New Assault on Family Planning by the Religious Right

[Lionel Mandrake]

One word you will seldom hear from the lips of a politician in this country (and never from a fundamentalist) is "population". The Religious Right denounces family planning, probably because the Bible tells us to be fruitful and multiply. Here's how they intend to put their (lack of) ideas into practice:

"As the fall legislative session gets underway, there are troubling signs that family planning opponents in the House of Representatives are preparing to attempt to end U.S. support for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

"UNFPA has long been recognized around the world as a leader in the field of reproductive health care. The world's largest multilateral provider of voluntary family planning services, it works in more than 150 countries to help women gain access to contraception and have safe deliveries and healthy children. UNFPA’s programs are essential in the global campaigns to provide emergency obstetrical care, end the practice of female genital mutilation, and prevent and treat devastating conditions like obstetric fistula.

"The United States stands virtually alone in its attempts to bar or restrict funding to UNFPA on ideological grounds; even poor countries like Haiti and Afghanistan make symbolic contributions to UNFPA to signal their support for its programs."

Read more: http://www.populationconnection.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=5321.0&dlv_id=8741

Population Connection is the organization formerly known as Zero Population Growth (ZPG).

[sufrommich]

1. They will do whatever they can to end abortion and

then they wil try to end the right to birth control. They are absolutely insane religious fanatics. They don't care about real world problems, thet hear the voice of their God in their heads telling them what to do. WHy we don't treat them as mentally ill is beyond me.

[defendandprotect]

2. RW only sees childbirth as labor -- and the Pope made that clear ...!!

Pope some while back appeared before Italian government -- an unprecedented event --

telling them tha they had to "make Italian women have more children" -- !!


Was the Pope exclaiming over the job of children -- ?

Did he want to help families with child care or other benefits -- ?

No, he was concerned that corporations would have labor -- !!

[Angry Dragon]

3. I think it is funny that an old man in a dress, wears red shoes,

wears a crown, has no sex, has no children that we know of
telling others that they need to have more sex

[HockeyMom]

4. I learned VERY WELL as an Only Child in Catholic School

what hypocrites they are, and had many arguments with priests over this. So why are these middle class families in this catholic school only having no more than 2 kids? God has made these parents infertile????? They are paying NO ATTENTION to what you teach, because they don't want to live in POVERTY, or in a slum 2 bedroom apartment with a quiver full of kids. End of story.

[defendandprotect]

6. Amazed that ....

you had the courage to actually challenge them --

I'm also a recovering Catholic -- got fed into the machinery by an Irish-Catholic

mother --

It also shocking that so many parents still make this choice to send their kids off

to a church which still doesn't acknowledge the full personhood of females as it

acknowledges the full personhood of males!

Iow -- a male-supremacist religion!!


:hi:

[defendandprotect]

5. True --

Didn't include a link first time round --

just for the record ...





Thursday, November 14, 2002 Posted: 12:07 PM EST (1707 GMT)

Pope to Italians: Have more babies


VATICAN CITY -- Pope John Paul II delivered a historic speech before the Italian parliament, urging Italians to have more children to reverse the nation's declining birth rate.
The pontiff also called on Italian authorities to show prisoners "a gesture of clemency" by reducing their sentences and repeated his call for the new European Union constitution to recognise Christianity's tradition on the continent.

Politicians, he said on Thursday, should adopt initiatives that "can make the task of having children and bringing them up less burdensome both socially and economically," The Associated Press reported.

The Polish-born pope called Italy's declining birth rate, one of the lowest in the world, "another grave threat that bears upon the future of this country, one which is already conditioning its life and its capacity for development."

It was the first time a pope has addressed the Italian parliament, bringing together church and state.



http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/11/14/pope.speech/



Here's another link -- not sure the original one is still working --

Pope makes historic visit to Italian parliament



http://www.boston.com/news/daily/14/pope_italy.htm

[CaliforniaPeggy]

7. K&R!

:kick:

[Lyric]

8. Doesn't that organization give money to China?

I'm all for providing prenatal and obstetrical care, ending FGM, and supporting ELECTIVE abortions. I'm not cool with helping China pay for coerced abortions, though. Do you have any further information on this?

[Lionel Mandrake]

9. I doubt it.

The well documented abuses in China have been discussed in Population Connection's newsletter. This fact suggests to me that Population Connection (like you and me) does not approve of coerced abortions.

Another point is that Population Connection is a small organization with limited funds, whereas China is swimming in US dollars. Population Connection making a contribution to China would be like you or me making a contribution to Bill Gates. In either case, the impact of such a contribution on policy would be negligible.