The Lisa D. Archives: Stop! Put on a condom before you impregnate that woman!

This opinion piece was originally published in www.newspapertree.com, February 25, 2009. Click here to see the post.

One way to help end the abortion debate is for individuals to take responsibility for their actions and use a condom or the pill when having recreational sex so that abortion doesn’t have to be used as a form of birth control.

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We can all agree that culture wars surrounding the abortion debate will never cool. Much like the legalization debate, any conversations about abortion go from zero to 60 in seconds, and the knives are out.

This week in the news, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst spoke in favor of SB 182 sponsored by Houston state Sen. Dan Patrick, which would require any woman seeking an abortion, to first have the opportunity to hear the heartbeat and see an ultrasound image of the fetus. Gov. Perry will soon speak in favor of this bill on the steps of the capitol in Austin.

When confronted with news items like this, I always fantasize about the news story I wish I was reading: "Gov. Lisa Degliantoni spoke out in favor SB 449, sponsored by Houston Senator Dan Patrick, which would require any man seeking recreational sex to first have the opportunity to put on a condom and not impregnate the women he is about to have intercourse with.” But headlines like that just don't get written, nor do laws like that get written let alone passed.

And why don’t laws like SB 449 get written? Maybe because the boys are in charge or they don’t like wearing condoms or women aren’t forcing them to use condoms before intercourse. Eight years ago, the Alan Guttmacher Institute surveyed over 10,000 American women who had abortions. Nearly half said they hadn’t used birth control in the month they conceived. Ten percent said their partners had objected to it. Three percent said they had thought it would make sex less fun. (Op-Ed Contributor: This Is the Way the Culture Wars End By WILLIAM SALETAN, February 21, 2009, The New York Times.)

Granted I have nothing against recreational sex, nor do I think mandatory sonograms for women scheduled for an abortion are a bad idea as long as the government is going to pay for them, but I am opposed to the government meddling in the bedrooms of consenting adults because those adults are too lazy to use birth control. Our government shouldn’t waste time slapping the hands of lazy individuals using abortion as a method of birth control and this goes for the obese, the willingly unemployed and people who have taken on mortgages they can’t afford.

Our new president has been talking endlessly about personal responsibility and in his recent address to Congress, President Barack Obama said “What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more.”

In the spirit of where this country needs to go, let’s take responsibility and move into houses we can afford, get rid of personal debt, exercise and maintain a healthy body weight and for gosh sakes, put on a condom before having recreational sex so leaders like Dewhurst and Perry can spend time on issues that matter like solar farms, education and health care.

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I'm not always proud of the articles I published in my past, so when I actually find pieces that still speak to me, up they go!

I loved my job at www.newspapertree.com and I miss it everyday. Here is a link to some of the old stories I wrote with several others that got pulled into the search -
http://newspapertree.com/search?query=Lisa+Degliantoni&submit=.