Kansas AG Blames Economy for Uptick in Domestic Violence
Kansas Attorney General Steven Six recently claimed that "the recession is fueling an increase in domestic violence," the Wichita Eagle
reports.  ""A tough economy tends to increase stress on families and
unfortunately, that often leads to violence," Six said.  The Wichita
YWCA has seen a 70% increase in women and children needing shelter from
abuse specifically. 

Unemployment especially worsens the problem, particularly among
those men who are already prone to abusive behavior and drinking, [Wichita YWCA executive director Chryle Nofsinger-Wiens] said.

By itself, unemployment doesn’t cause abuse,  Nofsinger-Wiens said.

 

North Carolina House Passes Sex Ed Bill

The North Carolina House approved a bill that would allow parents to choose the sexuality education their children receive:
an abstinence-only program or a more comprehensive option with
information about contraception.  Parents could also choose not to
expose their children to any sex ed, WSOCTV.com reports.  "The abstinence until marriage curriculum is the current offering in
most school districts. A handful of systems offer a program that
teaches about contraception. The bill would require all systems to
offer both tracks."  The measure heads next to the Senate.

Undercover at a Crisis Pregnancy Center

For the Pasadena Weekly, Tina Dupuy went undercover to a Los Angeles County crisis pregnancy center after a friend of hers, who went to the CPC for a pregnancy test and left after volunteers tried to "save" her. 

Avenues is a California primary clinic, fully licensed and accredited
by the state. So exactly what kind of medical facility lures women with
the promise of free pregnancy tests and leaves them fearing eternal
damnation?

Even before she was given a pregnancy test, Dupuy reports, CPC staff told her an ultrasound would be necessary to test whether her fetus was viable — and moments later she signed a release form stating that the ultrasound wouldn’t give her medical information.

Other nuggets?

In the backroom, Melissa tells me about all the reasons I should never
have intercourse. “Every woman, when she has sex, gives away a little
piece of her heart,” she says, then hands me a fistful of abstinence
literature…

“True love,” it says, “protects 100 percent of the time.”

 

From "Pro-Life Feminist to Pro-Choice Mama"

On EcoChildsPlay.com, Cate Nelson has a thoughtful piece on shifting her beliefs from "pro-life feminist to pro-choice mama" during the time of her pregnancy with her first child.  She writes,

I felt Little L move very early for a first pregnancy (12 weeks). I
am thankful for him every day. I was thankful for him every day that I
was a single mom, too. No matter how I struggled at times. But Little L
and I had incredible people in our lives. People who babysat for free
so I could work. People who bought us loads of clothes or sent us Whole
Foods gift cards. People who thought about what we needed and gave and
gave and gave, without us ever asking.

Most women—most poor families—do not have that.
How can we ask women to stay safe, protect the children they have, and
leave a bad relationship without support? How can policymakers
simultaneously rail against abortion while cutting funding for food
stamps or TANF or proposing “welfare reform”?