Highlights: Pope's UN Address

Pope Francis' address to the UN in New York City earlier today was outstanding. Some points which stood out for me:

He spoke out against trafficking of human beings and human organs and tissues, which includes trafficking of fetal organs and tissues: "Our world demands of all government leaders … concrete steps and immediate measures for ... putting an end as quickly as possible to... human trafficking, the marketing of human organs and tissues, the sexual exploitation of boys and girls, slave labour, including prostitution, the drug and weapons trade, terrorism and international organized crime."

He affirmed the right to education, and the rights of parents as prime educators of their own children:  "the right to education ...is ensured first and foremost by respecting and reinforcing the primary right of the family to educate its children, as well as the right of churches and social groups to support and assist families in the education of their children. "

He supported the family as the essential building block of society, which governments ought to protect, and which includes preserving the rights to religious freedom and education: "government leaders must do everything possible to ensure that all can have the minimum spiritual and material means needed to live in dignity and to create and support a family, which is the primary cell of any social development. In practical terms, this absolute minimum has three names: lodging, labour, and land; and one spiritual name: spiritual freedom, which includes religious freedom, the right to education and other civil rights."

He reminded us of the presence of the natural law within each person, of the wonderful distinctness of man and woman, and the necessity to protect all human life : "we recognize a moral law written into human nature itself, one which includes the natural difference between man and woman (cf. Laudato Si’, 155), and absolute respect for life in all its stages and dimensions (cf. ibid., 123, 136)."

The Pope also warns against "carrying out an ideological colonization by the imposition of anomalous models and lifestyles which are alien to people’s identity and, in the end, irresponsible." This comes across as a knock against western nations attempting to impose their "ideals" of population control and sexual liberation by spreading a contraceptive mentality and pushing sexual abuses such as the normalization of homosexual relations upon societies which are rightly opposed to such moral diseases.

He decries the religious persecution occurring in our world: "I must renew my repeated appeals regarding to the painful situation of the entire Middle East, North Africa and other African countries, where Christians, together with other cultural or ethnic groups, and even members of the majority religion who have no desire to be caught up in hatred and folly, have been forced to witness the destruction of their places of worship, their cultural and religious heritage, their houses and property, and have faced the alternative either of fleeing or of paying for their adhesion to good and to peace by their own lives, or by enslavement. These realities should serve as a grave summons to an examination of conscience on the part of those charged with the conduct of international affairs. "

He urges us to respect human life in every form, including those we tend to consider less valuable - the unborn, the elderly, the sick…: "The common home of all men and women must continue to rise on the foundations of a right understanding of universal fraternity and respect for the sacredness of every human life, of every man and every woman, the poor, the elderly, children, the infirm, the unborn, the unemployed, the abandoned, those considered disposable because they are only considered as part of a statistic."

This respect necessarily calls all  of us to a spirit of service to one another: "Such understanding and respect call for a higher degree of wisdom, one which accepts transcendence, rejects the creation of an all-powerful élite, and recognizes that the full meaning of individual and collective life is found in selfless service to others and in the sage and respectful use of creation for the common good. "

May we all take his words to heart.

All quotes from the Pope's speech are from <http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/pope-s-address-to-the-united-nations-general-assembly>

Seven Reasons to Love Breastfeeding

My favorite things about breastfeeding, in no particular order.

Breast milk is cheap.  It costs absolutely nothing, which makes it much cheaper than formula. If you need a breast pump, one is usually supplied free of charge by your insurance.

Breastfeeding is low maintenance. No need to wash bottles constantly, which has the added benefit of being great for your skin!

Mother - Baby Bonding. There's no denying breastfeeding builds a bond between mother and baby.  I'm discovering how strong that bond is as I wean;  it is an emotional process, and certainly a change for the baby as evidenced by his attempts to eat from me through my shirt when I am trying to give him a bottle!

Freedom for your hands. Once your baby is nicely positioned, you have one or even two hands free to do other things (even if those other things are surfacing Facebook on your phone!)

It is best for baby and mama's health.  It has been pretty well established that a woman's body is designed to produce the best possible food for her baby - it will take formula a few millennia to catch up with a woman's body! What I did not know is that a mother's body actually responds to an infant's nutritional needs and the content of the breast milk changes to give the baby what he needs most at any given time. Breastfeeding is also good for mom, reducing risk of breast cancer among other things.

Fewer digestive issues, and therefore, less laundry! Breast milk is very easy to digest, and whereas a baby can gulp down a bottle of formula pretty quickly, he has to work a bit harder and eat a bit more slowly when breastfeeding. The slower eating process helps the baby to swallow less air and need to burp less frequently (meaning I can be more distracted while he's eating!).  Combine this with ease of digestion and breast milk generally leads to less spit-up (meaning less dirty laundry!) When it does come back up, breast milk stains less and washes out more easily than spit up from formula .

No baggage. When nursing, you can go anywhere without having to pack bottles and formula. The diaper bag is much less bulky, and there are no concerns over keeping prepared bottles refrigerated.

As with anything, there are some downsides. The major downside is that daddy (and anyone else)cannot feed the baby unless you pump and bottle feed with breast milk. It can also be tricky to feed in public if you (or those around you) feel awkward. However, Udder Covers makes great nursing covers that come in handy and can help you nurse confidently and discreetly anywhere! A personal peeve of is the outrage is sometimes voiced over mother's nursing publicly. If there is minimal public outrage over movies, video games, and lingerie ads showing much more scantily clad women than your average nursing mom, there should be zero outrage over the a perfectly normal, natural and non-sexual function of nursing. So be brave and nurse proudly!

Rave Review for Duolingo

Want to brush up on that Spanish you used to know in high school? Wish you still remember more than a couple of words from that old French textbook? Itching to delve into the language your grandparents once knew, but of which you only inherited a few colloquial phrases? Duolingo is just the place to start. I have found that working through a few lessons each day on their iTunes app is fun, takes only minutes of my time, and a bit more fulfilling and productive than playing card games like Spider Solitaire (my current favorite way to waste time and my phone battery life). The application can also be accessed via any web browser at Duolingo.com.

For me, Duolingo is a good way to remember and practice all the Spanish I learned in high school and college, but use far too infrequently in real life. I’ve also started learning German from scratch since this was the language spoken by most of my ancestors. It’s great fun to watch my own word bank expand beyond the few phrases like “schmechen gut” and “sprechen sie englisch?” that my dad and grandpa bandy around all the time!

Duolingo offers courses in the most popular romance languages—Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese—as well as German. There are also English courses presented in various other languages, so I’d imagine this could also be a great tool for ESL teachers. If you were hoping to pick up a more exotic language like Tagalog, Zulu, or Tamil, you are out of luck. There are also no offerings for other alphabet systems, to the great disappointment of a friend who has been trying to pick up Russian. But Duolingo is a growing thing, and is open for people versed in other tongues to contribute to new or existing courses. Stay tuned, new to- and from- languages may be available soon!

Lowered Mores Will Reduce Harassment?

Encouraging people to have more pre-marital sex will solve the sexual harassment problem in India? You've got to be kidding me, right? But this is exactly the argument Shikha Dalmia makes in her article, "India Needs a Sexual Revolution," published on Friday, May 24 by the Wall Street Journal.  That Indian women are frequently harassed by men when they go out in public is no secret, in spite of the premium their culture places on chastity. Dalmia points out that in India it is generally expected that men and women will not engage in sexual activity before marriage. In fact, two and a half weeks each year are dedicated to honoring female virtue and purity in the festival of Navrati:

"Navrati culminates in "kanya puja," or a day of maiden worshiping: Every household invites over the young girls of the neighborhood and, led by the father or patriarch, bows before them, washes their feet, prays to them, offers them a specially prepared feast of vegetarian delicacies and showers them with gifts and money...But this ancient practice wasn't meant to pamper the girls. It served to remind men of the qualities—mental courage, spiritual wisdom, purity of mind and strength of character—embodied in the feminine spirit, without which, according to Hindu scriptures, the cosmos would collapse into decadence and chaos."

Well and good. Without inculcating such virtue in young women, and young men, societies will indeed fall into chaos. The lack of these virtues in men is what enables the plague of  harassment to occur in the first place. Certainly the men of India must learn to treat women with greater respect, but here Dalmia and I will have to part ways. She argues that men and women simply need an outlet for their sexual urges, and the cultural taboos on pre-marital sex deny them that outlet.

Maybe this would be true if men and women were cattle with no rational powers and no self-control. But as it is, we are rational creatures and we do have the ability to foster virtues such as self-control and respect for others. The inculcating of these virtues in young people, and the creation of a less segregated society where men and women can develop healthy friendships and relationships before marriage would do much to reduce harassment. Lowering sexual mores will hardly have the same effect.

Encouraging pre-marital sex can only increase the degradation of men and women. It will encourage young people to use each other as purely physical outlets for their urges. The door will be opened for women to be used for sexual relief, without men being required to step up and take responsibility for caring for women in other ways, or even providing for their children. Pre-marital intercourse is a fantastic lie. With their bodies men and women say, "I hold nothing back, I give you everything, every part of me." But by saying this outside of marriage there is always the reservation, "I reserve the right to take it all back and leave you in the lurch at any time if it doesn't work out." Sounds like respect to me.

Sources:  Wall Street Journal <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324787004578497420867545326.html?mod=e2fb>

Marriage and God Explain Each Other

That Hideous Strength the third installment in C. S. Lewis' Space Trilogy is classified as science fiction and fantasy, but it is also a compelling treatise on God and man--and marriage.  One of the protagonists, Jane begins thinking...what if the spiritual world is NOT a neutral, democratic, vacuum where differences disappear and sex and sense taken away? How if instead the differences and contrasts we see now become richer, sharper, fiercer, more real, more themselves all the way up? What if marriage is not some relic of animal life and patriarchal society, but a first low form, a shadow of a deeper reality that will be repeated again and again on higher levels?

…..

Indeed. What if in more ways than we ever imagined, marriage is a taste of what it is to love God?  In a sense, we are made to be possessed, united one with Another, though remaining distinct, not absorbed into that other Being. In marriage, in love, you leave all else behind for that one Other.  You give Them everything, every part of you, permanently. For true commitment, real love, requires this total, life-long gift. Marriage is exclusive, because  to act otherwise would be a pantheism, an idolatry. In it, your Lover penetrates you, He takes all of you, and yet you could not be more happy, more free, more yourself that you are here, for this is what you were made for. Submission and obedience is the greatest possible joy. It overloads every sense of your body, every corner of your mind, every inch of your soul--your being is full to capacity. There is no room to think of anything but your Lover. And it must be life giving. You must allow Him to infuse His life into your very being. To say," I love you and am yours, but I will refuse the greatest manifestation of Your love, I will refuse the gift of Yourself poured into me," is utter nonsense. It has no meaning. Therefore love must be open to life, to the creation of new being, a share of His being, within oneself. Thus, Love unites fully without destroying the individual. It satisfies and fills every aspect of self, every desire man ever had. And it is free and not coerced.

In the sense that God is Husband and Lover, we are all feminine. We are all made to be possessed, taken, owned. We are all made to surrender.  It is not a case of equality. It is not even a free companionship--it is a blessed slavery, a desired enthrallment from which you can wish no escape.  You don't think of God so much as a friend or companion, you think of Him as a GOD! What a joy to be obliterated and reshaped by this Power!  One who could truly shatter your being if he so desired, but wouldn't. Could unmake you, but doesn't. We desire this. To love and be love by One far greater than self, yet who treats you as far better than you are.

It is the privilege of woman to have a unique insight into God, in that  everything she innately desires in a man, in her husband, she is also designed to receive from God. It is the privilege of man to be a god of sorts to his wife, and to be, perhaps more than he ever dreams, an imago Dei, a living icon of God for her; it is his privilege to share in the fullest way possible in the creative action of God, for each new human life comes through the action of man.

….

Again, another main character  in the book, Ransom, speaks to Jane about her surprise and uneasiness upon finding that gender and marriage are so integral to what it means to be human. In reaction to her shock, he says, "If this were a virginal rejection of the male,  [God] would allow it. Such souls can bypass the male and go on to meet something far more masculine, higher up, to which they must make a yet deeper surrender. But your trouble ...[is] pride. You are offended by the masculine itself: the loud, irruptive, possessive thing--the gold lion, the bearded bull!"

...

And yet, this is exactly what we desire.  The ostentatious, beautiful, strong, loud, male being. This is exactly what is so beautifully, intriguingly OTHER than self,  occasionally incomprehensible and always delightful, and such a cause of joy and laughter, such an irresistible attraction! It is for this other that we were made.

Garden of Eden: Take Two

In C.S. Lewis'  Perelandra, we find the planet Venus, or Perelandra as it is know outside our own world, in a state of unmarred, virginal paradise similar to the Garden of Eden. Venus is populated by two human beings, Tor and Tinidril, the King and Queen of this paradise where animals are friendly and obedient,  plants bear such abundant food that one need only reach out for it at any time to satiate hunger, and no words exist to describe things such as pain, evil, or death. As in our own paradise there was a seemingly arbitrary mandate to not eat the fruit of a certain tree, there was also a mandate in Venus that, though they might visit the fixed land during the day, the man and woman must return to their bounteous and caressing  floating islands to rest for the night. This command was not difficult for the man and woman to keep, because the fixed land was comparatively hard and rocky, and it was generally much more pleasant to be on the floating islands.

Cue the tempter. Again, he sought out the woman when she was alone to whittle down her strength and pit his faulty rhetoric against her naiveté. This time he came, not as a snake, but in the body of a possessed man from earth. Day and night he argued with the woman and sought to teach her the "superior" ways of thinking that had developed on Earth, a much older and wiser planet. The tempter argued that Maledil, the name for God in that world, was trying to teach her to be independent and free and to think for herself. Maledil had only given the command to not sleep on fixed land in order that she might break the command thereby becoming truly free as Maledil certainly wanted her to be. She could then teach her husband the same, and become like the progressive earthly women who were also typically smarter and more bold than earthly men, according to the tempter. The woman was hesitant and reluctant to believe what the tempter said and had many questions, but the tempter was clever; he met her objections with half-truths and conversed with her, day-in and day-out, until it seemed that the temper must eventually win by his sheer relentless pestering.

Fortunately for the woman, the possessed man was not the only earthly human who had been brought to Venus. Another man, by the name of Ransom, had also been spirited to this infant planet. He witnessed the arguments between the woman and the tempter. He would interject, sometimes successfully, and try to make the woman see that every other mandate from Maledil, such as to eat, or to sleep, or to teach the animals, was something that had a clear purpose and  came naturally, giving joy in its own right. This special command not to sleep on the fixed land seemed to have no such purpose, but instead was a chance to love and obey Maledil strictly for the sake of love and obedience, thereby giving a unique joy that comes from willingly submitting to the One Whom It Is Joy To Obey. Ransom's words seemed good and reasonable to the woman, yet the tempter always had some quick rebuttal for Ransom's position. At long last, Ransom realized that the tempter could not be allowed to continue to wear the woman down, and so with a pure and yet perfect and rightful hatred he provoked a death fight between himself and the tempter.  Ransom was ultimately victorious and Venus was spared from great evil.

Meanwhile the Tor, Venus' Adam, was allowed to watch from afar what was happening to his wife. He saw that if she listened to the tempter she would bring suffering to the world and would eventually die. He saw that he could follow her, whom he loved as himself, and join in her evil and share her fate to the end. Or he could repudiate her action and hope that perhaps by continuing to obey Maledil, perhaps there would be some way to save her also, but perhaps not. There was no way to know. He would have to choose. As his wife persistently resisted the tempter, Tor decided that, regardless of what she eventually did, he would not follow her if she chose wrongly. Though the one half of himself would be crippled and die, the other half of himself must stay healthy that he might love and nurse his wounded  bride, and provide a just rule over the rest of the planet rather than committing total suicide by condemning his whole self and his whole world to death.

Venus was spared our earthly fate. The woman resisted temptation long enough to be rescued by a friend, and the man chose not to follow his beloved partner and companion if she fell. Though this story is fictional, we have much to learn from it of the joy of obedience out of love, the value of friends, both earthly and heavenly, in combating the tempter, and of the incredible caliber of love shown by the man Tor, who knew that the best thing he could do for his beloved wife would be not to follow her into error, but to do right himself. If he also disobeyed, he could never love her so well or care for her as he ought, as he could if he remained obedient, hoping against hope to save her, somehow.

Image courtesy of: http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2011/04/the-man-who-showed-us-perelandra-a-short-tribute-to-c-s-lewis/

The Scientific Laws of Matrimony

Welcome to the modern, liberated world. Anything goes here. Religion is out. Science is in. Thanks to science, we now know that romantic love is merely the product of our reproductive drive, a natural force of evolution, fed by chemicals called hormones and pheromones.  Thanks to science, we also know that men and women are designed for faithful, monogamous relationships.

One of my personal favorite hormones is oxytocin, often dubbed the "love hormone." Like many hormones, oxytocin is a protein; one particular specialty of this protein is to form bonds between people. Signs of trust, physical contact, and especially sexual contact, release oxytocin into the bloodstream, increasing trust and affection between a couple. For women, who naturally have higher levels of oxytocin than men, this hormone has a strong, long-lasting bonding effect. While  oxytocin also has a bonding effect for men, it clearly plays up to one of a woman's stereotypical strengths, her emotions, to attach her very strongly to a man that she has sex with. For men, oxytocin harnesses his sex drive and orients it toward his partner, making other women less attractive, and creating in him a tendency toward faithfulness. 

This effect of strong attachment and tendency toward exclusivity produced by oxytocin predisposes couples toward monogamy. The biology of men and women is designed for faithful, exclusive, long-term relationships. From a survival perspective, it all makes sense. In general, faithful, monogamous relationships increase the stability, health, and well- being of the couple and of any children they may have. This increased stability and economic well-being afforded by the family unit in turn increases the well-being of human society at large by contributing to economic growth in that society and reducing the incidence of crime and psychological disorders, among other things.

Science is telling us something, if only we will listen. Listening to hormones like oxytocin shows us that the most natural way to increase our well-being, is to find a suitable partner, and enter into a permanent, faithful relationship with them. (So go find somebody that you are crazy about, get married, stay married, and don't cheat!) That is what science is telling us.

Sources:

http://www.sunherb.com/men_woman.htm

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/14/oxytocin-fidelity-committment_n_2130436.html

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/21/the-love-hormone-as-sports-enhancer/

Joseph's Fiat

We always focus on the instrumentality of Mary's fiat in bringing the God-Man into the world; we often forget the key role played by her husband Joseph.  As I read in  a daily meditation from this years' Advent and Christmas edition of "The Word Among Us," Joseph's fiat was also of great importance, and  lent credibility to Christ's message. By not divorcing his betrothed wife when he found out that she was pregnant, by choosing not to expose her to the shame and dishonor of unwed motherhood, he saved Mother and Child from the scorn of their neighbors. It would have been more difficult for respectable people of that time to heed and follow a Man they could only suspect was illegitimate. Joseph's trust in God and in his wife gave him the courage to stay with Mary and to save her and her Child from gossiping tongues an public disdain.

Still, it is worth noting that Christ generally had little concern for what others thought. Why did he care if people thought that He was illegitimate? He had no trouble curing people and letting his disciples pick grain to eat on the Sabbath. He frequented the company of tax collectors, sinners, and prostitutes. He allowed himself to be born in a barn with animals, and to be shamefully and cruelly put to death in the most humiliating way possible. Why did He care so much that there be a human father in His life?

Perhaps ensuring that Christ had an earthly father in His life was more than a face-saving move. Perhaps Christ was showing us by example the importance of fathers. There is plenty of evidence  telling us that in general children are better off with a male and female parent than in any other situation. Fathers serve as an image of God the Father and as the head of the family. Certainly God could have chosen some other means than having Joseph, as leader and protector, guide the family to Egypt to protect them from Herod's deathly rage.  God could have left Mary to raise the divine Child on her own. He could have worked around the existing unfavorable opinion  of unwed motherhood as he did in so many other instances. Instead he chose to have Joseph as an instrumental part of the upbringing of Jesus. He chose to set an example to us all of the importance of fatherhood to any family. Let us then have the greatest respect for Joseph, his fiat, and the fiat of all fathers who give of themselves for their families. If even the God-Man Himself chose to have a human father-figure in his life, then we can know that these men are important to us all. Merry Christmas!

A Peripheral View of 2012 Presidential Debate #1

Now that it has been a week since the first presidential debate of the 2012 election season (or year, or years) and all reputable news sources have gotten their stories out, I thought I would share mine.  Debate notes from October 3, 2012:

• Obama keeps using the phrase “those of us who have done very well.” It sounds like he wants to identify with wealthy people like Romney, as if he feels like he missing out on all the bad rap rich people get.  
• Obama refers to his own healthcare plan as Obamacare. I can’t decide it is a bit unprofessional to adopt the colloquial term, or just hilarious that he is employing a name for his law that, in many circles, is not a nice word.
• Obama mentions a kind of corporate welfare that oil companies receive. Interesting. Obama also mentions Exxon Mobile as a recipient of said “welfare,” but Romney points out that most of these tax breaks go to small companies, and are but a tiny fraction of the tax cuts Obama gave to his failed green energy initiatives.
• Obama speaks of reforms he wants to make, reforms he claims are easy to make. If they are so easy, Mr. President, why the heck have you not implemented them already?
• Obama thinks that he and Romney would agree that Social Security is structurally sound. By sound, do you mean bankrupt? Although if those who walked before us had not prevented the birth of half of our current generation, then there wouldn’t be a diminished workforce and fewer people paying into Social Security compared to the number of retirees and soon to be retirees. Social security worked in the past. But with current demographic changes, it no longer does. I have accepted the fact that I will never get a red cent back from of the money I pour into Social Security with every paycheck. But I wouldn’t call that a sound program.
•  Romney likes coal.
• Romney likes Big Bird. Who doesn’t?
•  Romney slams Solyndra and the other green initiatives that Obama poured billions of taxpayer dollars into. They all failed. Thanks Mr. President.
• Obama says “budgets matter.” I agree. May I ask why you haven’t passed one in three years?
• Obama mentions that many college students do not have the option of borrowing money from their parents. True. But it is government loans for college education that has caused the extremely disproportionate inflation of tuition prices. If government would butt out and let the free market determine prices, maybe it would still be possible to work, and pay your own way through college, as it was a generation ago.
•  Romney likes States’ rights. Glad someone here has respect for the principles our Founding Fathers enshrined in our Constitution. Cue the Principle of Subsidiarity, which rightly states that problems are best solved by those closest to them. If an issue can be settled at the state level by the people living in that state, that is usually the best way to go
• A friend of mine had a good point, why does tort reform hardly ever get mentioned in politics? The amount of money spent on frivolous lawsuits in the country is disgraceful. High healthcare price tags are also due to medical malpractice suits. We could help ourselves out with tort reform.
•  Best quote of the night—Romney: “In my opinion, the government is not effective in bringing down the cost of anything.” Right on. Private market and individual responsibility are much better at keeping prices down.
•  Best moderator quote—Lehrer: “That is a terrific segue…”
• I hope your debate drinking games were not focused around the words “middle class/middle-income” or “small business.” If they were, I weep for your liver.

When Drowning Equals a Baby (and Pigs Fly)

In attempt to display what she believes to be the ludicrousness of the pro-life position, one Sabrina Duncan has put up this satirical petition on thepetitionsite.com:

Let’s re-write the petition to say what it implies:

We should ban [contraceptives, condoms, birth control] and other [such devices]. They only encourage risky behavior. The only 100% effective way to prevent [pregnancy] is total abstinence from [sexual intercourse]. And if you do by chance find yourself struggling with [an unplanned/unwanted pregnancy] then no [abortion or abortifacient drug] should be allowed to be administered. You got yourself into this mess, you have to live with the consequences. You should see [your baby] as a gift. Also if you were forcibly [raped], don’t worry. If it was a legitimate [rape] your body will [prevent conception from occurring].

Okay. Let’s work with this comparison. As Jennifer Fulwiler points out, “They just compared the birth of a baby to a horrible form of death.”  Life-ending or life-preventing drugs, devices, and procedures are compared to a life-saving safety device.  Pregnancy, giving birth, and babies themselves are compared to drowning (i.e., new life is as bad as death).  The only good comparison in this mess is matching sexual intercourse with water. I agree with this one, because water, like sex, is an incredible good, without which none of us would be here. Both are necessary for life, and can be sources of great beauty and wonder, and of great fun! If used improperly, both can be very dangerous. 

It is true that the only surefire way to avoid getting pregnant is to not have sex. Any other form of birth control or family planning has a fail rate, however small. That doesn’t mean it is not worth the risk to have sex.  Of course it is worth the risk! Swimming is fun, and I’m not going to let a small chance of drowning keep me from swimming. Similarly, people should have sex and have it often, but they should do so in a responsible manner. Just as you would not let children who don’t know how to swim play unsupervised in the water (even with a life jacket!), people who aren’t ready for sexual intercourse and everything that it entails should not have sex. Unless you can swim or are with someone who can, don’t fool around with water; don’t get in over your head. Likewise, unless you are ready to for your biological system to be filled with a cocktail of chemicals that bind you to your sexual partner, unless you can handle a faithful, permanent relationship that may result in new life (we call that marriage), don’t have sexual intercourse. 

There are rules, rules that exist for everyone’s wellbeing, governing when you can be in the ocean, where you can swim in a lake, what time of day you can visit the pool. If you want to swim, you must play by the rules. If you have your own, permanent pool, belonging to you alone, you have to be willing to accept the responsibilities that come with pool ownership.

Yet if you do break the rules, and find yourself drowning and in danger of death, any decent person would throw you a life jacket and do whatever is necessary to save your life, even if the procedures or drugs needed indirectly and foreseeably kill the child growing within you. However, direct abortion is never medically necessary, as noted by the International Symposium on Excellence in Maternal Healthcare. If your life is not in danger, carry the child to term, and put him or her up for adoption if you do not want the child. Sometimes life is difficult, inconvenient, full of unplanned events that may or may not be pleasant, and that may even put one’s health at risk. None of these things justify killing anyone who happens to inconvenience us, or make us uncomfortable, or otherwise bother us.

The last bit about cases of sexual assault, a parody of Missouri Congressman Todd Akin’s incorrect and unscientific statement about rape, represents the views of approximately no one. Rape is a tragic, traumatizing, horrible crime, and it can result in the victim becoming pregnant. But if someone intentionally hurts you, you are still not justified in later coming after them and killing your attacker. Much less would you be justified in taking the life of an innocent child, regardless of how tragic the circumstances of his or her conception. No matter what has been done to you, no one is ever justified in harming, or killing, another innocent human being.