Education is, in general, a good thing. This includes education regarding birth control and the birds and bees LONG before a woman or couple face the idea of an unwanted pregnancy.

I had an employee once who got his GF pregnant - I think they had the kid (they divorced soon after), but they got pregnant because he and she has heard that you could not get preggy the "first time".

Mind you, this was an Italian Catholic family in a relatively developed area. There is no excuse for them to have been so naive at the tender age of 22.

As to the "forcing of ones eyes to the screen", I might ask Justin to comment on whether he would want a law requiring voters to watch closely as IED's hit our soldiers, so they could really know what happens when they (like Justin) cheerlead for War.

Oh, you don't want that?

Then perhaps you are a hypocrite.

I would say we should educate all people on the real story of life and death, and have soldiers with no arms and legs and genitals visit our classrooms.

What say you, Justin? Do you want to hide THAT life and death from our citizens, yet bind and force those subservient women, pry their eyes open and paint their foreheads with a scarlet A?

Think, my friend.

On one hand, you call for liberty and small government. On the other, you cheer the mind police. You can't have it both ways. Freedom can be messy.

This is Oklahoma, home of legislators that make Rhode Island's look like Einstein, whether you're left or right.
Their abortion law allows doctors to escape lawsuits if they fail to disclose (or lie about) potential birth defects to pregnant women.
They also tinkered around with an anti-discrimination to make sure gays were excluded, and ended up mistakenly excluding Christians.
Many Third World countries have better legislatures than Oklahoma.

Stuart makes and apple and oranges comparison. If Justin were in the army about to be sent to Iraq, it makes a lot of sense for him to watch and become intimately aware of the tactics of people trying to kill him in Iraq. However, if he's enjoying the freedoms others are fighting for over there and not directly involved, it's completely different from what we're talking about here.

In this case, the women who are actually pregnant are being educated and not if they "hypothetically" get pregnant but because they are in fact pregnant already and about to make a choice with what to do with their situation.

so while you're trying to get the day's daily "Gotcha" award I think you're missing the point and instead just trying to spew your agenda without a thorough understanding of the issue.

Indeed, you actually didn't say if there was anything wrong with the waiting period or not.

Right? Wrong? waiting period?

My take is that I believe in responsibility - but also reproductive freedom. Before you jump down my throat, I lived in a community where there were absolutely no abortions since we agreed to take any baby from any mother and raise it ourselves (someone would)...and then the mom could have it back anytime. I also have a few kids myself, and have certainly made sure they were educated LONG before any ultrasound did so.

I guess if I had to comment on the GOVERNMENT becoming more involved, I would take the approach that they should not....as a general rule.

If they did, however, I would want the at least 1/2 or more of the legislature and others involved to be female. Given our male-dominated history which includes some sad policies toward the fair sex (including not being able to vote, or work many professions, etc.), I would be hesitant to allow a bunch of fat, corrupt and egotistical pols - spurred on most likely by the CHURCH, to force policies on adults.

But back to the war thing. So - you agree that anytime a new soldier is recruited by the military, they should be shown mortally wounded soldiers, IED wounded, amputees and other examples BEFORE they actually make their decision?

Full disclosure, right? Why should the first guts and brains they see be that of their buddies or the civilians they accidentally shoot?

And, on the other side of the fence, why don't we show those expectants moms some downs syndrome kids and adults, lay out the budgetary matters, and make it clear that they are going to spend the rest of their lives working very hard for their spawn? I mean, while we are being honest, we should REALLY be honest, right?

We should also tell them what their chances are of being either financially or otherwise successful if they have an unwanted kid as a single mom or teen mom. Right?

I'm all for telling and showing them EVERYTHING. But picking and choosing in an attempt to pull heart strings may not be an honest example of what they are in for.

great post as usual!