Hillary on Choice
Sep. 19th, 2008 04:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plumtreeblossomAn important article by Hillary Clinton and Cecile Richards on the attack from the Bush administration on women's health and reproductive well-being. It's a must-read for anyone who values family planning and women's health.
I can understand someone having an opposition to abortion. What I can't understand is someone opposed to abortion simultaneously opposing birth control. Accessible contraception and reproductive education are the only things that have reduced the need for abortions in communities, and we can reduce it much more via increased reproductive education and contraceptive availability.
I think a mistake many anti-choice people make is thinking that pro-choice people like abortion. Of course we don't. Every pro-choice person I know, myself included, wants to see the need for abortion reduced by minimizing unplanned and unwanted pregnancies in the first place. We can do it, if our access to family planning remains intact.
I was very fortunate as a high school student in the 80s. In my school, our health classes gave us a comprehensive education in contraception, STD prevention, human sexuality, psychology of sexuality, parenting, the right to say no to sex, the right to say yes ONLY to healthy sexual practices, and for girls, martial arts defense against rape/assault.
Did all that education turn me promiscuous? No. It made me decide to postpone sexual intercourse until I was 18, a legal adult and in college.
I'm proud of Hillary and greatful that she's standing up and fighting back for our health and reproductive safety. Spread the word.
I can understand someone having an opposition to abortion. What I can't understand is someone opposed to abortion simultaneously opposing birth control. Accessible contraception and reproductive education are the only things that have reduced the need for abortions in communities, and we can reduce it much more via increased reproductive education and contraceptive availability.
I think a mistake many anti-choice people make is thinking that pro-choice people like abortion. Of course we don't. Every pro-choice person I know, myself included, wants to see the need for abortion reduced by minimizing unplanned and unwanted pregnancies in the first place. We can do it, if our access to family planning remains intact.
I was very fortunate as a high school student in the 80s. In my school, our health classes gave us a comprehensive education in contraception, STD prevention, human sexuality, psychology of sexuality, parenting, the right to say no to sex, the right to say yes ONLY to healthy sexual practices, and for girls, martial arts defense against rape/assault.
Did all that education turn me promiscuous? No. It made me decide to postpone sexual intercourse until I was 18, a legal adult and in college.
I'm proud of Hillary and greatful that she's standing up and fighting back for our health and reproductive safety. Spread the word.