Donald Miller has posted a long but interesting political history of his life. He shares some experiences with working with the Obama campaign this year.
While in Denver I met people from the Obama Campaign. I met Joshua Dubois and Paul Monteiro, Obama’s faith-policy advisors. Paul, like me, had been a Republican until recently. He is a staunch pro-life conservative who got tired of Republicans not making enough strides on the issue and was won over by the dramatic effect economic policy has on unwanted pregnancy and the bottom-up effects of economic stimulation as opposed to the conservative, supply-side policy. And Joshua spoke to me about Senator Obama’s personal faith, his commitment to close his events in prayer, his daily morning devotions and his twenty-year history of talking openly about Jesus. I didn’t need to be won over. I’d started a mentoring foundation in Portland two years before and was attracted to Obama’s message on responsible fatherhood (along with his backing of The Responsible Fatherhood Act.)
Elsewhere he says,
Last year I vowed I wouldn’t make decisions out of fear. And because of that I’ve had one of the greatest years of my life.
If you have a few minutes, give it a read. Donald is a great writer and always makes you think.
1 comment:
The abortion rate among women living below the federal poverty level ($9,570 for a single woman with no children) is more than four times that of women above 300% of the poverty level (44 vs. 10 abortions per 1,000 women). This is partly because the rate of unintended pregnancies among poor women (below 100% of poverty) is nearly four times that of women above 200% of poverty* (112 vs. 29 per 1,000 women. This debunks that the financial health is the factor on weather or not a woman decides to kill her baby, but confirms that if the pregnancy was intended or not is the driving factor.
It is simple math, 4 times the rate of abortions in low income vs high income mothers is equal to 4 times the rate of unplaned pregnancies in low income vs high income mothers.
The driving rate is not the statistic on income, but wether or not the pregnancy was planned - any income level.
Also, the abortion rate has been declining since 1981 (praise God!), even before the Clinton years. The rate did drop the fastest during his years, but it is irresponsible to say elevated economic conditions = lower abortions. If that were true, we should be bracing ourselves for dastic increase in abortion as the economy turns downward. The main factor is the number of unplanned pregnancies. Birth control made more widely availabe, changes in sex education, and more public awareness that an embryo IS A LIFE with a flood of advertising and billboards also increased during this time.
If someone wants to vote Obama based on other issues outweighing the abortion issue - fine! Please take a very hard look into the numbers about social factors recieving credit for declining abortion rates.
Post a Comment