Pregnancy in America

I suggest the following laws be proposed and debated.

Deterrents:

• All male rapists must be either chemically or physically castrated after conviction.
• If the father of a child does not help care for the child, either by missing childcare visits, payments, or similar, the father will be chemically castrated until such time as he is able to fulfill his minimum duties as a parent (i.e., he makes restitution for the missed childcare).
• All children of male rapists that are not wanted by the mother must be given to the rapist to raise.
• Vasectomies can only be performed after the age of 25 and with a partner's, or the person's parents, consent. There is a waiting period of a minimum of 7 days to get a vasectomy. The person requesting a vasectomy must watch an hour-long video on the dangers of the surgical procedure and the joys of parenthood.
• In Texas, both the male and female participants will be tried and, if convicted, sent to the death penalty if the woman has an abortion. DNA testing is mandatory to determine with the greatest accuracy who the father of the child is.
• Males must wear athletic supporters and protective cups whenever performing any sports activity or dangerous activity to ensure their reproductive organs are safe from harm. Anyone found to be willfully harming the penis or testicles can be arrested and confined for up to 5 years or a fine of $25,000 per offense.
• Males must see a doctor a minimum of once a year and have their reproductive organs checked, including providing a semen sample to check for sperm viability.

If we make it in any way illegal to have an abortion, and it is done to "protect the child," then we must also propose the following laws to ensure the safety and welfare of that child:

• Increased federal funding and mandated minimum staffing for foster care.
• Increased federal funding and facilities for pregnant mothers to help ensure successful pregnancies and births. Alternately, a program by which all pregnant women get free healthcare while pregnant and for a pre-determined time after pregnancy to ensure both the mother and child are healthy long-term.
• Funding for and research into accessibility to medical care to ensure that all pregnant women have "reasonable" access to healthcare. Reasonable will be defined to mean within a 1-hour car, bus, or train ride from the person's home, a fully-staffed hospital, clinic, or other facilities that can perform all identified healthcare needs for a mother and child through the age of 5.
• Increased funding and accessibility for mental healthcare for pregnant mothers and post-partum women.
• Increased federal funding and increased access to food and post-birth medical care to ensure as many children that are conceived live to see the age of 5 (an age where mortality rates drop significantly).
• Federally mandated vaccinations.
• Increased federal funding for schools and all education programs.
• Federal funding for childcare services after birth so the parent(s) can go back to work, if needed, or can get child care services when required.
• Federal minimum time off requirements of at least 6 months for both the mother and father to care for the newborn baby.

If the pro-life, Republican politicians that are so stringently against abortion are *really* proposing these laws "for the children," and are not simply about controlling women's bodies, it seems like these rules are pretty much the *bare minimum* they should be proposing to both a) ensure that every child conceived has the best chance to survive to birth, b) to give every mother the best chance to carry the child to birth, and c) to give the parent(s) the best chance to raise a healthy child after birth.

Somehow, though, I don't think these suggestions will even be considered nor do I think these laws would make it even up for a vote. During the debate, I bet these white, male, "pro-life" politicians will laugh at the suggestions that males be held equally accountable for the pregnancy. I know already that they won't even consider plans to educate, care for, feed, or otherwise provide for the best welfare of the child once it is born as they have systematically attacked all of these institutions already.

These people are not pro-life. They are simply against women's rights because they know that to keep women "in their place" is to keep the men in power and to keep the current power structure strong. Women are a threat and this group is scared of them.

Abortion Clinic Tragedy

Let me state right at the beginning that I am personally against abortion. I feel that there are enough options out there for both men and women, including abstinence, condom use, and chemical and surgical options, that pregnancy is an extremely remote possibility for the conscientious. However, I understand that a very sizable minority of women want and need abortion as an option, so I feel it should remain safe, legal, and affordable for those times when circumstances out of a woman's control occur and/or an abortion is deemed necessary by the woman/couple/doctor.

Today, I read articles (here's one) about a doctor in Pennsylvania who was running what can only loosely be called an "abortion clinic." From what the article describes, this man was simply a modern day Dr. Frankenstein or, worse, serial killer masquerading as a doctor. I will not go into detail and I advise those with weak stomachs or who get nightmares easily from disturbing images not to read those articles. This man and some of his staff are up on multiple charges of murder.

These articles show why a) abortion needs to be kept legal, b) it needs to be overseen very stringently as a medical procedure, c) it needs supervisory oversight on a very regular basis, and d) women need to consider this a medical procedure and go to an established medical facility with a good record to have an abortion done.

What was described in the articles was similar to what we used to read about pre-legalized, back-alley abortions, where women literally put their own lives at risk to get the procedure done. It hard for a modern mind to wrap itself around the idea of the acts this man performed on these low-income, minority, and recent-immigrant women, who didn't know any better in a lot of cases. It is upsetting to think that no oversight group had been to his clinic to ensure safety and compliance since 1993.

My hope is that they throw the book at this man and his staff for the heinous and barbaric things to which they subjected these women. I hope that this stimulates better oversight and regulation, and certainly better and more frequent in-house inspections, of abortion clinics.

And, in the end, I hope it galvanizes more women to seek pregnancy abatement options outside of abortion, so they don't put themselves at further risk by going to one of these charlatans masquerading as a doctor.