Rachel is still hurting. I can’t say I blame her. I was surprised at her reaction; but then again, the whole debacle in the U.S. probably looks pretty scary to those outside of English-speaking North America. *I’m* still hurting because it’s caused the portal some splits and these splits are not healthy.

I honestly am hurt when I read the comments of people like Gregory Popcak who seems to think that b4G did us a favor by posting the posters. He claims to be a therapist but his attitude is not incredibly theraputic. To be fair, he had some good words but he’s missing something there. *I* don’t like the fact that abortion exists either, but there are ways of preventing it other than making it illegal. Educate your kids about sex. Educate them about contraception. (Sorry… it’s either contraception or abortion and contraception can be as easy as NFP.) Educate them about the place of sex which is in marriage. Boycott advertisers who advertise during shows like “Friends” which encourage casual sex. Instead of outright banning abortion (which does nothing because women will still have them either in Canada, Mexico, or underground), why don’t we try to prevent the need for its existence? His comments make the pro-choice people like we’re a bunch of butchers that prey on unsuspecting women. The only reason I claim to be pro-choice is that I think that I have a right to make decisions that regard my body, and that the fate of me or my unborn child should not be in the hands of a 50 year old man sitting on Capitol Hill. What about those of us who have medical conditions that would make it dangerous to carry a child to full term?

The other thing that just irritates me about the pro-life movement is that they see Planned Parenthood as simply an abortion clinic. Believe me, it’s not. They provide sex education to schools. They provide low cost pelvic exams to women who may not be able to see a normal gynocologist because of cost. They provide condoms and birth control. The provide low cost sterilization for women who want that. Abortion is not the first option they push and when a woman does decide to have one, that woman is educated about what it is, what the risks are, what the procedures are, and what the effects will be. It isn’t like it’s the first and only option they push.

I would love to see both sides sit down and discuss this but there is too much animosity for them to even think about doing anything other than protesting.