Roundup: Obama's Abortion Pledge to the Pope

Roundup: Obama’s Abortion Pledge to the Pope

Jul 21, 2009, 10:42am

Amy Dempsey

Obama's Abortion Pledge to the Pope; George Bush's Failed Sex Education Plan; Television as a Form of Contraception

Obama’s Abortion Pledge to the Pope
As a presidential candidate, Obama spoke to Planned Parenthood in 2007
and acknowledged the need to find "common ground" on the abortion
issue. He spoke about reducing abortions by educating women about
contraceptives, not about persuading a woman to not terminate her
pregnancy, according to CNS News.

When Obama met with the Pope, he made the same promise to reduce abortions.

According to the article, Obama said:

"There’s a moral component to prevention. And we shouldn’t be shy about
acknowledging it. As parents, as family members, we need
to encourage young people to show reverence toward sexuality and
intimacy. We need to teach that not just to the young girls, we need to
teach it to those young boys. But even as we are teaching those
lessons, we should never be willing to consign a teenage girl to a
lifetime of struggle because of a lack of access to birth control or a
lifetime of illness because she doesn’t understand how to protect
herself. That’s just commonsense. There’s common ground on behalf of
commonsense-there we have an opportunity to move forward and agree."

George Bush’s Failed Sex Education Plan
The Guardian
reported that teen pregnancy rates and STD’s are on the rise,
attributing it to former president George Bush’s 2007 funding for
abstinence-only sex education. The push for abstinence-only funding
came right after a study by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and
Unplanned Pregnancy found that sex education programs that included
contraception education were the most effective way to avoid unplanned
pregnancy, according to the article.

It was also after the Guttmacher Institute reported on "a nine-year, $8m evaluation of federally funded abstinence-only-until-marriage programmes found that these programs have no beneficial impact on young people’s sexual behaviour," the Guardian reported.

Bush also wanted abstinence-only funding three years after a report
found that abstinence-only-until-marriage curriculum contained "false,
misleading, or distorted information about reproductive
health," according to the Guardian.

Television as a Form of Contraception
The United Nations recently reported that the world population will
double in the next 40 years if growth rates go unchecked. India, with
1.17 billion people, was specifically mentioned, according to the San Francisco Gate.

In response to the the UN, India came up with a solution: To bring
electricity to rural villages so people can watch television at night
instead of having sex.

According to the article, India’s Health and Family Welfare Minister

Ghulam Nabi Azad said:

"If there is electricity in every village then people will watch TV
until late night and then fall asleep. They won’t get a chance to
produce children. When there is no electricity there is
nothing else to do but produce babies." He added: "Don’t think that I
am saying this in a lighter vein. I am serious. TV will have a great
impact. It’s a great medium to tackle the problem … 80 percent of
population growth can be reduced through TV."

OTHER NEWS TO NOTE:

July 20: Statesman Journal: Anti-abortion protests target area churches

July 20: The Hill: Push to ban federal cash for abortion

July 20: Feministing: Thanks, abstinence-only education!

July 16: GOP.gov: Pence Denounces Removal of Pro-life Provisions in DC Funding

July 19: Religion Dispatches:The Next Generation of the Pro-Life Movement

July 20: NYTimes: New Jersey G.O.P. Candidate Picks Woman as His No. 2

July 20: WSJ:Abortion Compromise Considered For US House Health-Care Bill

July 20: LifeNews: Obama Surgeon General Pick Regina Benjamin May Back Abortion, But She Won’t Tell

July 20: CNS News: White House: Obama Made Same Abortion Pledge to Pope That He Made to Planned Parenthood

July 20: Beliefnet: Sexuality and the Sacred

July 20: Feministing:Hi. I’m Jen. I’m an abortion provider