And, what I posted this June:
A response to Ms. Paxton Smith, the Richardson, Texas valedictorian who spoke against the recent Texas abortion bill.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/dear-paxton-smith-abortion-isn-221258303.html
By columnist Cynthia M. Allen.
Allen has some good points, I suppose, but there are also "gems" like this:
"Children are not a barrier to your success, and our culture fails you for not repeating this truth loudly and often."
(Try telling that to all the white, middle-class girls who ended up NOT finishing college or going at all, let alone getting the jobs they would have PREFERRED, because they became teen mothers. Not to mention all the poorer teen mothers who don't even manage to graduate high school. Besides, wasn't it CONSERVATIVES who accused FEMINISTS, fairly or not, of saying that women could "have it all"? So now they're accusing feminists of saying the opposite? Well? Which is it?)
"Having a child at any age, even with ample resources, will require sacrifices. They will be worth it."
(Not when you didn't want the kid - or when you learn to love the kid but your partner never does and you become a single parent. Just because a minority of women CHOOSE to raise children alone even before they get pregnant doesn't mean most mothers would prefer that choice to childlessness.)
"Your worry about failing contraception reminds me of the lamentable reality that women today are not taught to appreciate their bodies. Too few of us are schooled in the knowledge of what our bodies tell us — like the biological markers that let us know when pregnancy is possible."
(What in the world makes anyone think that "natural family planning" should be appealing to non-religious women, in particular? Given the Real Life Failure Rate, which is certainly higher than the 6% failure rate of the Pill, the woman is more likely, with NFP, to be quaking in fear until she gets her period. How does that not ruin the fun of sex? Or is that the point?)
"And I hope that you will come to fully appreciate that motherhood isn’t the end of your dreams and ambitions, but their true fulfillment."
(Again, not if you don't want a kid and/or can't afford one. 60% of women who have abortions ALREADY have children.)
At least - and this is interesting - Allen didn't try to suggest that adoption is the answer.
And, regarding Allen's opposition to artificial birth control, you'd think people like her would be only too happy - and keep quiet - about liberals using those methods. What's stopping conservatives from having extra babies to bring up the birth rate, if they're so worried about it? Maybe even THEY secretly don't want more than two kids, on average? Or, at least, not enough to stand in the way of the middle-class lifestyle?
Btw, while there only seem to be a handful of paranoid conservative columnists who think that American citizens need to start having more babies than they want or think they can afford - for the ECONOMY's sake, I mean - there's no shortage of columnists opposed to illegal immigrants - OR the loosening of immigration laws. I have to wonder what the latter columnists are thinking, assuming they don't secretly agree with the former.
Lenona.