Pro-Life Group Crosses The Line

I know a fair number of people who are what I would call rabidly pro-choice on the subject of abortion. They oppose any and all legislation against abortion, including limiting partial birth abortion, and they oppose any notion of fetal rights. They are totally convinced that Roe v. Wade will eventually be overturned, and are afraid of losing control of their own bodies.

For the record, I am pro-life, and I do not believe in abortion as a means of birth control. However, I believe that some of the definitions of what is abortion are shady, and I do not believe Roe v. Wade should be overturned. For example, I recently read an account of a woman who found out that her unborn child was suffering from a fatal birth defect called anencephaly. Should the child even be born alive, it would not live for long. She and her husband, devout Christians, finally decided to have labor induced, so they could baptise and bury their child. When the child was being delivered, the cord was wrapped around the neck and the doctor had to cut it before delivering the rest of the body. For this reason, she is guilty of having a partial birth abortion.

Today I received a mailing from a group called American Life League, and now I finally understand why my "rabidly pro-choice" friends are afraid.

The mailing includes a letter from the president of the group and contains inflammatory statements about Planned Parenthood. The letter asks for donations to help close down Planned Parenthood facilities and specifically mentioned a sexual education book called "It's Perfectly Normal." Also in the envelope is a second sealed envelope marked "sensitive materials, contains graphic images and explicit language, please do not open if children are present."

I opened the second envelope with trepidation, expecting to see pictures of aborted babies. What did I find? Pictures and text from the above mentioned book, with an apology for the foul language and filth pictured.

The pictures are cartoon drawings with answers to commonly asked questions about sex. While the pictures are explicit, they are not pornography. There are no foul words, unless you consider the words penis, vagina, homosexual or anus to be foul words.

I am so furious I could spit. This is a classic case of judging a book by its cover and I'm ashamed that people who call themselves Catholic are sending out this crap. They are using sensationalism to scare people into donating money to their campaign.

The letter says, "Planned Parenthood's top goal for the next 25 years is to push its agenda of promiscuous sex everywhere in our society." "Planned Parenthood pushes pornography onto children with shocking and offensive websites, books and literature." "Planned Parenthood uses books, literature and the internet to tell millions of kids that sex and abortion are okay."

I put these people into the same category as those who think the government is in collusion with drug companies to inflate the risk of HIV/AIDS in order to make money. I put them into the same category as people who think the government requires vaccinations for school children because they want people to die and the birth rate to slow down.

I searched for the book on Amazon, and what I read there clinched my hunch that this group is being deliberately misleading about this book to further their own agenda. The vast majority of reviewers were happy with the book, and those who were not simply said they did not give the book to their children.

I remember being in the sixth grade, the grade in which we received instruction on sex education, although the school called it "Family Education." There were a lot of kids who had completely misleading or incorrect information on sex, and since it was in the late 80's, we didn't even discuss such subjects as sexually transmitted disease, rape, or birth control. Teens and preteens are intensely curious about the subject of sex and sexuality, and not all of them have parents who are open and understanding. When I was in 9th grade, there was a girl in my gym class who became hysterical when she started to menstruate for the first time at school. Her parents had never discussed it with her and she had no idea what was going on. When I was in 9th grade, some of my classmates were having sex, and by graduation, some had been pregnant.

While the cartoon drawings in the book are explicit and the language frank, it's certainly not lewd and it's certainly not pornography. While I don't think I would give the book to a ten-year-old, I don't think it's wrong to answer questions honestly, and I don't think children should be made to feel that their bodies are "filthy" or that sexuality is wrong, nor do I think Planned Parenthood preys upon children, teaching them to have sex at an early age so that Planned Parenthood can make money off of them by selling them birth control and performing abortions. Sex IS okay; just at an appropriate time with an appropriate person, something this group seems to have missed out on.

Censorship makes me angry. I don't believe in it. While I don't think this book is appropriate to be in a school library, I do believe that it is up to the parent to choose how to broach the subject of sex and sexuality with their children. Don't like the book or the websites? Don't look at them! There's nothing wrong with using a book as a tool, and even if a ten year old doesn't need to know the details about oral sex, it's easy to just skip that chapter and give honest, forward answers to the questions they have.

This group doesn't want anyone to believe anything but what THEY believe.

There's no shame in being against abortion on a religious basis. I'm one of those people. But it is wrong and disgusting and offensive to use outright lies and inflammatory propaganda to further your agenda.

I'm calling the American Life League tomorrow to demand to be taken off of their mailing list.