Emanon Eranatos's blog: "RANDOM STUFF!!"

Notice: I do not expect most people who happen to come across this to actually read this all, it was originally written for Deviant Art; but I figured I would post this here. I know it is a touchy subject so ... so if you cannot take harsh truths and differing opinion then just go back to myspace and whine with the rest of the babies. If you are pro-life and wish to comment, I welcome it. But please do not comment asking Me somethig that I have already addressed in the writing.
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Abortion; such a word that when it is even said in mixed company can provoke such revolting responses, such a simple yet complex word and act that calls into question the very meaning of a person. A word that just the mentioning of it calls into questions the very make up of a society, provokes debate on religion, upbringing, faith, beliefs, gender, politics, background, economics, and every other variable within a society that one may hold dear to themselves, or others.

Such a word that shall be discussed and dissected in this piece of writing, I am going to discuss my views on abortion, woman’s rights, why I am pro-choice, my views on strict pro-lifers, as well as some statistical data and other things that I find are key links between abortion and faith.

First and foremost abortion, for many people, this issue comes not at the correlation between morality in relation to abortion, but rather at what point does life begin. For the pro-lifers they believe that at the point of conception that constitutes life and thus it must be protected. For my personal beliefs on the matter, I, like many pro-choice people believe that “life” begins at the point when the fetus can survive outside of the body on its own.

I understand their argument, their value of the human life, but such things are worth more than any life, such things as these rights came at the cost of many lives. Mothers, wives, daughters, girlfriends, friends, it is rather easy in this day and age to see the equality of women in our society, but these things we should not forget have only been in place for a few decades. Before this, and thousands of years in many civilizations, the women, was, and in some parts of the world, still is considered a second class citizen. She has no choices, she has no say in her life, and she only has the words in which her imprisonment within a male dominated society allows of her. Before she is married any and everything she thinks of doing, needed the fathers permission, after she is married, any and everything she thought of doing needed the husband’s permission.

Surely there were women who went against this male dominated society, women who thought, who were, not less than their male counterparts simply because of their gender, but rather equal to their male counterparts, not because of their gender, but simply because of their value. In any society, the most valuable thing, is the women, life begins with the women, without women your society shan’t last one generation. Yet to be the life bearers within society, the focal point, the most important persons within these societies and then to be thought of as less than equal simply because of your gender, would be most detrimental to ones thoughts of themselves; or more importantly ones value in themselves.

Let us not forgot about the many centuries of the oppression of women in this, and pretty much every country around the word at some point, and maybe its current history, subjugates women as no more than simple baby making factories to carry on their blood line, if you will. These places generally hold no more value in the women than this. Sadly many women who have been brought up this way believes that is how it should be, that they should not strive for more, yet simply be happy in being a daughter… a wife… and then a mother. While I would not hold these positions with little value, yet I would wish for them to strive for more than just these things.

Do not think simply because we [People who are pro-choice] do not agree with you, that we are ignorant of your views. Being pro-choice, does not mean we are anti-life, nor does it mean we are pro-life, we do not take a stance on the issue of life but rather understand, that someone’s personal choice, a life changing and albeit a very life altering act, on their mental, emotional and even physical health should be not be intervened by us or any one. That ones life altering decisions should be made by them without the belittlement or the degradation of their being for simply wanting the choice on whether or not to have a child. If they decide to have a child great, if they do not, then they shall not be chastised for it.

I often hear pro-life people calling women who have had an abortion, murderers, and the religious fanatics say they are going to hell, and things of this nature. As well as calling them selfish for having a an abortion and saying they did it just for themselves without any thought on the issue, I often wonder, do these people who are so proud to be pro-life and makes these statements, have they ever, and I mean ever had an abortion, or knew someone who had. Because personally I have known many women who have had an abortion, and not a one of them were so ignorant as to say, okay I am going to have an abortion and nothing will change etc.

All of them, thought long and hard before making their decisions. Some of them thought for weeks on the issue. Some had a battle with their own religion or faith that is against the very act they are considering. So to say these women who have abortions are ignorant and do it without thought is lunacy.

Women of all walks of lives have had abortions, Black, White, wealthy, poor, educated, uneducated, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Spiritualist, and Atheist; young, old and spread across every other socio, political and economic backgrounds. These women have hard enough times with their decisions without the constant belittlement of their choices and them as a people.

Many people who are pro-life attempt to demonize those who are pro-choice saying that we are pro-abortion and want people to abort their fetuses. I am pretty sure that no one who is pro-choice is pro abortion, we are for women being able to have the right to choose what she does with her body, and we also believe the government should not have any say in the matter when something is such a personal issue.

Touching back on the previous mentioned. No one is pro abortion, no one, not a single pro-choice and definitely not pro-lifer has said they are pro-abortion, because to be pro abortion is to want for the demise of all fetuses, not just pick and choose will this one make it, will this one not.

Pro-lifers love to preach the importance of life and want this to be 100% illegal, this would do nothing but cause more death, the fact of the matter is before abortion was deemed legal, the number of women who died trying to get abortions in back allies and other places outside of hospitals were at such an alarming high number. On top of this, suicide rates also went up, they were higher because of woman who did not want to have the baby, yet did not know where to go.

Those who pride themselves on being pro-life pride themselves on the wanting to take the rights away from women, a gender who have been the ‘inferior’ species in male dominated societies for thousand of years, now they have the rights to do what they wish to, to their body with the need to seek the permission of their male counterparts as they have had to do in the past. If you want the government to start regulating what is morally right or wrong more than it already does, then you might as well get ready for a fascist government who will dictate every part of your life. Once you give them the right to dictate and regulate reproduction, everything else goes down hill from there.

I also cannot stand hypocrisy. Some people who are pro life say it is okay if they are raped, incest and certain other situations, so a child born from rape holds less value in your eyes? Either you are for something or against it. There can be no middle ground on this issue. Either you are for a women’s right to choose what happens to her body under all circumstances, or you believe she should have no choice in the goings on of her own body.

I often hear that in a consensual sex act, should we punish the child for the acts of the parent, if you take this stance then there of course arises a question in times of rape, incest, that should you punish a child for the acts of the father? It is very easy to say well I am against abortion, great, no one is for abortion. Even pro-choice people are not “for abortion” we are for a women having the rights to choose for herself whether she wishes to have the baby or not, pass that we do not believe it is our, or anyone’s right to dictate what another may do to their own bodies. I, we and us [pro-choice people] have an issue when that mantra of “I am pro-life not pro-abortion”, when that mantra, as simple as it is becomes one of hypocrisy then I, we and us [pro-choice people] do take an issue with it.

Unlike you, we are not telling what to believe, yet we would wish for you to be consistent in your beliefs, if you say you are against abortion, then, be against it; I can at least respect that. Yet when you say, I am against abortion … unless this happens. Then that is not standing firm on your position. I can understand your position or exception to the threat to the mothers life, but anything else pass that, that would not threaten the life of the mother, yet would ensure the survival of the fetus, yet you are for the termination of it? So please spare me the hypocrisy in your arguments. Either you are against something firmly, or you believe as I do that the choice should not be up to us, in fact we should have no say on the personal lives of millions of women around the world, and the 800K-1M women in the US alone each year.

Also when it comes to propaganda for their cause, when you see pro-life flyers they always say this is how your baby looks when it is aborted and have a picture of a fetus aborted in the third trimester. When in fact 82% of abortions happen within the first trimester [0-12 weeks] 17.2% of abortions are done between the 12th and 20th week. Only .08% of abortions in the United States are done between week 21 and the third trimester. My only issue with this type of false propaganda is that they take about 5% of cases that get very late term abortions and try and generalize it with the other 95% who does it in accordance with the law.

Though use of visuals have been used many times, for many causes throughout history to try and get a point across, if they want to truly get their message across, I personally think it would be better carried out with the use of truth and not with false statistics and denigration of truth and facts that even their own statistic show isn’t true.

Also when those who are pro-life speak of pro-choice and its links to morality they of course never touch back on places to prove their words. I shall simply discuss the U.S. v China, with China’s one child policy. Okay China’s population is 5x that of the United States, with their one child policy many wives there have about two abortions per year [much more than the  U.S.] you would think if the pro-life abortion = lack of morality, then you would expect more crime. Yet they have less than a tenth of our crime rate, yet have as I mentioned 5x our population. I can name several other places that do not have policies on abortion, have more people than us and have less crime rate.

But in reference to this; and in the realm of theoretical and what ifs, let us look at the position of what society we would have if abortion were made illegal. You also hear pro-life people speak of if abortions were outlawed people will have less abortions, yet this of course is untrue. Even in our own countries history and other countries, when abortions are illegal, you have a direct link, of increased cases of suicides of pregnant woman, depression, child/new born homicide rates, and other things that can be directly linked back to the outlawing of a woman’s right to choose what is done to her body.  So you see even if the pro-lifers got what they want, it would only prove to be a negative reaction, history has already proven it would not be a positive reaction for neither the fetus… the baby… or the woman.

When we speak of abortion and pro-choice; many pro-lifers speak of the fetus having the “right” to a choice. While in an ideal world, we will be able to tell what a fetus and does not want, yet with modern wonders and scientific things we cannot. Touching on this you cannot have it both ways, either the fetus has more rights than the mother, or the mother has more rights than the child. You cannot split the two, so either you force a mother to have her child once she is pregnant to protect the rights of a fetus, or you respect that the woman has the right whether or not she chooses to have the child and make the decision her self.

No person; and definitely no government should make any laws dictating the reproduction of its citizens. Once you allow governmental control of our right to reproduce every other freedom is basically secondary this, the only law that would prove even worst is the government dictating our very lives, yet after the dictation of reproduction, it would prove simple from this to take the civil liberties from its citizens.

For the more extreme pro-lifers I have heard they not only think any woman who has an abortion should be charged with murder, but that any one who has a baby should be made infertile and forced to be sterilized for having what is a now a legal procedure.

I also hear about killing potential children and that being wrong, the law says a fetus is not considered a baby until it can survive outside of the womb by itself self, before this a fetus can be equated to what is known as a parasite. Something that survives off the body of its host, which in this case would be the woman; it obtains its nutrients, proteins, oxygen and what ever else it needs from the host.

Touching on faith for a moment, while I am an Atheist, I do respect the rights to other to believe in whatever they choose. Most pro-lifers admittedly are against abortion because they believe their god, is against the, what they believe is the senseless murdering of fetuses. They also believe for this reason that the law should outlaw it. While I can respect the religious beliefs in another, even if I personally have no use for it, I would just like to say remember this nation was founded to escape the religious tyranny, to allow your personal faiths to dictate the lives of another just because of what you personally believe would simply create here, the exact type of religiously run country that we escaped from.

Mentioning the landmark case of Roe v Wade, which not only made abortion legal, it gave the women, rather than the state governments and federal governments to dictate the laws governing whether or not a woman can have an abortion at all. This case, while was, and is still very controversial was a major step in the right direction of women’s rights in America. Whether or not you agree with this case, I would think many females would much prefer to make the choice on what to do with their bodies, rather than the government telling them what they can and cannot do with their own bodies.

To continue on with politics for one moment, in particularly the hypocrisy in the republican party, particularly the conservative branch. These are people who are very pro life, who are very by their own admission “anti-choice” and completely against the people having abortion. On the hypocrisy front is that, these are the people who claim to want less and less government control on what we do… yet on the same token also wants the government to outlaw abortions and any who perform them should be charged with murder and the mother should be charged as well.

Now to touch on a few of their arguments, they [many pro-life people] say that abortion is just another form of birth control and that they should have taken better steps to prevent them from getting pregnant:

First, even the best condoms on the markets, spermicides, birth control pills, etc are only 99% effective, so even if people use these things that means of every hundred of people using protection, 1% of them will get pregnant, and yet since we already know that many people do not even use contraceptives.  54% of women who have abortions admit to having used some type of contraceptive, either the pill, female condom, or their partner having used a condom. 46% admittedly have not used any contraceptive at all.

Second; using abortion as a form of birth control, I shall mention unbiased statistics. 60% of women who have abortions already have one or more kids. 21% of women who have abortions have previously had one abortion. Less than 15% of women who have abortions admit to having two or more abortions before then. Half of women who get abortions are between 13-24 years of age, generally they are not ready for, or are unable to support a child.

What type of sadistic individual would force a woman to carry a child to term? Doing this, as it has happen in the past would just make her go into deep depression and have a very high possibility of depression and suicidal tendencies, how is the death of them both because of your sadistic treatment of forced laws of making her carry this fetus for nine months. I will touch back on your choices given to her… after the baby comes to term later in this post… oh great, now you give her a choice on the matter.

Pro-lifers always say they are not against women. Yet when you want your personal beliefs on what should be a personal subject, to dictate the lives of another, of this group only women are or rather would be effected by this law. Then yes you are against women, you want your morality to become the law, understand that justice does not and should never be used to judge ones morality, it should be used for its intentions in the upholding of the legality.

But I am not a close minded man when it comes to these things. I understand that the law is like any society, it is constantly evolving, constantly changing on what society considers normal, or what society wants for its inhabitants, and that is usually equality, not based on one gender, not based on ones sexual orientation, not based on ones race, religion, background, equality shall always be strived for.

If you truly care about the child, then sometimes in these situations, abortion may be better. I would much rather one child be aborted, than that same child to be abused through out their entire life because the mother did not want them to begin with. There are cases of mothers actually killing their infants after birth because it was the result of a rape, is that more inhuman in your eyes?

Adoption really; many pro lifers speak of the mother having the baby and then putting it up for adoption. So, does the feelings of the mother matter less than the child? Many of these women go into deep depressive states, and in some cases have psychotic breaks, as well as harm themselves and in some cases kill themselves as the result of their depression.

But if we must speak of reality for a moment, and talking about the kids; if you want to speak statistics, there are millions of children in the foster care system in the US alone, and unless adopted the state/country is responsible for these kids until they age out of the system, which is not until the age of 21. So if a child is taken from the mother at 1, that means for the next 20 years tax payers are paying for these kids. In a system that is already overburdened with far too many kids and not enough money to take care of these kids. That is billions of dollars a year we spend on these kids, cannot afford to build new facilities that can house these kids, not enough case agents to check up on the kids properly to make sure they are being taken care of properly, that is if they are even lucky enough to be placed in a foster home or with a family.

Now let us speak of a reality if abortion were illegal. In the US alone there are on average 800,000 – 1,000,000 abortions performed per year, let us say that half of these kids are given up for adoption, that is 500,000 new kids put in a system that cannot handle this load this frequently, and these kids must be taken care of for 21 years. So for 21 years for EACH child the tax payers have to pay more and more, on top of a guaranteed 500,000 MORE KIDS being added to the system each year.

According to records on average it cost $40,000 per year per child in the foster care system, so that would be $40,000 x 500,000 per year added to a system that cannot support the work load, that does not have the money to support the kids it already has, yet the pro-lifers want it to handle more, as well as not enough case workers to make sure these new kids are safe when they are placed in a home. Which means these kids may be abused, physically and sexually, as many of the kids in foster care are.

So if you wish to be pro life and speak of the importance of the children, why not also show some of that same care for the kids that are already born. For each mother that is “forced” to have her baby and put it up for adoption, that is a kid who is already born, who gets even less support than they already do now. So if you wish to add 500K kids per year to a system that is already working under budget to support the kids it already has, and still take the stance of caring about the kids, maybe you need to evaluate your own choices. Should we take from those who are already born just to save those who will be in an even worst position as it ages in the foster care system?

Stopping it before it starts?
We always hear of the end result of what happens if it is made illegal and what happens if it kept legal;

Now if it remains legal, the pros of this of course is that the women still have the right to choose what happens to her body without the fear of being charged with a crime. The cons of this of course are abortions, it should be said that no one who is pro-life is pro abortion. We would also want that the number of abortions be less, yet we believe even more that people should dictate what is done to their own body.

On the other hand if it is made illegal, there are no real pros that I can really think of, the cons of cost would be the government having more control over people, increased cases of women committing suicide, increased cases of women becoming depressed, increased cases of kids being killed, increased cases of child abuse for unwanted kids. The overburdening of a system such as the child care system that is already overburdened enough with the previously mentioned reasons.

But is there truly a way to cut down abortion to even a fraction of what it is now? To increase productivity for teens, to cut down the amount of sex kids are having, to increase the age the average woman/girl has sexual intercourse of any type. To not only cut down abortion but also cut down the number of sexually transmitted diseases amongst teens who are not only the group with the highest new reported cases of sexually transmitted diseases but are also the group with whom the highest numbers of new abortions are contributed to these age groups.

What one thing, that is very simple, easy to put to use instantly as well as can be taught using the tools, or rather the people that we already have to get it all done?

The simple thing that would help with all of this is sex education in high schools. Schools where they have sex education have less reported cases of pregnancies, have less reported cases of sexually transmitted diseases, have more cases of kids who are having sex using contraceptives, who have a higher average age of kids/teens engaging in sexually activities.

In many high schools this can be taught by biology teachers who already know the human body, as well as already have studied the human reproductive system in college, as well as can easily discuss how to protect you from getting sexually transmitted diseases. Usually sex education, if the schools have it at all, are usually a credit requirement as apart of the health class. The problem with this is, in order to get sexual education in schools. This generally needs the parents or legal guardian’s permission. Many parents who say they do not want it in schools generally gives the same reasons, that talking about sex would just make the kids go have sex, that it may coincide with their faith, that they do not want their kids learning these type of things at 13-16, and many other things.

If parents actually knew the statistics of the on the only positive things that comes from sexual education. It should also be cleared up by what I mean by sexual education, if you go on school statistics and look at public schools, it says 60% of public secondary schools in America have sex education. If you look at what the course entails it is only the basic of teaching about the sexual reproduction organs, and things like that. Of that sixty percent 80 percent have this basic sex education, the rest have what I deem “real sex education” which discusses not only about sex, but also discusses protection, common sexually transmitted diseased, both incurable and curable ones.

Humor break…. Why do High Schools give you condoms with the pamphlet?… but staples the condom to the pamphlet by stapling right through the middle of the condom?

These are my opinions and reasons that I am pro-choice, I know many will disagree, and I know some may agree, but my opinion and reasons are Mines and Mines alone and does not represent anyone else other than me.

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http://atheosemanon.deviantart.com/