Thursday, January 22, 2009

36th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade

Today, January 22nd, 2008, is the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade and, as such, it has been declared National Blog for Choice day by NARAL (National Association to Repeal Abortion Laws) Pro-Choice America. I knew about the anniversary, but I didn't know about NARAL's campaign until Lanafactrix mentioned it on her blog.

Abortion may not be an obvious topic for this blog, but I think a connection can be made. While I am not doing online dating for one-night stands, there are plenty who are. I hope and assume that those people are taking every precaution to ensure that their date doesn't result in a pregnancy, but I'm sure there are still numerous pregnancies that happen just in this way. (I still haven't seen "Knocked Up" but I know that's the general gist of the movie.) Now, of this group of pregnancies, surely there are some that are carried to term, but there are probably quite a lot which are aborted. There are many, many reasons why I believe that a woman should have the right to choose (not being ready for parenthood, for her health, because of an assault or rape, etc.), but accidental pregnancy is certainly one of them. If a woman isn't ready to be a parent she should have the option to abort.

As a side note, the dating site has a question (one's answer is used when being matched with other users) that goes something like this: "Do you think it's OK for a woman to date/sleep with a man solely to get pregnant and then leave him as soon as she does?" I answered no.

6 comments:

Superquail said...

That is a very odd question. If what a woman wants is to get pregnant, then there are much easier, safer, and less emotionally messy ways of doing so. Sperm banks exist for a reason.

I find it hard to imagine any woman in that position, but if it does happen I think it is problematic in the very basic sense that it is deception. If she is honest with the man about her intentions beforehand and he accepts her conditions, then I suppose there is no problem, but if the man feels used and discarded, then that is not a decent way to treat another person.

Katie said...

It seemed an odd question to me too, but if one has answered more than 500 questions, one is encouraged to submit a question to the dating site for others to answer.

Superquail said...

Really? Have you submitted a question yet?

Katie said...

I did, though so many questions have been submitted that it's hard to come up with something original. This is my question:

How do you feel about science and natural history museums?

• I love them and could go every day.
• They're fine, but I don't go very often.
• I only go when my date drags me to them.
• You're asking me? I hate museums.

Superquail said...

And what is your answer to that question?

I remember my parents dragging me to a lot of museums when I was a kid. I remember my legs getting tired and always looking for a place to sit down. I remember terrible restaurants that had no food that I would want to eat, always weird crap with a lot of kale and chives. And I remember pretending to be interested.

As an adult, I have gone to several museums that I have really enjoyed.

Katie said...

Kale and chives? I know what you mean though. My answer to that question, especially in SF with our new Academy of Sciences, I would pick the first answer "I love them and I could go every day." The only problem with that (nevermind the fact that I have to work) is that the Academy costs $25. Although, I guess if I really could go almost every day, the $100 individual membership would be completely worth it…