Courtesy of ABC News:
Pope Francis on Monday criticized abortion as evidence of a "throwaway culture" that wastes people as well as food, saying such a mentality is a threat to world peace.
Saying hunger is a threat to world peace, he noted that not only food but human beings themselves are often discarded as unnecessary.
"We cannot be indifferent to those suffering from hunger, especially children, when we think of how much food is wasted every day in many parts of the world immersed in what I have often termed 'the throwaway culture,'" Francis said.
That culture, he said, also affects the unborn child.
"For example, it is frightful even to think that there are children, victims of abortion, who will never see the light of day," he said. Francis has generally limited his exhortations about abortion, saying church teaching is well known and that he prefers to speak less about the church's moralizing rules and more about its positive, welcoming message.
The idea that a woman deciding to terminate a pregnancy, especially in its early stages, is tantamount to throwing away a child is ludicrous enough, but comparing it to uneaten food that somebody else would take, which I take to mean they could be adopted, is intellectually dishonest.
The fact is that there are over a half million American children in this country waiting to be adopted, and millions more around the world, most who will most likely never find a home to take them in.
The idea that there is a home for every child born on this planet is a fantasy, and one that is constantly pushed by the anti-abortion zealots to guilt young women into carrying their pregnancy to term.
The statistics claim that there are 125,000 fetuses aborted each day, or 44,500,000 each year.
And according to the Pope each and every one of those children deserve to be born. That is 44,5000,000 new human beings each year, born onto a planet already bursting at the seams with 7 billion people.
7 billion people eating the available food, using the limited resources, and adding to the pollution which threatens to turn our planet into charcoal briquette in the not too distant future.
Of course the population could also be controlled through family planning methods, that used birth control to give women the choice of how many children they want to bear, and at what time they feel prepared to bear them.
But as we know the Catholic church, and the Pope, are adamantly against that as well.
Which is why the Pope's words ring so hollow.
Simply put he cannot express frustration over the number of people starving to death in the world while also demanding that every sexual act should have the option of resulting in a fertilized egg, and that each fertilized egg should result in a new life on this planet.
If the Pope really believes that the food wasted by the wealthy is enough to meet the needs of forty four and half million new lives each year, it is time for him to put down the Bible and pick up a science book.
If the Catholic Church would advocate contraception then that would prevent any unwanted pregnancy and no abortion...simple!
ReplyDeleteI don't understand what is simple about rape.
DeleteDelivering the food to where it's needed is a big problem. Spoilage and bandits are the issues. But I suppose if Amazon.com can deliver packages via drones, then we should be able to figure out how to feed hungry people half a world away.
ReplyDeleteRegarding abortion, the wealthy will always have access to abortion, and the poor will continue to multiply.
When the Pope can get pregnant, the Catholic Church will acknowledge the truth. Whatever the current pope thinks about women's health issues, he is now dutifully spouting the lines fed to him by the people with the real power in the Catholic Church. Pope Francis is their puppet.
ReplyDeleteEvery single woman that is pregnant makes choices. That was true before religion was invented. And we, the thinking people of this planet, have to insure that WHATEVER choice that pregnant women makes, that choice should be SAFE.
Change the angle on that photo and it looks like he is brandishing a coat hanger.
ReplyDeleteThe Catholic Church hierarchy doesn't understand anything about real-world issues because they never have to live in the real world. Everything is done for them, all they do is intrigue against each other and pontificate. Popey-boy will get himself into trouble of his own making if he doesn't start choosing his words more carefully.
ReplyDeleteIt’s hard to talk to people who’ve been allowed to live in a bubble. I’ve never had an abortion, but I was meticulous about birth control. I often worked seventy hour weeks, and I could barely take care of myself, daughter, husband and stepson, plus the house and yard. My husband was no slacker, but the work in suburban America was always staggering. I couldn’t possibly have more children, yet I was constantly assailed by men who thought I should do more for my race, I guess. Like the pope, but ignore him, that’s my advice, he’s never lived in the real world.
ReplyDeleteThe archaic idea that sex is only for procreation coming from a group of men who are supposed to be celibate, sounds like the premise for some weird sci-fi novel.
ReplyDeleteThe basic idea is to control women, a feature of many "religions".
DeleteO/T, Jesse: HBO confirms that the upcoming third season of The Newsroom, set for a fall 2014 premiere, will be the series' last. The Newsroom's internal chronology, on two-year delay from reality, is expected to cover the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School as well as the Boston Marathon bombing.
ReplyDeleteO/T
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/13/chris-christie-investigation_n_4588132.html
THE AD CAMPAIGN IS NOT THE ONLY PROBLEM
THE CHRISTIE ADMINISTRATION HAS WITH SANDY AID
- 26,000 TO 31,000 NJ residents are still out of their homes a year after the storm.
- Housing advocates have sued the administration, arguing that the procedure for awarding the rebuilding grants has been opaque with lost applications and other mistakes creating huge problems especially for renters from Hispanic and Black residential areas.
- Just prior to the election, after the Seaside Heights Boardwalk fire, the Governor pushed through another round of relief money as those still waiting for the first round were ignored.
- Unlike in NY, NJ did not contact credit card and mortgage companies asking them not to penalize people who had trouble making payments because of the storm. Many are now facing severe penalties.
- Relief for businesses seems to be far more tied to political connections than to need.
- Mr. Christie’s administration has declined to attend all four legislative hearings around the state aimed at discovering what needs to be done AND have refused to organize their own.
- Even before Hurricane Sandy struck, the Christie administration fast-tracked a no-bid contract that could pay a politically connected company, AshBritt of Florida, up to $100 million to clean up the wreckage left by natural disasters in New Jersey. The company has long term and deep connections to Jeb Bush, Haley Barbour,
The company, Florida-based AshBritt, has made billions of dollars by persuading states to sign lucrative "disaster recovery" deals that allow it unequaled access to local officials in a crisis. Along the way, the company has forged strong relationships with politicians, including former governors Jeb Bush, Bobby Jindal and Haley Barbour and their states. The contract gives preferential treatment to AshBritt.The state contract allows the towns to hire AshBritt without bidding out the work and frees them of some environmental regulations. Unlike any other contractor, AshBritt is allowed to bring in subcontractors that don’t have a state license to transport waste. Local Companies hired by towns did the job for far less.
- Calls from conservation and disaster relief organizations to review regulations that permit housing on shoreline which has been judged by the Army Corps of Engineers as extraordinarily unstable. Those organizations say there is plenty of evidence that critical environment and climate issues are simply being ignored.
When a person believes that life begins at conception, it is easy to understand that they feel that abortion is murder. I can definitely understand that.
ReplyDeleteAlso, when you have something like 2% of abortions being performed in this country (will try to find source, but may not be today), it means that 98% of abortion is being used as a method of birth control after recreational sex. I think that is FAR too high. Especially when there is other forms of birth control that is so readily available.
@5:57
DeleteSo you think you are a better "decider" than the person who is pregnant. You think that being forced to carry a baby to term and birth it, automatically makes a woman physically, emotionally, financially, medically, willing and able to support both herself and the fetus. You think that coat hangers and back alleys are a better option than a clean, safe clinic.
AND... you think that wealthy women can and should be able to freely obtain safe private abortions in Canada and overseas but poor women (obviously less equipped to handle an unplanned pregnancy) should be forced to have the baby.
Well, I hope you've adopted at least a gazillion babies and donated large amounts of time and money to assist women through unwanted pregnancies. Because otherwise you might seem just a teensy bitty judgmental with your laughably stupid statistics "recreational sex" that you dug out of ..
My guess would be that most sex on this planet is of the "recreational" persuasion. And good birth control is certainly a great idea.
DeleteThe statistics on rape are hugely under-reported. Rape victims should not be forced to be incubators. Nor should rape victims have to undergo absurd processes to "prove" rape.
If I'm raped in a parking lot with no witnesses, I am ENTITLED to an abortion.
what part of the RCC is against Birth Control do you not understand. They disallow the docs in office owned by/affiliated with the RCC hospital from prescribing it. They are fighting birth control as part of ACA coverage.
Delete@5:57 Let's break down your comment and apply some logic.
DeleteFirst, let's be a little more PC and get rid of your term "recreational" and call it "consensual." The word "recreational" sounds more akin to recreational drugs, like it's something you're not supposed to do.
TWO people have consensual sex because they want to feel close or loved or it feels good. There's nothing wrong with that. It's a mutual act. So if these two people don't want a baby they take steps to prevent it. But hey, mistakes happen and BC isn't 100%.
So taking your 2% abortion stat. We can safely assume that a very small percent of that number is derived from consensual sex, i.e. more likely to use BC and less likely to opt for abortion if there is an unplanned pregnancy. Let's say it's .5% who fall into this category. Who are the other 1.5% of U.S. women that seek an abortion? Hmmm. Woman who did not have consensual sex but had it forced upon them. Should I tick off a few examples?
Rape-stranger
Rape-husband
Rape-boyfriend
Rape-relative
Rape-date
Rape-ruffie
Rape-cult/religious
You see under those conditions, a woman doesn't get a chance to choose to prevent an unwanted pregnancy. There's this funny thing called biology where it takes TWO people to create a fetus.
So now who exactly is to blame for all of these throwaway children??? Men.
Let's breakdown that 98% shall we? I'm going to guess that a good portion of that number comes from countries that are poor where, I might add, the last thing on a woman's mind is probably not "recreational" sex, but simply survival. Where the access to BC is slim to none. Where the overall social environment is unsafe and unstable for women and children because of war, poverty, oppression. You know what I mean? Can you picture it? So we can take my list above and apply that to these woman of the world and come to the same conclusion. It seems to me, the only people that perpetuate abortion? Men.
Now, let's think about the other 98%
For 6:38, first off... way to not actually READ what I wrote!!! I said that I UNDERSTAND that those that feel life begins at conception, feel that abortion is murder. I didn't pass judgement, either way, just that I can understand where they come from. Also, I would like to ensure that those that have chosen abortion as their option, have a safe place. Too often, clinics are overlooked due to political correctness, or political pressure. Google Kermit Gosnell. I dare you. There are horrible clinics that remind one of the 60's conditions. These cannot be allowed to continue. They MUST come up in the conditions.
DeleteSecondly, 3:43, I do consider it recreational. It is fun, enjoyable, and I truely don't give two hoops in Hades about Political Correctness. I think PC has gone WAY too far in "requiring" certain speech, instead of being able to choose your own words. I said recreational, and meant it.
But, on to the logic---this was a stat for THIS COUNTRY!!! not the world. 2% of abortuions are from women that have been raped---by whomever. the 98% is by those that haven't taken correct precaution. So, if it is a small percentage that took precaution, and woops! then that very well may be true. The rest are for the sole purpose of not taking any precaution at all. There are also men that I know that wanted to have children, thought that their partners did, and the woman had an abortion without any input from the would be father. Life sucks. I know.
But there are more women out there that don't use protection when having recreational sex, and know that they can have an abortion if something happens--therefore using as a birth control method, rather than as a no other choice.
OT:
ReplyDeleteIf you never did the job with any dignity, why bow out with any either?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/13/1269358/-Ken-Cuccinelli-uses-final-day-in-office-to-issue-anti-gay-opinion
Hmm...what about the countless lives that were "thrown away" during the Crusades?
ReplyDeleteTold you he was just another RCC misogynist.
ReplyDeletei suppose every menstruation is a lost life as well........pope should ask god why so many pregnancies end up with miscarriage during early gestation -- seems like that is never mentioned, only the 'abortions' that came from a woman's choice is bad.
ReplyDeleteif a lost conception is bad -- then it would seem an empty uterus is bad -- which would seem that not being pregnant would be bad -- so not having sex would be bad.
guess we should be having sex all the time to make sure we don't miss any potential conceptions.
can't a woman just be a productive citizen without having to be a slave to her uterus.
go to christies dot gov site and scroll thru his DAILY pic of himself..he really likes M-F near DAILY pic of him taken to post.
ReplyDeletehe doesnt seem to be around at all tho during the kochbros
"secret meeting" in NM last Aug 5th. he's gone from
7-30-13 to 8-12-13.
the 12th is when the email to screw with FtLee traffic
went out.
he is also not at Any of the 911 ceremony stuff in NYC
but his Lt is.
I'm pro-life, because abortion stops a beating heart.
ReplyDeleteI'm pro-choice, because lack of access to abortion may stop two beating hearts. Neglect and abuse kill countless beating hearts.
I'm Roman Catholic, a late convert. I have no statistics, just factual experience and anecdotes from the daily practice of the Catholic faith. There is no one-size-fits-all judgment about abortion. If you doubt this, look into the workings of Rachel's Vineyard retreats, which aim to heal the grief of women and men affected by abortion, and what a profound grief it is.
Poverty, lack of education and access to basic health care and birth control are fundamental issues, more essential and immediate than religious concerns or faith.
The teaching of bishops in the church is designated as authentic, but not authoritative. Catholics are counseled to consider what the bishops advise. But ultimately your own conscience helps you determine right from wrong. Not surprising, since the anti-abortion moralizing of today finds little or no scriptural support. It's common sense and sensibility. No woman wants to abort her child, and yet many women feel compelled to do so.
The poor are everywhere, but mostly we ignore them. Pope Francis combines the scholarship and intellect of a Jesuit with the sensibilities of a Franciscan--a fortuitous blend. He taught chemistry, so he did more than "pick up" a science book, and now he leads the world's Catholics. Better work to understand the impact of the Pope than to discount it, and work is a key word here.
It's tempting to dismiss the ambiguity and the complexity, but when we do so, we all lose.
Logic is not his strong suit................
ReplyDeleteWhich is why all this fawning over this pope is ridiculous. It's like applauding an abusive spouse because they only hit you twice instead of the usual five times. Is he doing anything about the most damaging issues within the church? Priest abuse? Demonizing women? A dozen other more harmful policies and dogma stances? Hell no.
ReplyDeleteGee, and folks thought things would "poof" change in the Catholic Church with the new, improved Pope Francis over the still living Pope Benedict.
ReplyDeleteCatholic Logic is hard to master in real world terms.