july 2022 donation

whoops, totally forgot to donate last month since i was pretty wrapped up in dragon boat. anyway, i made up for it today by donating to Indigenous Women Rising which has a pretty dope logo. i like too that they have a midwifery fund in addition to an abortion fund. tho i donated to their general fund since they know best where that money is needed most.

june 2022 donation

this month i donated to the National Abortion Federation, which is "the professional association of abortion providers." their mission is to "unite, represent, serve, and support abortion providers in delivering patient-centered, evidence-based care."

may 2022 donation

continuing in my pro-abortion donation streak, this month i donated to Just the Pill which provides a bunch of sexual health services, including birth control and plan b. they also help provide access to an actual abortion, including travel costs, etc.

april 2022 donation

this month I gave 25 euro to Women On Waves which is a dutch non-profit that provides abortion pills to people around the world (including those in america). I found out about them thru AidAccess which was talked about in The Atlantic's podcase The Experiment. 

this is the second month in a row i've given to an abortion org, and from that podcast, I was introduced to a few more great abortion orgs so who knows, this might be my give focus this year.

march 2022 donation

 
this month I donated to the national network of abortion funds which provides support and money to those seeking abortions. 

my body, my choice

there are anti-vaxx people who are now saying "my body, my choice" which, obviously, upsets pro-abortionists. here's the thing, they're not the same bodies or choices. anti-abortionists don't generally deny abortions in order to take control of your body, they do it because (they say) they don't want the fetus (which probably would become a baby) to be "murdered." there's a direct causation that if you have an abortion, this baby will not be born.

on the other hand, anti-vaxxers want to control their own bodies mostly for themselves. yes a large pool of unvaccinated people will give a virus opportunity to mutate into something that be cause vaccinations to become ineffective which in turn may cause you to become sick, but you can't say that this person not getting vaccinated will definitely get someone sick.

this is a poor analogy, and we should stop getting riled up about it. 

all this being said. I do believe in a right to abortions, and also lean towards mandatory vaccinations. I can't say that I'm 100% for it because, like, how would be enforce that? by forcibly vaccinating people at gunpoint or by threatening fines or jail time? those options seem crazy. altho, we have actually vaccinated people by gunpoint before (seriously, see slide 4). I do like that in many public schools kids can't attend unless their vaccinated against certain things (usually DTaP and MMR) but I don't quite know how you can enforce that with adults working in non-governmental agencies. I guess you could say people entering federal land need to show proof of vaccination along with govt issued ID, but that seems kind of ridiculous since there is a LOT of federal land and what does this regulation even really do?

one thing I would like to see if that the govt should at some point establish a deadline of "get the shot before then or we won't pay for your medical bills if you do get COVID." like, you had PLENTY of opportunity to get the shot, for free, and you just didn't. there would be exceptions for certain people (those who can't vs those who won't), but most of the currently unvaccinated have just chosen not to get it done.  

july 2020 donation

my donation comes a little early this month because PayPal was having a promotion where if you donated at least $5 thru their app to a non-profit, they would add $5! I picked Planned Parenthood South Atlantic (North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, and the Blue Ridge of Virginia) rather than planned parenthood of america cause of the $10,000 limit per charity. :) i figure a smaller branch would likely get fewer donations.

fine print: Donation: PayPal will give up to $1.5M dollars in total donations and $10,000 per charity over the course of the promotion. Must use your Valid Account to complete a donation through the PayPal mobile app to PayPal Giving Fund. Ends 6/29/2020 at 11:59:59 p.m. PT or when the donation cap has been reached, whichever is earlier. Limit: 1 donation per person and per Valid Account.Donations will be made to PayPal Giving Fund, an IRS-registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and granted to your recommended charity pursuant to its Donation Delivery Policy. Contribution may be tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. Consult your tax advisor to understand your specific circumstances. No goods or services will be provided in exchange for your donation. PayPal reserves the right to deny a donation for any reason at its sole discretion. 

news and social media the last month has been awash with news of police brutality and the black lives movement. accordingly, i've been reminded of the ACLU and have learned about many orgs doing great work!

in april, starting with my first donation, i had listed out a bunch of orgs that i liked and would want to eventually donate to: NPR, Radiolab, PBS, Planned Parenthood, Compton Initiative, OC Food Bank, Second Harvest, Food Finders, Harvest Partners, Food Forward, and Seed Savers. they were mostly food related. probably because we were in full swing with the pandemic so much of the news was about food banks running out of supplies. plus, i've worked directed with a few of the orgs listed.

what happened to Monday?

what happened to monday?

oy. such interesting questions this movie brings up!
1. what will happen when the world runs out of resources to support our human population? what lengths should we go to prevent that (or should we at all)?
2. is the collective survival of our species more important than an individual's survival? how about many individuals?
3. is there a right to life? is there a lesser or greater right to life?
4. how far would you go for your children?
5. at what point do your parents' choices for your life become your own?
and the age old 6. nature vs. nurture?

you down?

Has Prenatal Genetic Testing Gone Too Far?

this article strikes a chord with me because i've actually thought about this fairly recently. rip and i had talked about it before, and we had agreed that we would ask for prenatal genetic testing and would very likely abort should it reveal that our child would have certain mental or physical conditions. i've never wanted to be a parent anyway and decided that i would not want to take on the additional challenges of  raising a child with particular handicaps.

j and i obviously haven't talked about raising kids together. but i've thought about this exact issue because, in fact, his youngest brother has down syndrome. i have no idea if he would want to do prenatal testing, or what he would want to do after knowing the results. i do know that if i only found out after giving birth that my child had certain conditions, i would certainly not shirk the responsibilities of raising it the best i could. and i'm certain i would love it just the same.

religious prosecution

ugh, this hobby lobby scotus thing. i'm not going to say much about it because, well, i think you can probably guess how i feel about it. but i absolutely agree with ginsburg saying that scotus "has ventured into a minefield." (the rest of the dissent is pretty good also, but here are a few highlights)

this video tho, lol:


i feel like america is getting stupider. most countries, certainly first world ones, seem to be getting smarter. but we're stuck quibbling about dumb shit like whether we should allow guns in bars (we should NOT), teaching religion in science class (we should NOT), and whether or not we should let people drink extra large sodas. ugh. seriously. as much as i love america, i really hate americans (well, not all of us. i'm pretty fucking awesome, afterall, ha!). i'm know that there are stupid people all over. and that every country hates the majority of it's politicians, but seriously. we're among the worst. almost makes you feel like democracy is just as stupid of an idea as communism.

not my choice

i watched a bit of abc's "what would you do?" last night. one of the situations was about a 16 year-old girl telling her boyfriend that she's pregnant and keeping the baby. he wants her to have an abortion. i won't go into the staging on the tv show, but this does bring up the question of men's rights.

before having sex with anyone you should really discuss (along with disclosing stds) what you guys would do in case of pregnancy. would she keep it? does she believe in abortion or would she put it up for adoption? does she expect you to help out financially or otherwise? and what are your opinions on these matters? these are pretty important things to know!

here's where my, i'm sure, "controversial" opinion comes in. i think that if she had previously very clearly stated that she would not have a child, yet she decides to keep it, and if you (assuming you're male) still don't want it, you don't have to help her raise it. you probably should, especially if you were in a committed relationship, but i don't think you're morally obligated to. (btw, i'm not talking about legal obligations or financial support here, i really don't have a clear opinion about that) you guys discussed it, you both expressed your opinions, and she changed her mind. but you didn't.

if i were a teenaged boy and if my long-term girlfriend said she would keep the baby if she got pregnant, i probably wouldn't want to have sex with her! that doesn't mean i'd leave her, but i sure as hell would consider a celibate relationship. and i'm sure a lot of guys (no matter their age) feel the same way.

i feel that when you talk about pregnancy and both agree to not have the child, it's unfair to him if you change your mind after you get pregnant. you had a verbal contract, and you broke it. he didn't agree to this and you shouldn't guilt him if he decides to not play anymore after you've changed the rules.

i don't think that he should force you into anything, however. it's your body and you have the right to keep the baby if you decide to. but he also has rights, and you can't force him into anything either.

i think a lot of guys in this situation stay with her even though they honestly don't want to. these are good guys who want to do the right thing, for you and your child. but you have to do the right thing also.

right to...

"if you can't trust me with a choice, how can you trust me with a child?"

abortion

currently in my ethics class we're discussing abortion. judith jarvis thomson has an analogy that goes like this: if a burglar breaks into your "secure" house (against your will) and demands that you now have to support him, do you have an obligation to do so? obviously not. therefore, if you secure yourself (with contraception) and get pregnant (against your will), you don't have an obligation to keep the baby. see, she's not actually totally "pro-choice" (quotes cause appt terms like pro-choice and pro-life have nothing to do wit ethics) because she doesn't believe that a woman should be allowed to terminate her pregnancy in every situation.

my thoughts: wat if you live in a bad area and don't secure your house? if you get burgeled then, do you owe the burgler anything? no. obviously you should've been smarter than to leave your unbarred windows open. but you still don't have an obligation to the burgler. similarly, if you're a woman wearing revealing clothing, walking around in a bad area of town and get raped. is that really your fault? no, it isn't. again, you should've been smarter than that, but you weren't actually "asking for it," nor do you, by any means, deserve to have been raped. by the same token, if you willingly have sex, don't use contraceptives and do get pregant, you also don't owe the "baby" anything. that was stupid on your behalf but that doesn't mean that you have the moral obligation to carry the baby to term. even though you knew better, you didn't want to get robbed, and you certainly didn't want to get pregnant.

btw, i like metaethics more than applied ethics. it seems like metaethics is more about thinking; applied ethics, about quibbling. =\ oh, and normative ethics are okay too.

Tags: applied ethics, ethics, abortion, morals, human rights