Wasted Resources

By Baxter

There must be a women's clinic near our local hospital in Virginia — one that political has-been Ken Cuccinelli has failed to close. Because every time we cats drive by there, we see a small group of people — who are almost always men — waving their anti-abortion signs and praying the rosary. We haven't been able to determine whether their vigil has impeded traffic at the healthcare center in any significant way.

But it makes us wonder: How much money and effort has the anti-choice movement spent on meaningless demonstrations like theirs? How much cash have they wasted on flyers, posters, signs, hand warmers, doughnuts and coffee, bullhorns, candles and rosary beads? — not to mention First Amendment lawsuits, criminal assault and trespass lawsuits, and transportation to Washington, DC every January 22?

Wouldn't it be great if, instead, they devoted all those resources to:

• Reproductive health education in schools, community centers and places of worship?
• Genuine access to low-cost, no-hassle birth control?
• Maternal health and nutrition assistance for poor women?
• Child nutrition and parenting classes for teen moms?
• Legal assistance for women who have been impregnated by rape?
• Addiction treatment for women who have been forced to trade sex for alcohol or drugs?
• On-the-job training, job counseling and workforce training for women needing a leg up on the career ladder?
• Scholarships for women at two- and four-year community colleges, to help them break the cycle of poverty and dependency?

We're not talking about diverting what's left of meager social service budgets to underwrite religious organizations and programs. We're talking about real community efforts — administered by people who may be pro-life, but who are qualified by something more authentic than a Bible and a flyer of a bloody fetus Photoshopped into an open garbage can. And who feel motivated to address the question of unplanned pregnancies, which is the true crux of the problem.

When the anti-choice forces want to engage in programs like that, then we'll talk. Until then, we'll drive by your pathetic little vigils with disgust and contempt. We cats HISS.

(IMAGE: Person without a uterus, demonstrating against reproductive choice. Typical!)