Category Archives: Abortion

Why Even if you are pro-choice you should be angry with Planned Parenthood

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Why would anyone who is pro-choice be against or at least angry with Planned Parenthood? I would simply say that Planned Parenthood is a poorly run business.

Aside from anything having to do with abortions Planned Parenthood has all the makings of a business gone wrong. Put simply Planned Parenthood has performed almost 2 million less services in 2015 compared to 2005 according to their annual reports, while receiving an $250 million increase in government aka taxpayer money. In other words taxpayers are giving Planned Parenthood 82% more money to they are receiving about 20% less services. Any company that has a cost increase of 82% and a 20% customer loss I would think would be considered as moving in the wrong direction in the business world.

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Looking at the details: Planned Parenthood has decreased it’s contraceptive services by a million, a decrease of over a million in cancer screenings, though that may mainly be due to a lower requirement for cancer screenings (every three years instead of every year), and finally a decrease of just less than a million of their ‘other’ services.

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So why should you be opposed to Planned Parenthood even if you are pro-choice? Because Planned Parenthood isn’t doing a good job at providing the services that our government funding is supposed to be helping with. Planned Parenthood is decreasing their services while increases their costs to the American taxpayer, that’s simply not how it should be working. If we have increased our support of Planned Parenthood by 84% we should see at least a production increase rather than the decrease that has happened over the past 10 years.

Perhaps you still believe we should support Planned Parenthood, but at least realize that they need to make some drastic changes for this to continue to be worth it. If Planned Parenthood keeps on this trend they won’t even be providing STD and STI testing in 50 years!

If you want to see this data for yourself you can see the 2015 annual report here and the 2005 annual report here.

If I did any of the numbers wrong please let me know.

How to argue like a pro for the pro-life position

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There’s a good chance you fall into one of two categories. You either think you are a professional arguer and God’s gift to settling debates, or you have decided to never enter into a controversial conversation again because they make you sweat so much. Either way, the professional arguer and the silent watcher are usually equally ineffective. No one, it seems, knows how to argue well anymore. But it’s not hard to have meaningful and pleasant conversations about controversial subjects. One just has to be disciplined. With that in mind, whether you are the professional or the one that needs to get back in the game, here are six ways to argue effectively for the pro-life position.

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Planned Parenthood is not equal to Women’s Healthcare

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I recently read an article in the Colorado State Collegian talking about one persons experience going to Planned Parenthood for STD and HIV testing. In the end the article claimed that it wasn’t trying to show support for or against the organization but just to show the care that the company provides for people.

My own view of Planned Parenthood was changed a bit when I received training from them about birth control education while I was working for a Non-profit organization. As a pro-life advocate I came into the training more than skeptical. But I must say that the training first rate and very beneficial. I did not agree with everything they said, but the rest of my conservative readers will be surprised to learn that they never really pushed abortion during the whole training. In fact, though I don’t think they focused on it enough, they were not afraid to talk about abstinence as being a option.

The reason I bring all of this up is that I felt there is a huge assumption that pro-choice and more importantly, woman’s health advocates make. One of the finishing lines in the article I read was ‘Although this post is not mean to be promotional advertisement for Planned Parenthood, please consider the care that this company provides.’

Behind that statement and so many other statements I often hear about Planned Parenthood is that they are the only company that provides specific care for women. When many advocates for Planned Parenthood fight against taking away funding to Planned Parenthood they do so under the assumption that if we defund Planned Parenthood we will defund all funds for women’s health care needs. This is frankly untrue.

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This is a map of the Planned Parenthood locations compared with other comprehensive care sites.

There are many organizations throughout the country that provide almost all, all, or even more services than Planned Parenthood. For instance in my hometown of Fort Collins the Alpha Center provides many of the same services as our local planned parenthood, but they not provide abortions. The alpha center also provides Ultra sounds, a service that almost no planned parenthood provides.

So  let’s stop talking about Planned Parenthood like it’s synonymous with women’s health care. They are are one of many health care providers and Planned Parenthoood may not even be the most comprehensive one among them. Furthermore, when someone says they want to defund Planned Parenthood let’s not act as though they don’t want women’s health care, that’s not the case. They simply don’t want to see their tax money going to an organization that does.

I understand that many of you now will be saying that the tax money does not go to abortions, and lets even assume your right. Even if the money does not go directly to funding abortions it does provide a financial backing to an institution that does provide the service. Is it really that big of a deal to ask that instead that money backs up organizations that provide those same health care needs while not providing abortions? I don’t think it is.

To clarify once again, this isn’t saying we should shut down all Planned Parenthoods or even arguing about whether abortion should be legal. My point is simply that tax money should be used to provide women’s health care via organizations that no one feels morally opposed to.

I do think abortion is wrong, but. . .

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I know the title of this post already has some of you on edge purely because of the subject matter, but let put your mind at ease.  This post is not going to make any attempt to persuade you of the moral right or wrong of this issue. My goal is not to convince you one way or another, but simply for you to stay true to your convictions on this issue following your conviction to its full conclusion.

Often when I have discussed this subject with people I hear people saying that they have strong convictions one way or another on whether it is a woman’s right to choose or not, but their convictions on whether their beliefs should be pushed on others is not nearly as strong.

 

For those that feel abortion is in fact wrong, I hear them say ‘I think that abortion is wrong, but I don’t believe I should push those convictions on others’. My first thought when someone expresses this is asking why they believe abortion is wrong. So if you are of the pro-life stance take a moment and think about this question. Why is abortion wrong?

The pro-life stance believes that abortion is wrong because we believe that a fetus is a human being and so killing it is an act of murder. Again, I am not going to get into why this is the pro-life stance or argue why we believe this, instead I am challenging the ‘I don’t believe I should push those convictions on others’ standpoint of many pro-lifers.

If you believe that the ending of a fetus’ life is in fact an act of murder, then when you say ‘I don’t think I should push my convictions on others’ you are in essence saying ‘I believe murder is wrong, but I don’t believe I should push those convictions on others’. It sounds harsh, but basically you are saying that you feel that Nazi’s killing Jews in WWII were wrong but you don’t think you should push your convictions on others.

If you are going to be logically consistent in saying abortion is wrong then you must also follow through with those convictions in believing that it is wrong for anyone and shouldn’t be allowed even by those who think there is nothing wrong with it.

I realize that there may be something I am missing in this, so please comment and let’s discuss!

The pro-choice side of this issue assumes that we should not push our convictions on others. If it is the woman’s right to chose then no one should push their convictions on her. For the pro-choice side I often here people say ‘I believe abortion is wrong but I don’t believe I should push my convictions on others’.

For those that believe that abortion is a the choice of the woman because it is her body, let me ask you a couple of questions. If a pregnant woman is involved in a car accident with a drunk driver should the drunk driver be convicted of manslaughter?

If it is truly a woman’s right to choose then it is purely dependent on the woman. If the woman wanted to have the child, the drunk driver should be convicted. If the woman did not want the child, then the man should not be convicted because the woman had already determined that the fetus was not a human anyway. Put crudely, if we put aside the pain the woman may have experienced, her trauma, and damage to her car, the man performed the same service Planned Parenthood does when they do surgical abortions. Granted Planned Parenthood does a lot more to help the woman, but the basic main service would have been the same.

One other thing I must to ask pro-choice advocates is this. Do you feel God is wrong or evil for arbitrarily choosing who and who doesn’t survives cancer or survives a plan crash? Do you feel that it is wrong that God chooses some and not others? If you do, what is the reason you feel it is ok for a woman to choose this arbitrarily and not God?

I realize this probably sounds extremely insensitive. I understand that many women choose abortion because they don’t feel ready to raise a child, perhaps they cant afford to take care of the child, they are being forced by friends or family, or even because they were raped. These things are all horrible and I wish I could do more to prevent these dire situations. Abortion is a difficult choice for any woman, even for those who strongly believe it is their right to choose. Those women in situations to choose to have an abortion are in extremely difficult situations. If you or someone you love has ever been in this situation or have had an abortion my heart breaks for you. This is a choice I wish no woman had to face. This post speaks only to the head part of this issue and the heart parts  often feel so much more important. Again, my goal here is not to convict you of the right or wrong of your belief, but make you think logically consistent about your view on this issue. If you feel convicted after these questions I believe it is you seeing by answering these questions that something is wrong about your view. Pay attention to that and seek out the truth.