In Brussels, now my secret "even more fun than Paris" city, Irene, of Planned Parenthood Europe, asked me to write down why I support Planned Parenthood:
Well, you know, giving is always personal. And it's always local.
On the local side, there is right now a serious presidential candidate in America who has vowed to "defund" contraception.
I consider that an insane idea, certainly an idea I would fight against.
Why? Because I'm an environmentalist. Our species has outrun our home planet's ability to sustain us, even with advanced technology. We need to fund contraception. It's an issue of species survival. The "religious right," as we call them in America, wants, in my view, to commit "species suicide," through unbridled procreation. God protect us from ourselves.
On the personal side? Well, that's personal.
Let's just say that I witnessed the years before birth control and abortion ... and they were bloody, dangerous, and damaging. I grew up in an Irish-American family who shunned the discussion — the very knowledge — of anything sexual. It was ruinous ignorance at its best.
Sex is easy. Sex is intensely desirable. Everyone's horny. Young men spurt. Young women get pregnant. Lives are ruined early and fast.
The most intriguing statistic I know? In today's America, a majority of the 18-year-olds who cross their high school's stage to receive graduation diplomas are carrying with them some sexually-transmitted disease. Yet they don't know it. Nor do their parents.
Planned Parenthood wants to change that sorry statistic. Planned Parenthood is the leading provider of science-based, honest, authentic sex education in the United States.
Eliminate Planned Parenthood? Are you crazy? The world needs this mission more than ever.
Comments