How to re-educate so that people will understand about abortion?

[St_Francis]

In another thread both the original post and a comment many pages later mentioned the fact that were abortion to be outlawed tomorrow, so many people would be lost and not really understand. I thought it would be interesting to discuss some ways of re-educating this society…

First of all, we have no problem telling people that smoking is evil. We have public service announcements, restrictions on advertising and portrayals in movies, and lots of comments during the course of public education about the evils of smoking.

It seems to me that if we had a moral sex education program throughout the course of education, that children would grow up pro-life. Instead of Heather has 2 Mommies, we have pictures of babies as they developed and happy stories about babies’ arrivals and about family life (even if the families are “non-traditional”–single-parent, blended, etc).

And ads: alongside smoking kills, this is your brain on drugs, and the like; we just have ads showing unborn babies. We don’t have to have anything anyone would consider gory, just pictures of the babies, maybe with a voice-over saying, a baby’s heart starts beating at 22 days, and other things like that.

But also to foster in people the idea that sex and pregnancy are connected; that people shouldn’t have sex if they are not ready for a baby. Right now, it seems like the most irresponsible thing a person can do is to “get caught” with a baby or an STD. I think we need to move to the idea that the most irresponsible thing a person could do is to run the risk of conceiving a baby. Like: Not ready for a baby? Then maybe you’re not ready for sex.

I think that all these things could be done without “bringing religion into it,” or “being judgemental.” Just pressure Hollywood to bring up some outrage when a friend discovers her friend has lost her virginity: What??? Are you crazy? You could conceive a baby–have you thought of that? --Well, we used abc!–Yes, but abc doesn’t always work. You’re being really irresponsible! Just the way they never have any good guys smoking anymore!!!

I am sure there are a lot of good ideas out there, and I think that discussing them is a good idea, and maybe something will percolate out of those discussions.

PS This in no way is meant to reduce the importance of fighting for the government to protect the unborn just as they protect those already born. Just that I think that most of the proposals for “reducing [the need for] abortion” are not going to work because they don’t address the root cause, and also have already been proven not to work.

 

[dashso40]

I think those are great ideas…but I don’t think the schools will do them, I hear they pass out condoms instead…I don’t know, my kids are young and go to Catholic school anyway…Hollywood definitely makes no big deal about abortion and many kids listen to them…I used to be pro choice b/c my parents did not teach me about Jesus and never ever talked to me about sex or not having it or even mentioned the word…I only became anti abortion when i converted…I think prolife would start in the home b/c the people that I knew who were antiabortion, their parents taught them that way and they had Jesus in their lives…

 

[Drawmack]

I actually think that a reasonable first step in the fight against abortion would be utilization of the informed consent laws. Legally, abortion in the United States is considered a medical procedure. There are also laws on the books that say people must give informed consent to have a medical procedure performed. These laws, in my opinion, are not upheld when it comes to abortion.

As far as I am concerned, informed consent means that the patient knows exactly what they are having done, exactly what the possible side-effects are, exactly what types of mistakes can happen and the chances of those mistakes, and what the alternatives are. This being the case, it would take a class to inform the women of all this.

I say that if someone wants an abortion they should have to go through a three day (an hour or two a day) class on the topic. I’ve already begun trying to find doctors to help develop the curriculum. Once that is done, I plan on attempting to lobby, at the state level, to have it instituted as a mandatory precursor to getting an abortion. The curriculum should be well rounded.

Day one would be the stages of embryonic development. This would cover exactly what the blastocyst (sp?) and embryo are at every week of justation. Day two would be alternatives. This could cover adoption and keeping the baby, it would go over services available for both alternatives. Day three would be what is abortion. This would cover exactly what happens when a woman gets an abortion including possible side effects and ramifications. This class would have to be an honest look at abortion and it’s ramifications, which is why I am looking for medical doctors to help put it together.

I also believe that the pro-choice / pro-life education should begin at home. So, this class should also be adapted for use by parents at home.

I don’t think that a TV ad campaign would be a bad idea, but remember that if you started this the opposition could fight back with their own campaign. Would it really help that much if every time a pro-life ad ran it was followed by a pro-choice ad? I think this might be why it hasn’t been done. The opposition would likely benefit more from it than we would. And, even if they didn’t benefit directly they may by the pro-life’s resources being pulled thinner by the money this would take.

 

[Mary_Gail_36]

When I learned about sex, it was in the context of “how a baby comes to be”.

Now, I believe children are taught, at school, through the media through possibly even their parents that sex is this great, fun thing to do. Do it all you want, but remember to protect yourself from this evil thing called pregnancy.

Telling teens to abstain is not considered realistic, in fact it’s considered forcing one’s religious views on others.

I remember being a teen and watching a soap opera, and this character had an abortion. She had had an affair with a married man. She was so anguished over what she did, she ended up having a mental breakdown. To have a plot-line like that, many of the viewers had to understand that abortion was some how wrong.

I’m not sure people understand that now.

 

[Drawmack]

When I learned about sex, it was in the context of “how a baby comes to be”.

Now, I believe children are taught, at school, through the media through possibly even their parents that sex is this great, fun thing to do. Do it all you want, but remember to protect yourself from this evil thing called pregnancy.

Telling teens to abstain is not considered realistic, in fact it’s considered forcing one’s religious views on others.

I actually agree that, simply, telling anyone to abstain is not realistic. I mean think about it, how many people do anything just because God said so without any other consideration? Sure there are some, but how many – really? However, I believe that if sex education is, honestly, taught people would choose to abstain.

If they want to teach about contraception in sex education fine – let’s do that. I want the failure rates included. I want what the pill actually does included. I want the precise data on rate of failure for both STD transmission and pregnancy shared as part of the education. After all isn’t education about giving someone a thorough understanding of something.

If they want to teach about abortion in sex education fine – let’s do that. I want embryonic develop, at every week of gestation, taught as well. I want the possible side effects of abortion taught with the percentage chance of each one happening. I want the alternatives taught as well.

You don’t have to get into religion or theology to show that it is stupid for teens to engage in pre-marital sex. You simply have to be honest about sex to show that.

I am not about removing sex education from the schools. I am about more sex education. I am about honest sex education. Removing sex education actually exacerbates the issue. (I am not implying that anyone else was saying to remove sex education from the schools, just talking about my views.)

 

[centurionguard]

When I learned about sex, it was in the context of “how a baby comes to be”.

Now, I believe children are taught, at school, through the media through possibly even their parents that sex is this great, fun thing to do. Do it all you want, but remember to protect yourself from this evil thing called pregnancy.

Telling teens to abstain is not considered realistic, in fact it’s considered forcing one’s religious views on others.

I remember being a teen and watching a soap opera, and this character had an abortion. She had had an affair with a married man. She was so anguished over what she did, she ended up having a mental breakdown. To have a plot-line like that, many of the viewers had to understand that abortion was some how wrong.

I’m not sure people understand that now.

It’s a sad state of affair with today’s lack of morality even in Catholic homes.
Few adult Catholics really take up an honest interest to read and study the Catechism of the Catholic Church. (“Do What Feels Good”) is the motto of today’s secular godless society. Rarely do you hear talks about abortion from the pulpit.

 

[Drawmack]

It’s a sad state of affair with today’s lack of morality even in Catholic homes.
Few adult Catholics really take up an honest interest to read and study the Catechism of the Catholic Church. (“Do What Feels Good”) is the motto of today’s secular godless society. Rarely do you hear talks about abortion from the pulpit.

To quote the great philosopher Sheryl Crow, “If it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad. … If it makes you happy, why the hell are you so sad?”

 

[vz71]

… a baby’s heart starts beating at 22 days, and other things like that.

Already done.

I have noticed several signs throughout my city that have such messages on them.

 

[St_Francis]

Already done.

I have noticed several signs throughout my city that have such messages on them.

This is great I live in the middle of nowhere and rarely get to see things like this!

 

[St_Francis]

I think those are great ideas…but I don’t think the schools will do them, I hear they pass out condoms instead…I don’t know, my kids are young and go to Catholic school anyway…Hollywood definitely makes no big deal about abortion and many kids listen to them…I used to be pro choice b/c my parents did not teach me about Jesus and never ever talked to me about sex or not having it or even mentioned the word…I only became anti abortion when i converted…I think prolife would start in the home b/c the people that I knew who were antiabortion, their parents taught them that way and they had Jesus in their lives…

This is a really point–most people I know do follow their families on this issue. I thought about the stuff in school because so many families don’t know enough about it to teach it.

(The point I want to make in a bit about the TV ads would also apply here.)

 

[St_Francis]

…I don’t think that a TV ad campaign would be a bad idea, but remember that if you started this the opposition could fight back with their own campaign. Would it really help that much if every time a pro-life ad ran it was followed by a pro-choice ad? I think this might be why it hasn’t been done. The opposition would likely benefit more from it than we would. And, even if they didn’t benefit directly they may by the pro-life’s resources being pulled thinner by the money this would take.

One of the reasons my ideas were so big was that I was thinking about how the government keeps saying they want to reduce [the need for?] abortion. I thought that they could fund the ads, in order to further that. This is also why I thought the school curriculae could also be changed, because the government has said they have this goal.

 

[Drawmack]

This is a really point–most people I know do follow their families on this issue. I thought about the stuff in school because so many families don’t know enough about it to teach it.

(The point I want to make in a bit about the TV ads would also apply here.)

I wonder, if pro-lifers raise pro-life children and pro-choicers raise pro-choice children then wouldn’t the pro-choice kill themselves off eventually?

 

[Drawmack]

One of the reasons my ideas were so big was that I was thinking about how the government keeps saying they want to reduce [the need for?] abortion. I thought that they could fund the ads, in order to further that. This is also why I thought the school curriculae could also be changed, because the government has said they have this goal.

I agree that I would like the government to tell me exactly how they plan to reduce the need for abortion while increasing it’s accessibility. While I agree that this is possible (think of vaccines, the more readily available they are the less we need them), I would like them to tell me how they are going to accomplish this.

 

[vz71]

I wonder, if pro-lifers raise pro-life children and pro-choicers raise pro-choice children then wouldn’t the pro-choice kill themselves off eventually?

The logic sounds good, but it doesn’t work out that way.

‘eventually’ can be several generations.

 

[Drawmack]

The logic sounds good, but it doesn’t work out that way.

‘eventually’ can be several generations.

It was tongue in cheek.

 

[budgie2]

Very often the women that have abortions, I think the peak age is 19 here in Britain so girls really, don’t have supportive families that will help them care for a baby or their parents just shrug the decision off. One of my friends had an abortion and her mother was married three times and she’d chucked her out. I don’t think she thought her own life was worth living. There should be more hospices or people willing to care for pregnant mothers in crisis pregnancies. I personally would offer a bed to a person who was considering an abortion and ideally there would be a network of families that could help.

 

[royal_archer]

In another thread both the original post and a comment many pages later mentioned the fact that were abortion to be outlawed tomorrow, so many people would be lost and not really understand. I thought it would be interesting to discuss some ways of re-educating this society…

.

How about a poster with a turtle 2/3rds through gestation along side of a human baby at the equivalent point in gestation. Then a caption “One is protected by federal law the other is killed with federal funding”

How about a teen show where guys actively talk about not wanting to date a girl who has been around?

How about a campaign to get father’s rights recognized and understood?

How about associating abortion terminology with acts they all know are wrong. For instance: instead of saying Susan Smith drowned her kids, saying she “chose to abort them” How about if charachters in shows used the term abort when ever talking about killing someone?

How about publicising couples who are looking to adopt the way the publicise pets for adoption. That way some of these mothers would see that there are good homes for these children to go to.

How about filling out a police report any time a child under the age of consent get’s pregnant.

 

[budgie2]

In another thread both the original post and a comment many pages later mentioned the fact that were abortion to be outlawed tomorrow, so many people would be lost and not really understand. I thought it would be interesting to discuss some ways of re-educating this society…

First of all, we have no problem telling people that smoking is evil. We have public service announcements, restrictions on advertising and portrayals in movies, and lots of comments during the course of public education about the evils of smoking.

It seems to me that if we had a moral sex education program throughout the course of education, that children would grow up pro-life. Instead of Heather has 2 Mommies, we have pictures of babies as they developed and happy stories about babies’ arrivals and about family life (even if the families are “non-traditional”–single-parent, blended, etc).

And ads: alongside smoking kills, this is your brain on drugs, and the like; we just have ads showing unborn babies. We don’t have to have anything anyone would consider gory, just pictures of the babies, maybe with a voice-over saying, a baby’s heart starts beating at 22 days, and other things like that.

But also to foster in people the idea that sex and pregnancy are connected; that people shouldn’t have sex if they are not ready for a baby. Right now, it seems like the most irresponsible thing a person can do is to “get caught” with a baby or an STD. I think we need to move to the idea that the most irresponsible thing a person could do is to run the risk of conceiving a baby. Like: Not ready for a baby? Then maybe you’re not ready for sex.

I think that all these things could be done without “bringing religion into it,” or “being judgemental.” Just pressure Hollywood to bring up some outrage when a friend discovers her friend has lost her virginity: What??? Are you crazy? You could conceive a baby–have you thought of that? --Well, we used abc!–Yes, but abc doesn’t always work. You’re being really irresponsible! Just the way they never have any good guys smoking anymore!!!

I am sure there are a lot of good ideas out there, and I think that discussing them is a good idea, and maybe something will percolate out of those discussions.

PS This in no way is meant to reduce the importance of fighting for the government to protect the unborn just as they protect those already born. Just that I think that most of the proposals for “reducing [the need for] abortion” are not going to work because they don’t address the root cause, and also have already been proven not to work.

I think one thing a lot of people don’t realise is that many have abortions for financial reasons and in a materialistic home that is a respectable choice. There are some women that I know that chose to have abortions so that they didn’t claim benefit off the state and the single mother on low income is at the bottom of the pile socially. I’m not saying that it’s necessarily in the state’s financial interest to abort, as children could be adopted although some politicians may believe it cheaper than paying out on social security. We should not look down on the single mother as then we look up to the woman who has had an abortion.

 

[St_Francis]

How about a poster with a turtle 2/3rds through gestation along side of a human baby at the equivalent point in gestation. Then a caption “One is protected by federal law the other is killed with federal funding”

How about a teen show where guys actively talk about not wanting to date a girl who has been around?

How about a campaign to get father’s rights recognized and understood?

How about associating abortion terminology with acts they all know are wrong. For instance: instead of saying Susan Smith drowned her kids, saying she “chose to abort them” How about if charachters in shows used the term abort when ever talking about killing someone?

How about publicising couples who are looking to adopt the way the publicise pets for adoption. That way some of these mothers would see that there are good homes for these children to go to.

How about filling out a police report any time a child under the age of consent get’s pregnant.

These are great ideas!

 

[St_Francis]

I think one thing a lot of people don’t realise is that many have abortions for financial reasons and in a materialistic home that is a respectable choice. There are some women that I know that chose to have abortions so that they didn’t claim benefit off the state and the single mother on low income is at the bottom of the pile socially. I’m not saying that it’s necessarily in the state’s financial interest to abort, as children could be adopted although some politicians may believe it cheaper than paying out on social security. We should not look down on the single mother as then we look up to the woman who has had an abortion.

Yes, this is all sadly true.