SHE THINKS NOT
the outside-the-buffer-zone idiot letter of the
week
It's been a while since we've had one of these --
not, of course, because they haven't been written or published, but because the
ones that have been written and published just haven't reached out and grabbed
me by the brain or the throat and demanded that I dissect them. This one, from
Ross' own Elizabeth J. Pascuzzi, reached out and grabbed me by the uterus. I
figured that was close enough...
The logic of Erica Fricke ("About Abortion Rates," Feb. 1 letters) makes no sense.
Never mind that Erica Fricke's logic makes perfect sense. (Don't believe me? Read it for yourself.) And never mind that logic, by definition, must make sense. (If it didn't make sense, it would be illogic.) Just consider that whenever a letter to the editor begins by criticizing someone else's sense and logic, the chances of finding actual sense and logic in it are roughly the same as finding sense and logic in the aspirations of a newborn baby. What follows is often little more than a random succession of gurgles and spit-ups.
Ms. Pascuzzi does not disappoint.
She came to the conclusion that "education and contraception" alone have reduced the abortion rate...
That's not exactly the conclusion to which Ms. Fricke came. Her exact words were: it turns out that it's not laws that reduce the abortion rate, but education and contraception. She cites several different statistics in her letter to support that suggestion, and you can find a whole hell of a lot more that she didn't cite.
Education and contraception have reduced the abortion rate. This is a fact. One that people like Ms. Pascuzzi would obviously rather not admit, but also one from which they can not, lest they stick their heads up their own birth canals, hide.
...and that her Planned Parenthood health center is instrumental to this task.
And here you have it, folks. Yet another letter from yet another zealot who sees sex, abortion, education, contraception, women's health, and especially Planned Parenthood as a pitched battle between black and white, between good and evil, with no shades or grays or counterbalances to be had. That sort of stuff sounds good on the stump, and I'm sure it plays well in the vestibules of Ross Township churches where everyone wants to protect the unborn fetus but precious few want to nurture the unwanted child. But out here in the real world, where the real issues are not so simple and the real people who must negotiate them are less simple still, we do well -- and, indeed, do best -- when we acknowledge that complex problems require complex solutions, and that sacrificing good work on the rigid altars of ideology only deepen the divide we hope to cross.
Planned Parenthood is one of the largest abortion providers in the country.
That, of course, is indisputable. Just as it is indisputable that Planned Parenthood is one of the largest preventers of abortion -- through education and contraception, through resources and counseling -- in the country. Just as it is indisputable that Planned Parenthood is one of the largest providers of women's health care in the country.
But not, of course, to hear Ms. Pascuzzi tell it...
Doctors at Planned Parenthood kill babies, that's what they do, that's their job.
Comma splices, run-on sentences, and stillborn grammar aside... yes, that's part of their job. That's part of what they do. Because that's one of the services the offer. But I dare you, Ms. Pascuzzi, to go and talk to a Planned Parenthood doctor, or to any doctor who performs abortions, and try to find one who really loves his work, one who gets us every morning and looks forward to performing abortions and hopes that unwanted pregnancy rates stay nice and high so she'll be performing them for the rest of her life.
I promise you that there's a complexity to these folks -- at least to most of them -- that you are not giving credit to, and surely are not displaying yourself, in your letter. And I also promise that, no matter what you might think or fear, they do not look like this.
Planned Parenthood has a part in reducing the rate of abortions?
Yes. It does. Through education and contraception and a whole host of programs you can read about on its website. Because it really is possible, out here in the real world, to simultaneously provide a medical procedure and reduce the numbers of that procedure being performed. If you don't believe me, go ask any breast cancer surgeon whether, through practice and consultations and alternative procedures, she is not also actively working to reduce the rate of mastectomies she (or anyone else) is performing.
I think not.
That, Ms. Pascuzzi, is quite clear.
And it's just possible that one of the reasons the abortion rate has declined is that more and more young people, through "education," realize that life begins at conception, and that abortion is just plain wrong.
Indeed it is. Just as it is possible -- and, indeed, confirmed -- that more and more young people (and grown people) are taking advantage of the services of Planned Parenthood and other family planning clinics and even their own doctors to realize that they won't have to consider the wrong of abortion if they take a few right and simple steps to prevent the conception. Just as it is possible that, with a little more empathy and a lot less zealotry, people like Ms. Pascuzzi could see a bit more gray -- and a lot less red -- in their not-so-black-and-white world.
The logic of Erica Fricke ("About Abortion Rates," Feb. 1 letters) makes no sense.
Never mind that Erica Fricke's logic makes perfect sense. (Don't believe me? Read it for yourself.) And never mind that logic, by definition, must make sense. (If it didn't make sense, it would be illogic.) Just consider that whenever a letter to the editor begins by criticizing someone else's sense and logic, the chances of finding actual sense and logic in it are roughly the same as finding sense and logic in the aspirations of a newborn baby. What follows is often little more than a random succession of gurgles and spit-ups.
Ms. Pascuzzi does not disappoint.
She came to the conclusion that "education and contraception" alone have reduced the abortion rate...
That's not exactly the conclusion to which Ms. Fricke came. Her exact words were: it turns out that it's not laws that reduce the abortion rate, but education and contraception. She cites several different statistics in her letter to support that suggestion, and you can find a whole hell of a lot more that she didn't cite.
Education and contraception have reduced the abortion rate. This is a fact. One that people like Ms. Pascuzzi would obviously rather not admit, but also one from which they can not, lest they stick their heads up their own birth canals, hide.
...and that her Planned Parenthood health center is instrumental to this task.
And here you have it, folks. Yet another letter from yet another zealot who sees sex, abortion, education, contraception, women's health, and especially Planned Parenthood as a pitched battle between black and white, between good and evil, with no shades or grays or counterbalances to be had. That sort of stuff sounds good on the stump, and I'm sure it plays well in the vestibules of Ross Township churches where everyone wants to protect the unborn fetus but precious few want to nurture the unwanted child. But out here in the real world, where the real issues are not so simple and the real people who must negotiate them are less simple still, we do well -- and, indeed, do best -- when we acknowledge that complex problems require complex solutions, and that sacrificing good work on the rigid altars of ideology only deepen the divide we hope to cross.
Planned Parenthood is one of the largest abortion providers in the country.
That, of course, is indisputable. Just as it is indisputable that Planned Parenthood is one of the largest preventers of abortion -- through education and contraception, through resources and counseling -- in the country. Just as it is indisputable that Planned Parenthood is one of the largest providers of women's health care in the country.
But not, of course, to hear Ms. Pascuzzi tell it...
Doctors at Planned Parenthood kill babies, that's what they do, that's their job.
Comma splices, run-on sentences, and stillborn grammar aside... yes, that's part of their job. That's part of what they do. Because that's one of the services the offer. But I dare you, Ms. Pascuzzi, to go and talk to a Planned Parenthood doctor, or to any doctor who performs abortions, and try to find one who really loves his work, one who gets us every morning and looks forward to performing abortions and hopes that unwanted pregnancy rates stay nice and high so she'll be performing them for the rest of her life.
I promise you that there's a complexity to these folks -- at least to most of them -- that you are not giving credit to, and surely are not displaying yourself, in your letter. And I also promise that, no matter what you might think or fear, they do not look like this.
Planned Parenthood has a part in reducing the rate of abortions?
Yes. It does. Through education and contraception and a whole host of programs you can read about on its website. Because it really is possible, out here in the real world, to simultaneously provide a medical procedure and reduce the numbers of that procedure being performed. If you don't believe me, go ask any breast cancer surgeon whether, through practice and consultations and alternative procedures, she is not also actively working to reduce the rate of mastectomies she (or anyone else) is performing.
I think not.
That, Ms. Pascuzzi, is quite clear.
And it's just possible that one of the reasons the abortion rate has declined is that more and more young people, through "education," realize that life begins at conception, and that abortion is just plain wrong.
Indeed it is. Just as it is possible -- and, indeed, confirmed -- that more and more young people (and grown people) are taking advantage of the services of Planned Parenthood and other family planning clinics and even their own doctors to realize that they won't have to consider the wrong of abortion if they take a few right and simple steps to prevent the conception. Just as it is possible that, with a little more empathy and a lot less zealotry, people like Ms. Pascuzzi could see a bit more gray -- and a lot less red -- in their not-so-black-and-white world.
Posted: Tue - February 19, 2008 at 09:33 AM
Quick Links
Calendar
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
Categories
Archives
Terror Alert
Brilliant Satire
Required Reading
Traffic Count
Official Muse
Syndication
Carbolic Wear
Y Chromosomes
Some Perspective
On Tour
XML/RSS Feed
Statistics
Total entries in this blog:
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Jan 16, 2009 04:50 PM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Jan 16, 2009 04:50 PM