Standing with Planned Parenthood

I’ve been thinking lately about writing a small check to Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, which operates 25 service centers in Iowa but has never been high on my list of worthy causes because of the stiff competition for charitable dollars and the limited nature of my bank account. I’m not, after all, a breeder and so have only a limited stake in this, or so it seems.

Among the many services Planned Parenthood offers, abortions or abortion referrals are available at all 25.

The odd thing about this is that I really am not all that comfortable with the abortion concept, especially if it’s looked upon as a last-ditch form of birth control. But then I’m not a woman.

So I’d probably be willing to write a similarly small check to an organization that counsels against abortion, provided it also offered long-term support before and after birth to expectant parents who needed it. Such organizations certainly don’t do a very good job of publicizing themselves around here, however.

October was the month during which world population topped the seven billion mark (according to best estimates), compared to 2.5 billion in 1950. That’s waaaay too many people and if the trend continues, earth won’t be able to support us.

And the end is not near, so God is not going to take his chosen few home and leave the rest of us here to squirm. Get over that. We're all in this for the long haul --- together.

Spare me the “God will provide” crap, too. God already has provided and we’re supposed to be good stewards of what we’ve got because there’s no indication more will be forthcoming. One route to good stewardship is to stop breeding like rabbits and start or continue breeding like sane humans. That’s the major point of Planned Parenthood’s work; abortion services only a small part of it.

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Rick Santorum has been back in Iowa this week sharing his agenda, so we’ve heard a good deal about the “personhood” amendment he’s proposing for the U.S. Constitution. And in Mississippi next week, voters actually will go to the polls to vote on a state constitutional "personhood" amendment, similar to what Santorum is proposing for everyone.

The Mississippi amendment declares that a human egg becomes a person at the moment of fertilization. That’s just plain creepy.

For the record, Iowa law allows unrestricted access to abortions through the second trimester of pregnancy, forbids partial-birth abortions except when needed to save a mother’s life or in other limited circumstances and requires, for minors, notification of a parent or guardian (although judicial waivers may be obtained).

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Maybe I’d have a different outlook on abortion if I weren’t convinced that:

(a) much of the drive to restrict it is tied to the male goal of reasserting control over the bodies of females,  thereby re-establishing the power of patriarchy;

(b) if a way were found to determine that a fertilized egg would lead to an LGBT person, good Christians would have those little suckers flushed out of wombs faster than a guy could whistle Yankee Doodle;

(c) most Christians are just too damned lazy to invest time and money in viable alternatives to support women who decide to carry pregnancies against odds to term and so look to legislation and constitutional amendments instead;

(d) many good Christians with cash would hotfoot it to the nearest illegal abortion provider should the need arise and legal providers were unavailable;

(e) most opponents of abortion don’t give a rip about fetuses that are not white, that parents of unwanted children are likely to throw them away and that many if not most users of non-abortion-related Planned Parenthood services can’t afford private care;

and (e) that a loving God, even if He/She did choose to implant an itty bitty soul in an itty bitty egg, is perfectly capable of pulling that soul back into a loving embrace if a pregnancy is terminated.