Holier Than Thou - the War on Sex
The so-called ‘pro-life’ movement consists of religious people (primarily Christians) who believe abortions are wrong and who work very hard to outlaw abortions or at least make them as difficult as possible to get. Their stated reason is usually that an abortion is the killing of an innocent human being and so is intrinsically evil. Some may actually believe that they are ‘defending God’ by preventing abortions. There are also some non-religious,secular people who believe abortion is wrong and work to make it illegal.
The ‘morality’ of abortion has been discussed in a separate page on this site. The main problem for Abrahamic religions regarding abortion, is the belief that an aborted fetus loses the opportunity to experience a human life for ever. This of course, is completely untrue. If a fetus is aborted, the soul destined to occupy that human body, is merely scheduled to be born later and is usually put in front of the queue of souls lined up for incarnation on Earth. The Catholic Church is not even entirely sure if the aborted soul is sent to ‘heaven’ or is left to languish in some weird place called ‘limbo’ - they merely hope that it is. Such absurd doctrines lead people to believe that by opposing abortions and allowing unwanted babies to be born, they are ‘saving’ their souls and may actually be saving them from some terrible fate. Such sentiments even though false, may be admirable.
However, I believe that many of the pro lifers, far from wanting to save babies or ‘souls’, really want to punish the woman with the unwanted pregnancy. They resent the woman or the couple for their irresponsible sexual behavior. They want the woman to ‘pay’ for her actions. The life of the fetus is actually secondary, the real reason for opposition to abortion, is to make sure such irresponsible sexual activity without the purpose of procreation does not take place and is punished. They want her to go through the pain of carrying the fetus to term. She must be forced to raise an unwanted child or she should go through the trauma of giving it up for adoption. Only if the woman suffers in some way for her actions, will these ‘pro-life’ people be satisfied.
The members of the pro-life movement fall into the following categories (some them may be in more than one category):
The issue with the use of contraceptives is entirely a Catholic or a fundamentalist Christian one. This is the most absurd and ridiculous belief that ‘God’ somehow forbids the use of artificial contraception. There is not much that can be said about this idiotic belief, but it clearly is part of the war-on-sex. Those who promote this idea that contraception is wrong, are either firm believers in their absurd theology or sexually frustrated, mean, resentful people who are using it as an excuse.
If this strange belief were only applied to true believers in the US, it would not be such a big problem. However, it also affects US aid to poorer countries outside the US, when funds can not be used for family planning and may instead be used for something like promoting abstinence which is not at all effective. It can also lead to rise in transmission of STDs since the use of condoms is discouraged. Within the US, women with insurance coverage from Catholic or other Christian hospitals may not be able to get contraceptives that need a prescription and insurance may not cover the cost.
The war against contraception is essentially a way to prevent people from having safe sex or having sex just for pleasure (something the Church really hates).
Prostitution is illegal almost everywhere in the US and most of the world. Those who do practice this illegally are often harassed or arrested or worse by law enforcement. Since they are committing a crime, they can easily be victimized or even assaulted by other people (including the police).When they are victims of assault or robbery, they are too afraid to call police.
Even ‘well-meaning’ journalists or other busy-bodies do not leave sex-workers alone.These people are eager to either expose ‘illegal’ activity or save the sex-workers from their ‘degrading’ profession. The reason often given is prevention of trafficking of sex-workers. Nobody supports sex-trafficking especially of minors, but most sex-workers are adults over thirty or forty who have been in the profession for a long time. They are comfortable with their work, even though they are at great risk precisely because of the laws criminalizing prostitution.
Many countries have tried to solve this problem of the safety of sex-workers who are being forced to commit a victimless crime. The only real solution that many social workers have realized is to decriminalize prostitution. Sweden has tried to solve this problem by making prostitution legal, but keeping solicitation of prostitution criminal. In effect, killing their business. This is the approach most feminists prefer -.they feel prostitution is an insult to women and degrades them. The inability of the workers to make a living does not concern the feminists. New Zealand has taken a far better approach.
The US of course instead of trying to solve the problem, keeps making things worse for the sex workers. A recent law (FOSTA-SESTA) passed in congress on internet advertising has made it almost impossible for sex workers to work independently. Because it is very difficult to advertise their services, workers have to either walk the streets or depend on someone else to bring them customers. It has driven all prostitution under ground and increased the risk faced by the worker.
Ultimately the laws against prostitution are attempts on one hand by prudish conservative to ban what they see as immoral sexual activity and on the other hand by feminists who think women selling their own bodies is an affront to all women, the rest of the public looks down on prostitutes with disgust and don’t really care. The sex-workers are caught in the middle at risk of incarceration, exploitation, assault or worse. It is yet another war on sex with sex-workers as the victims.
The age of consent in the US is 18 in most places, although many teenagers have already engaged in sex before that. However, if one of the participants in below 18 and the other is 18 or a bit older, the laws automatically make the older one a criminal and a sex offender stigmatized for life. In many cases a 16 year old can actually be quite mature and may be even more mature than the 18 year old who is now a criminal. It would be better to either change the age of consent to 16 in all states (it is 14 in Germany) or at least take into account the difference in ages before prosecuting the older individual.
The high age of consent of 18 in many states is another way that sexual activity is criminalized in the US.
Created: February 12, 2021
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Palo Alto, California