in whenever they want in order to expound their own brand of gynophobic ideology. But they're wrong to assume that their religious rightwing arguments should be allowed to run roughshod wherever they want to stick their oar.

An Ontario judge has turned down a request from two religious groups and a conservative women's group to take part in a constitutional challenge of the country's prostitution laws.

Mr. Justice Ted Matlow of the Ontario Superior Court said that the groups would be liable to turn the trial into a soapbox for spiritual views, which would be out of place in a strictly legal proceeding. Judge Matlow said that the groups struck him as being unaware that the challenge "does not provide a political platform where interested persons are permitted to speak in order to advance their personal views, beliefs, policies and interests at large."

The ruling came as a blow to the Christian Legal Fellowship, REAL Women of Canada and Catholic Civil Rights League ...

CUPE has produced a thoughtful and respectful background paper on the labour rights of sex workers.

The first step is decriminalization; the activists who launched the legal challenge want to strike down the laws that prohibit sollicitation, in essence any form of communication

... for the purposes of prostitution, living off the avails of prostitution and keeping a common bawdy house. The challenge will focus on whether prostitution laws violate a constitutional guarantee to life, liberty and security of the person by exposing sex workers to danger.

From the CUPE document:

This is why sex workers’ rights advocates call for the decriminalization of all aspects of sex work. Decriminalization means the repeal and/or the reform of laws that differentiate sex workers from other workers and that regulate the sex lives of consenting adults.

Decriminalization is not the same as legalization. Legalization means the creation of a new set of laws regulating how sex workers live and work. In legalized systems, some workers are issued licenses that permit them to work and the police mandate is “prostitution control.” Laws enforced by the police and social service agencies that prescribe health checks and the registration of health status, and determine where sex workers can and cannot live and work, violate sex workers’ Charter and labour rights and should be opposed.

The comments that follow the G&M article offer the usual range of rational observations, relevant information and moralizing rightwing crotch-sniffing busy-body opinion.

Spain slowly moves away from medieval age.

Although some countries remain resolute in maintaining laws that endanger women's reproductive health and deny their rights and choices, the Spanish government has advanced a plan to decriminalize abortion, facilitating pregnancy terminations in the first trimester.

The new proposal, which would allow women to seek a termination within the first 14 weeks of pregnancy without having to give a reason, has set the Socialist government on a collision course with Spain's Catholic Church. The bill, which needs ratifying by parliament, eases strict abortion laws that have been in place since 1985 and is the latest in a series of social reforms by the Spanish prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero. The proposal tackles one of the traditionally Roman Catholic nation's final taboos and will bring the abortion law in line with most other European countries.

Under the current law abortions are only offered under restricted circumstances and rarely in a public hospital. Terminations are only allowed until the 12th week of pregnancy in cases of rape or until the 22nd week in cases of severe fetal
malformation.

Women who get an abortion outside the terms set by the legislation are committing a crime, at least on paper, although arrests are extremely rare. The new law would erase abortion from the penal code altogether.

The zygote zealots are already spinning the usual disinformation and prevarications.

The Catholic Church has launched a massive [there's that favourite qualifier again] campaign against the plan and the Bishops' Conference said unborn children already have their rights protected less than law pertaining to flowers and trees.

Mmm. Is that all they can use as examples? Our own religious fanatics are so much more imaginative, comparing the loss of an embryo to the theft of a parrot in a cage or a wide-screen TV.

Shrieeekkk! Breeding lesbians are to blame!

From this moment on, I must stop imagining who else the scathingly idiotic "Religious (don't call us that) Right" are going to blame. A thought crossed my mind the other day, wondering how the fetus fetishists were going to spin their way out of the support they initially provided to Octuplets' Mom Nadya Suleman.

Bruce of Canuck Attitude kindly provided the answer:

As you all know from our secret meetings where we plan out our world domination, the gays are responsible for all the world's ills– or at least that's what Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council believes. Our latest victory, according to the virulently homophobic jerk is to force America's women to turn out litters of children. Nadya Suleman's eight children are not the result of a sloppy fertility treatment, but rather, the result of procreating lesbians.

Shrieeekkk! The Family Research Council's Tony Perkins is quite the little drama queen.

Whoever thought it would be easy

to wrangle the Beast Also Known As the fundamentalist rightwing religious special interest lobby in Washington DC is a pie-eyed optimist. From the Feminist Majority Foundation news website:

A provision in the proposed economic stimulus package that would expand family planning coverage under Medicaid has drawn harsh criticism from Republicans and may be removed from the proposed stimulus package as early as today. President Barack Obama has reportedly told congressional Democrats to remove the provision and may offer this move as a concession to congressional Republicans in meetings today.

And ...

Democrats argue the proposal is a smart fit for the plan to infuse Medicaid with $87 billion in federal money to shore up reeling state programs. The proposal could create health care jobs and thus offer the economy a boost, perhaps even faster than infrastructure spending. The non-partisan Congressional Budget office says it is a money-saver in the long-term.

Clearly the only protection against such turn of events has to be this one:

Ooops, she's done it again.

Surely not on purpose, to create a media brouhaha around the release of her new CD and the start of her tour to promote the CD. But Britney Spears is making headlines. Again.

The Parents Television Council is warning parents about the Britney Spears song "If U Seek Amy" and urging radio stations not to broadcast it because the nonprofit organization believes it "would violate the broadcast indecency law" if aired between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. Saying the title phrase quickly out loud produces a sound akin to spelling out the F-word, said PTC president Tim Winter. "There is no misinterpreting the lyrics to this song, and it's certainly not about a girl named Amy," he said of the track, the third single from Spears' new Jive album, "Circus."

And what is the PTC? It is directed by Brent Bozell:

Founder and President of the Media Research Center, Mr. Bozell runs the largest media watchdog organization in America. Established in 1987, the MRC has made "media bias" a household term, tracking it daily and printing the compiled evidence biweekly in its well-known Notable Quotables, which also releases an annual "Best of NQ" edition selected by a nationwide panel of judges active in the news industry. His most recent book, Weapons of Mass Distortion: The Coming Meltdown of the Liberal Media, was released in July of 2004. Other MRC books include And That's the Way It Is(n't): A Reference Guide to Media Bias; Pattern of Deception: The Media's Role in the Clinton Presidency; How to Identify, Expose and Correct Liberal Media Bias; and Out of Focus: Network Television and the American Economy.

Right. That's it in a nutshell. By the way, if you check the list of articles recommended, written by members of its advisory board, you'll note that most focus on the evuls of S-E-X. Violence? Not so much. Oh, it seems really cozy with another group that spends a lot of time shrieeekkking about stuff that offend religious fundamentalist rightwingnutz sensibilities - the homophobic, misogynist, no-choice and reactionary organization Focus on the Family.

Some progressives expressed discomfort with the number of times that the "G" word appeared in US president Obama's inaugural speech. Perhaps a strategic use of that word, in order to demonstrate that religious fundamentalist rightwingnutz don't own the monopoly on faith is a savvy thing to do.

As for the song .... sure hope it doesn't affect the future sales of Jamie Lynn Spears' book about parenting, Christian-style-like.

Pregnancy can be fatal

Medical research has in recent years, developed more studies about the effects of pregnancy on the growth of malignant tumours. There are concerns that the hormone enriched physiological environment produced during pregnancy - which stimulates the growth of blastocytes (zygote cells) - can also encourage the proliferation of cancerous cells already present in a woman's body.

Medical case histories document 'aggressive' forms of cancer diagnosed during a woman's pregnancy. The dilemma that some pregnant women face is the following: radiation therapy, chemotherapy and in some cases, surgery may compromise the pregnancy. For some women who are pregnant because of a heartfelt decision and commitment, a diagnosis of breast cancer for example, presents them with a heart-wrenching choice.

Some survive their pregnancy, give birth and successfully battle against cancer. Some are not as lucky. After my sister died of ovarian cancer, I read Ruth Picardie - Before I Say Goodbye.

Today I read about 41 year-old Jayne Soliman who died as a result of an undiagnosed brain tumour that grew - aggressively - during her pregnancy and triggered a fatal hemorrhage. Though Soliman was clinically dead, a machine kept her heart beating and her blood pumping so that her fetus could be the beneficiary of steroids that were injected into her body. This procedure was done to artificially stimulate fetal lung development in the 48 hours before a Caesarian was practiced to remove the fragile and premature Aya Jayne from the dead woman's uterus.

One can only imagine the dilemma facing the rabid fundamentalist christian fetus fetishists and bigots, unsure whether to claim this tragedy as a triumph for their ideological zealotry, or to shrieeekkk! because Aya Jayne's father is Mahmoud Soliman. Also,

... More than 300 mourners attended Ms Soliman's funeral last weekend, which was held at the Jamia mosque ....

Yes, that should elicit some shrieeekkks and grunts from the neanderthals over at small dead brains.

Anonymous Comment from a Federal Civil Servant

Anonymous comments can now be submitted at DAMMIT JANET! though they are also moderated. This setting was modified in order to allow those who don't have Google accounts to leave comments.

This morning, at 9:24 AM, someone posted from this location - Government of Canada 11 Laurier Street Hull QC - this anonymous comment:

"As biased as this article may be,it's only to be expected from left-wing leaning supporters, who feel the need to use the same propoganda that they condemn others for. You may disagree with a view, and ultimately not support it - but the reality is that many "non-right wing" and "non-Christian" causes are supported by taxpayer funded initatives, yet I don't see you bashing them? It's this intolerance that is furthering the great social divide in Canada, one that is further taking away from Canada's identity as a nation that embraces and supports diversity of thought, culture and belief syste,." (sic)

It was a response to fern hill's blog post: Public Funding for Fetus Fetishists? It would seem that this civil servant, posting from her or his work station, does not agree with the view of separating Church from State. That's an opinion he or she has a right to think, but to post it from a federal government computer? One also wonders how that civil servant, working in the province of Québec, feels about the hateful anti-Québec propaganda Harper supporters spread as well as the western separatism feelings their December campaign fed?

Isn't that an ethical no-no that rightwing RepubliCons keep harping and shrieeekkking about? Oh wait. Only when it's not their own rightwing RepubliCon supporters who do it.

doubts about Doubt

Yesterday evening I saw the movie Doubt with friends, some who are recovering Catholics and one who was once a nun.

As the end credits rolled up on the screen I turned to a friend and whispered, "Well, that movie won't be sending anyone rushing back into the arms of the Church!"

Doubt was directed and written by John Patrick Shanley who adapted it from his own stage play. Shanley has mined his New York Bronx Irish Catholic background brilliantly in the past and produced many theatrical and cinematic gems. I was seduced and transported by Moonstruck, which was directed by our own Norman Jewison.

But Doubt left me cold. It is a parable, there is no doubt about that, but its adaptation into a movie did not feel entirely successful. As drama, it must have been riveting to the audience who witnessed the verbal confrontations between Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn.

"Doubt has gotten a bad reputation. People who are utterly certain are vulnerable to a brand of foolishness that people who maintain a level of doubt are not." - John Patrick Shanley, explaining why audiences are left to decide for themselves whether Sister Aloysius is wise or overly zealous in her determination to expose the charismatic Father Flynn as a pedophile. (11/20/04 New York Times, interview with David Cote).

In the sixties, nuns never challenged the actions of priests, to do so was to transgress the hierarchal authority of the clergy. The dialogue is minimalist and powerful. But the direction and cinematography of critical scenes did not do justice to the words and to the rigour of the actors' performance, in my opinion.

Doubt was a good movie, it simply didn't have the power and the cinematic excellence of another film that it brings to mind, Agnes of God.

Islamist Fathers4Justice

Thanks to The Mound of Sound, we learn about:

An eight-year old Saudi Arabian girl who was married off by her father to a 58-year-old man [...] in August after the marriage contract was signed by her father and the groom. ... The case appears to fit a pattern of divorced fathers using their children to take revenge against their ex-wives. Mothers usually only have custody while the children are young.

The disgruntled members of fathers4justice must be gnashing their teeth in envy.

Don’t be lettin’ that door hit’cha on your way out.

Sarah Palin riffing on a theme:

“I’m like, OK, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I’m like, don’t let me miss the open door,” Palin said in an interview with Fox News on Monday. “And if there is an open door in ‘12 or four years…" 10 Nov 2008 The Associated Press

“If there is an open door in 2012 or four years later and it’s something that’s going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, I’ll plough through that door,” she told Fox News. 12 Nov 2008 Independent

“My life is in God’s hands,” Palin said. “If he’s got doors open for me, that I believe are in our state’s best interest, the nation’s best interest, I’m going to go through those doors.” 13 November 2008 The Associated Press

In a series of national television interviews, Palin did not rule out seeking the presidency, saying, “It’s crazy to close a door before you know what’s even open in front of you.” 14 November
2008 The Associated Press

Good grief. What is this: the Republican version of “Let’s Make A Deal”? As LuLu over at Canadian Cynic said: Bible Spice, your 15 minutes of fame are sooooo over!

First posted at Birth Pangs

Teen pregnancy: no longer shameful, still a concern.

It may be that the intense media visibility awarded to Bristol Palin’s unintended pregnancy will bring about a shift in public attitudes towards teen’s sex education.

Sarah Palin’s extreme and fundamentalist views on sex education, rape, and recently, on bombing abortion clinics have given these issues prominence in the US presidential election campaign. A successful fund raising initiative for Planned Parenthood in the US was launched by email. Thousands of thank you cards were sent to the Republican VP candidate in acknowledgement of her pivotal role in provoking US citizens to donate to Planned Parenthood.

Shortly after Palin’s nomination, e-mails began circulating suggesting that pro-choice women make donations to Planned Parenthood in her honor. As of this week, Planned Parenthood has received more than 40,000 donations in Palin’s name, totaling more than $1 million.

And tabloids reported that Jamie Lynn Spears may have unintentionally become pregnant again. Regardless of whether the rumour is founded or not, the public reaction seems to indicate that nobody believes in that quaint saying ‘Ignorance is bliss’ any longer. Even the young yet wise-cracking Juno took responsibility for her mistake and took charge of her choice.

A sensible, well-informed young woman observed the media frenzy around the Palin and Spears unintended pregnancies and wrote a well-researched article about concerns regarding adolescent sexuality.

Every year in the U.S, over one million teenagers become pregnant. Most recently, pregnant teens have flooded Planned Parenthood health centers. Last year, Planned Parenthood centers provided sex education to 1.2 million teens and adults. This year will yield roughly 750,000 pregnant teenage girls, which is a number 12 times more than that of people diagnosed with AIDS in 2008, as well as the total number of persons expected to die from some form of cancer this year.

In regards to percentages, this averages out to about 11 percent of all U.S. children being birthed by teens this year. By the time a teen has reached the age of 19, seven in ten teens have experienced at least one sexual encounter. … It is important that sex education be definitely enforced within schools and should not only approach the idea of sex and teens from an abstinence-only standpoint. According to an analysis of more than 115 studies researched by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy (NC), teen sex education programs proved ineffective when including only abstinence-only material, by which teens were neither encouraged nor influenced to abstain or delay sex until a more age-appropriate time.

According to Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, effective sex education is based on “medically accurate information” that is both abstinence-based and also teaches contraception and proper sex initiation, which has proven to be more effective in preventing unwanted pregnancies. Richards argues that for the past eight years, roughly $1.5 billion or more of taxpayers’ money has been “wasted” on ineffective abstinence-only programs. Richards also demands that education and initiation of sex education must change with the next administration because the current policies have proven unsuccessful. “When it comes to sexuality education, there should be no debate. The only way our children can be prepared is to be informed; this isn’t about ideology, it’s about the health and safety of our kids.”

First posted at Birth Pangs

More about religious fundamentalist bullying

There are moments when the most eloquent blogpost possible, on a particular issue, is to simply provide a link to someone else’s piece.

Last month, Birth Pangs wrote, in Moving the goal-posts on contraception and The Haters’ Agenda Part II, about the Bush administration’s meddling in the parameters of federally-funded health programs.

Read Proposed HHS Regulation Pits “Workers’ Religious Freedom vs. Patients’ Rights”.

… if … it’s Workers’ Religious Freedom vs. Patients’ Rights, the patient wins. For those who feel they can’t morally treat everyone, go into another line of work. Whether you are a stem cell advocate, or in favor of reproductive rights, back door regulations are no way to set health policy that will affect millions of Americans in ways they are not expecting, including the superseding
of state laws designed to protect reproductive rights.

Political religious fundamentalist bullies never sleep, it seems.

First posted at Birth Pangs.

What the F****** F*** …

are the furious fundamentalists, fetus fetishists and/or far-right fanatics doing nowadays in the Excited States of America?

The latest tactic in Operation Rescue’s never-ending and ever-escalating campaign of legalistic and illegal harassment is to target individual people staffing Dr Tiller’s clinic for violence prayer by publishing their photos and personal information. From ChristianNewsWire:

Operation Rescue has released the most up-to-date list of abortion clinic workers employed by George R. Tiller at his late-term abortion mill, Women’s Health Care Services, in Wichita, Kansas. The list includes twenty-two people, including three out-of-state abortionists who travel to Kansas to do abortions, including late-term procedures that are illegal in their home states. “We are releasing this list of abortion workers in order to expose them to the community, and to elicit prayers for their repentance,” said Operation Rescue Senior Policy Advisor Cheryl Sullenger.

“As Christians, we are concerned about them as people, and understand that sometimes it takes ‘tough love’ to help someone see the destructive path they are taking, so that they can make the
changes necessary to have a better life,” Sullenger said. “Most people who quit the abortion industry tell us that they are relieved to be out of that business, and say that leaving improved their lives.” …

Today’s abortion worker list is in the form of a photo gallery with captions telling the public a little
about each worker.

It appears Operation Rescue is expanding its murderous stranglehold urging its followers to reach out and touch pray for the staff of Dr Tiller’s clinic. Birth Pangs has blogged about Dr Tiller here, here, here and here.

Here’s one well-informed perspective on his medical practice. Read more.

First posted at Birth Pangs.