Three must-read posts from elsewhere in the Blogosphere:
Thoughts from an Abortion Doctor
This piece is long but well worth the full read.
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We all know that anti-abortionists aren’t really “pro-life,” they are “pro-forced birth.” They make huge assumptions about who the women are who actually have abortions. They think that all the women who have abortions are just young flaky women who have no concern for the life of the embryo/fetus they are aborting. They couldn’t be more wrong.
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The decision to have an abortion is an agonizing decision, that few women choose lightly. They will be criticized for whatever decision they make. What kind of terrible mother could kill her own child? What kind of terrible mother could give her child away to strangers? What kind of terrible mother would keep a child she can’t afford to care for?
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The “pro-coerced birthers” think that these are immoral women who should be punished for their (sex) sins with an innocent child. Then they complain about “welfare mothers” who need money to support their children. Those “precious babies” become children who they don’t want to feed. Aren’t Christians supposed to provide charity for those who need it? Worse then that, they don’t want to use federal funds to provide effective contraception or abortions for poor women. They just want to keep punishing women. Of course, if it’s one of their own, she just “made a mistake, she’s really a good girl.” Abortions happen in the fundie community too, don’tcha know.
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I would be the happiest person in the world to never do another abortion again. So why do I do them? Because pregnant women with unwanted pregnancies are willing to risk just about anything, including almost killing themselves, in order to try to end unwanted pregnancies.
I remember reading some statistics comparing abortions in the U.S. and Mexico, before they were legal there. About the same number of abortions were done in each country, just over 1 million abortions a year. In the U.S. about 10 women died as a result of legal abortion. In Mexico, about 10,000 women per year died as a result of illegal abortions. 10,000 women who were mothers, sisters, daughters, wives. Not pre-viable fetuses.
There’s excellent evidence that in countries where women control their reproduction, the families are more prosperous. Funny that, women knowing when it’s a good or a bad time to add a child to their family.
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Life Under Socialised Medicine
OMG it’s a cross between Logan’s Run and Soylent Green! Not.
I live in Britain, under the NHS. Now, I want to say this up front in case anyone gets the wrong impression: the NHS is not perfect and no-one should ever claim it is. Having got that established…
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As for the government deciding your healthcare? Well, there’s two things here. Under the NHS, doesn’t happen. My doctor and psychiatrist decide what care I need, they note it down on a computerised system and the NHS reimburses them, the actual exchange of money nevers involves you. The career civil servants who run the NHS don’t decide your care, they just direct the resources where they’re needed, quickly, quietly and with a minimum of fuss. Admin costs average 6.8% of the budget, including pensions and benefits. Secondly, how is that different from insurance suits deciding your healthcare? Given the choice, I’d rather go with the career civil servants. The insurance industry has a profit motive, they are actively looking to screw you out of your healthcare because the more people they can cut off from care, the more money they make. The civil servants don’t care either way, they get paid exactly the same regardless of whether the NHS runs a surplus or a defecit. I could ring my doctor this morning and get an appointment this afternoon. Ah, but perhaps I’m special because I have “SUICIDE RISK” on my file? ‘Fraid not. Most people will get an appointment on the same day or, at worst, the following day.
Now, I keep having the sam argument with conservatives who believe the NHS is a failure since it usually runs at a loss. IT’S SUPPOSED TO! Look, healthcare is not a product like a Big Mac, healthcare is a service. The Post Office doesn’t make a profit either and it doesn’t matter if they do. Their primary purpose is to move the mail about for the mutual benefit of all. The fire service puts out fires for the mutual benefit of all. And that’s how the NHS works. They’re not a profit driven business, they just treat illnesses for the mutual benefit of all. It is in an insurance industries best interests to deny you care. It is not in the governments best interests to do so because the quicker you get better, the quicker you get back to work and start paying taxes again.
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How about costs? I pay around 22% income tax and about another 8-9% National Insurance (our version of Social Security, there is no such thing as a payroll tax here). That’s about average. How much do you pay in taxes? Now, add the cost of your health insurance (assuming you have it) to that figure and work it out again. The NHS running costs work out at just over $2000 per citizen, per year. How much can you get a year’s health insurance for? The US spends, on average, $2.3 trillion a year on the combination of Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance. Assuming the same $2000 per citizen, per year cost, the entire US population could be covered for around $600 billion a year, not counting start-up costs. Yes, some people here choose to take out private insurance anyway, that’s their right and they do it for many different reasons. Some want the option of skipping the wait times, some want a more luxurious hospital or brandname drugs (the NHS tends toward functionally spartan and generic drugs to keep costs down), some may have more esoteric reasons but the option is there. Some employers offer it as a perk for their high-value employees. I smoke about a pack a day. Marlboros here cost about $12 a pack, 80% of which is tax. I don’t mind paying that because the vast majority of that goes into the NHS. The government takes in about £10 billion annually from tobacco taxes and spends about £6.8 billion treating smoking-related illnesses. Again, I have no problem with paying that. I have a habit which is damaging to my health so I pay extra to cover the extra care which may be required.
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Every other nation in the industrialised world manages some form of universal healthcare. It takes many different forms, with varying methods of delivery and paying for it. Since you’re coming to this relatively late, there’s nothing to stop the US setting up a committee to examine the existing systems and then mix-and-matching the best parts, absorbing Medicare and Medicaid along the way, until you come up with something special and uniquely American. The USA is the richest nation in the world. California alone is the fifth biggest economy on earth and yet, you are the only industrialised nation which doesn’t guarentee at least basic healthcare for all of it’s citizens. Guys, Italy manages this without it turning into a socialistic nightmare. Are you seriously telling me that US politicians are markedly worse than those of Italy? In most of the civilised world, only a very few unfortunates (mainly homeless people or drug abusers) die for lack of care. That’s a tragedy, no questions there but how many people in the US die because they can’t afford care? Triage by wallet.
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Religious Freedom Doesn’t Include Promoting Hate
The title says it all.
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As the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act moves closer to passage through Congress, right-wing spokespersons are screaming louder about how this legislation will severely impact religious freedom.
Is that true?
It all depends on how you define religious freedom.
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These same religious folks claim that similar laws passed in the United States would inhibit their ability to preach the “truth of the bible” that condemns homosexuality. Of course, that arrogantly presumes that anyone preaching a message accepting of GLBT people is not preaching “the truth,” and that’s where the issue gets sticky.
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There are things people can say that aren’t facts. These are called opinions, and as the saying goes, opinions are like…..tushes-everybody has one. I could tell my wife a dress makes her look fat and that is not a hate crime. While it revisits the stupidity concept, it is not a hate crime.
When a pastor stands at his pulpit preaching to his congregation about how depraved homosexual behavior is and that GLBT people are abominations (stop me if you’ve heard that one before), the one thing he is NOT doing is stating a fact. He is stating something based on his interpretation of a translation of the Bible which is at best an opinion but has the potential to be much more, including a hate crime.
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First, a hate crime by its nature results in harm to the affected minority, usually violence. Remember, Matthew Shepard wasn’t just teased because he was gay, he was pistol whipped, tortured, and left tied up to a fence to die. Any pastor who preaches a sermon that even indirectly leads someone to commit a violent act has no business behind a pulpit, but might very well belong in jail.
Second, there are only really eight verses in the Bible, the infamous “clobber passages,” that are used in the condemnation of homosexuality. That’s right, all of this anger, discrimination, and hatred stem from EIGHT verses of scripture, translated and retranslated over thousands of years, written in times where society had no concept of a long-term same-sex relationship. Society also condoned slavery and polygamy (now there’s traditional marriage for you) back in those times.
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So how do I define freedom of religion? I view it as the ability to openly worship and celebrate God as I have come to understand Him. There are plenty of places in the world where that is still not an option, especially for those who profess to be Christians, so I don’t take it for granted.
I DO take for granted, however, that my freedom should not harm anyone else or infringe on their ability to worship God as they understand Him. I also take for granted that this does not give me the right to preach hate and incite anger toward anyone.
Not even right-wingers who do just that toward GLBT people I know and love.