Children, this is where you can go to get birth control without your parents’ knowledge or consent.

http://www.dianedew.com/sanger.htm

Exactly. Nonfactor, yes, they do. In fact my daughter went to school – before we started homeschooling – with a girl who got birth control pills from PP at age 12. Aside from the fact that
- sexual activity at that age is illegal in every state
- the girls “boyfriend” was 19 – she bragged about it
- it’s well documented that even consensual sexual activity at that age is harmful
…aside from all that, she received no counseling on how to prevent SDTs other than “you should also use a condom.” Yeah, like that’s gonna happen.

Furthermore, I had to go in person to sign a release to get my minor daughter’s ears pierced at the mall! To give a child any prescription without her parent’s knowledge is just ludicrous. It’s illegal for any other type of medication – why should this one be exempt?

Laura on June 13, 2007 at 2:56 PM

I’m against abortion, but there is at least some kind of argument to be made for a grown woman making an informed decision to have one. I still think it’s wrong, but the argument can be made.

On the other hand, a minor child, taking prescriptions and having surgery without the knowledge or consent of her parents, especially when she may well have been victimized resulting in the pregnancy to begin with, is indefensible. (And don’t give me that one in a million circumstance where she’s been molested by a family member or raped – in those cases, social services could and should already step in.)

Laura on June 13, 2007 at 3:58 PM

Why are the bottom and top quintiles of America virtually static? Is it because the poor just don’t take enough initiative?

Actually, since the welfare reforms of the 90s (which I am well acquainted with, having been on welfare back then) most poverty is situational, not generational. Could be those quintiles are static because the middle class is growing, and because we keep importing more poor people.

Also, please keep in mind that poverty is not at all the “going hungry” type poverty we tend to think of.

The following are facts about persons defined as “poor” by the Census Bureau, taken from various government reports:

* Forty-six percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.
* Seventy-six percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, 30 years ago, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
* Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.
* The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)
* Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 30 percent own two or more cars.
* Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.
* Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.
* Seventy-three percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a third have an automatic dishwasher.

That’s why illegals come here – our poor are at least as well off if not doing better than their middle class.

Laura on June 13, 2007 at 7:53 PM

I wonder what the numbers would look like if we only counted the ones without food, shelter or clothing.

There are too many NGOs and too many civil servants invested in the poverty industry for that count to occur, unfortunately. Which is not to say that actual poverty doesn’t exist – before I got on welfare, I experienced it. I was widowed, pregnant, out of work, no phone, no electricity, living off of Ramen noodles, evicted from my apartment… it happens. But it’s far from the norm for people under the poverty line.

Laura on June 13, 2007 at 8:05 PM

In my experience, you can’t put it down to one or two reasons, but I certainly saw laziness, poor judgement, bad values, and a lot of self-induced problems brought on by lack of hope and of vision. But hope and vision can’t be distributed by an agency, and in the end it was better to force people off the system.

Laura on June 13, 2007 at 8:30 PM

But to get back to PP, and abortion – most women do not report finances as being the main reason for it. (Only 23% say lack of money is the problem.) Scroll about halfway down for the chart/data.

Laura on June 13, 2007 at 8:33 PM