anti-abortion cause stirs new generation

[niyad]

Antiabortion cause stirs new generation

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Linda Johnson / For The Times
At Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Philadelphia, the Teen Board for Generations for Life group, a pro-life group for young people, holds a meeting.
Born into a time after Roe vs. Wade, many young adults are eager to reverse it. And veteran activists are happy to enlist their help.
By Stephanie Simon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 22, 2008
WALLINGFORD, PA. -- The bell rang and the eighth graders jumped up, eager to compare notes.

"I named my baby Kyle Patrick," one shouted.

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"Mine is Antonio!"

At the urging of an antiabortion activist, they had each pledged to "spiritually adopt" a fetus developing in an unknown woman -- to name it, love it from afar and above all, pray daily that the mother-to-be would not choose abortion.

"Maybe one day you'll get to heaven and these people will come running to you . . . and say, 'We're all the little children you saved,' " activist Cristina Barba said. She smiled at the students in their Catholic school uniforms. "Maybe you really can make a difference."

Thirty-five years after Roe vs. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, opponents are pouring resources into building new generations of activists. Young people are responding with passion.
. . . . .

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-youth22jan22,1,5600743.story?track=rss&ctrack=4&cset=true

[Warpy]

1. The first pregnancy scare will cure them

Guaranteed.

[Virginia Dare]

2. What this tells me is that conservative churches..

particularly conservative catholic churches have done a good job brainwashing these kids. They interviewed a few of them on the local news here in D.C., and to a person, they all pretty much had the same line, that they were there speaking for the "babies who can't". I just get really pissed when I see children, particularly pre-pubescent ones out picketing in front of abortion providers. These kids are way too young to understand the implications surrounding reproductive decisions.

[BonnieJW]

3. Women have had abortions since they understood

they could end a pregnancy. They will continue to do so, no matter what politicians and Jesus freaks say. They will find a way.

[Iris]

4. You know, if a Catholic kid wakes up to this sort of brainwashing...

it's all over.

[Scout]

5. that's what happened to my husband...

when he went to public rather than catholic school for jr high and high school, and then of course college.

he is a recovering catholic now!

[SemiCharmedQuark]

6. You know, I went to a pretty liberal Catholic School

But on this issue, they were completely conservative. Brainwashing at its finest. They would hand around tiny plastic people and say that "this is what a fetus looks like". I think three things can help people to see. The first: Pregnancy scare. Have one of these and all of a sudden you might start to see that it isn't just "loose women" that get themselves pregnant when they cannot or do not want a baby. I remember climbing out of my window in the dead of night and running all the way to the drug store and all the way back. I remember the humiliation of buying a kit and I remember being so scared that not even a negative response satisfied me. I took a test every single day, sometimes twice a day until I knew for sure. The second: See Body Worlds. You see that a fetus is not the tiny, perfectly formed little person. The third: Take a look at the hypocrisy in the "pro-life" movement.

[bjorkfan]

8. But that Catholic kid was born because of his parents' anti-abortion views....

When you think about it, the anti-abortion/traditionalist viewpoint is endemically self-perpetuating. They simply have more kids! The kids support the philosophy that caused their existence.

I think recent Hispanic immigration has alot to do with this. Even though Hispanics often vote Democrat, they largely support the Catholic Church, the largest pro-natalist organization in the world. A global organization that far cancels out the Democratic party. And Hispanic women have a high birth rate. If abortion is ever banned in any way, it won't be because of the white, Conservative Christian Coalition types, but because of a turning demographic tide caused by traditionalist cultures outbreeding liberal cultures.

[shagsak]

9. kind of like idiocracy

More stupid people reproduce than intelligent ones. Eventually, the world dumbs down.

[uppityperson]

10. Pshaw. You seem to assume that anyone who believes in choice won't have children.

That is not particularly accurate as many of us were born to parents who believed in having choice of a safe legal abortion.

I do agree though that the population is dumbing down since the majority of those with larger families are the more fundamentalist ones, or the ones who don't know or care about contraception.

[bjorkfan]

11. Not that they won't have children, but generally they have fewer children.

[pixiesix]

7. ugh

it makes me ashamed of my generation