Day: July 27, 2022

It’s a Paradox

Fandango36 Comments

The above headlined flashed up on my iPhone’s newsfeed today. What? Contraception prevents unplanned, unwanted pregnancies, and women who choose to have abortions do so, to a large extent, because of unplanned, unwanted pregnancies. So doesn’t it follow that advocating the use of contraceptives and promoting their availability would reduce the demand for abortions? Yes, it does.

But that logic seems to be beyond what many religious and social conservatives can grasp, so they continue to follow the paradox of being opposed to both abortion and contraception.

The federal right to contraceptives is accepted in the United States because the Supreme Court decided, in the 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut case, that married couples have a constitutional right to buy and use contraceptives without government intrusion.

Yet after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the decision that gave women the right to have a legal abortion, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and other conservatives justices have vowed to erase the right for women to have access to birth control by going after Griswold v. Connecticut just as they did Roe v. Wade.

In an effort to ensure the right for Americans to have legal access to birth control, Democrats introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives, The Right to Contraception Act, that would enshrine that right to contraceptives into federal statutory law. It would ban states from restricting access to the pill, IUDs, and emergency contraceptives, while also giving both the attorney general and medical providers the authority to bring civil lawsuits against state governments that restrict contraception access. It passed the House last week in a 228-195 vote.

But for some reason, the Democratic effort to guarantee the right to contraception under federal law sputtered in the Senate along partisan lines Wednesday. Republican Senators said no to codifying contraceptives on a federal level.

I just don’t understand why those who oppose abortion also often oppose contraception. It seems rather paradoxical to me.

As Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts said on the Senate floor today, “No abortion, but no birth control to prevent the need for one. That is where the Republican Party is today.”

Fandango’s Provocative Question #175

Fandango32 Comments
FPQ

Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.

By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

I came across an article recently about television watching habits. The article focused primarily on Americans, but I’m wondering it it might be universal. Anyway, the article pointed out that nearly 80% of Americans watch TV every day. Further, on average, the typical American views around three hours of TV every single day.

I know that a few of the bloggers I interact with here on WordPress claim to watch little to no TV. Others seem to spend a lot of time in front of the television. I happen to be in that latter group, probably averaging around four to five hours a day.

For this week’s provocative question, I’m going to ask you about your TV viewing habits. My questions are below if you care to answer, either in the comments or on your own post. Ready?

  • What country do you live in?
  • How many televisions do you have in your home?
  • On average, how many hours a day do you watch TV?
  • What kinds of programs do you typically watch (e.g., news, sports, movies, dramas, sitcoms, reality shows)?
  • Do you watch programs as they are aired or do you record them and watch them at other times?
  • Do you mostly watch “network” TV? Premium cable channels (e.g., HBO, Showtime)? Streaming channels (e.g., Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Disney+, Apple+)?
  • How often, if at all, do you use other devices than television (e.g., computers, smartphones) to watch programs?

Please feel free to share anything else about your TV viewing habits or preferences.

If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.

FOWC with Fandango — Accord

Fandango13 Comments
FOWC

It’s July 27, 2022. Welcome to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).

Today’s word is “accord.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. Show them some love.