Poor Planned Parenthood

    Planned Parenthood seemed to be a hot topic on Ms. magazine's Feminist Wire Daily Newsbriefs last week. Texas officials revoked funding on Friday and pro-life protesters provoked violence in Oregon. Coincidentally, Texas happens to be a "red state" and Oregon a "blue state." With elections just around the corner, what impact will the outcome have on Planned Parenthood? Do these recent occurrences symbolize more than just a bad rep of this women's health institution?

    I think so.
    The topic of abortion has become more significant with each coming election. Obama has left Planned Parenthood alone, but Romney (unfortunately) refuses to let his beliefs be unheard. A typical conservative, he believes that life starts from conception. Early this year, his website said that he is against abortion in all cases because his personal religious beliefs consider each child God's blessing. He has since changed his stance on abortion, saying it is acceptable in the unfortunate cases of rape, incest or a threat to the mother's life. However, he still supports fellow Republican political figures Todd Akin, who believes that a woman's body can prevent pregnancy in instances of "legitimate rape;" Joe Walsh, who thinks there's no scientific evidence that pregnancy can threaten a mother's life; and Richard Mourdock, who instills that even an expecting rape victim's baby is "a gift from God."

    Slate magazine writer William Saletan tells his readers, 

"Banning abortion for rape victims is the new Republican mainstream."

    Texas Governor Rick Perry says, "Today's ruling affirms yet again that in Texas the Women's Health Program has no obligation to fund Planned Parenthood and other organizations that perform or promote abortion. In Texas we choose life, and we will immediately begin defunding all abortion affiliates to honor and uphold that choice." Ms. tells readers in this newsbrief that the state will not be able to make up for the 40% of low-income women that use these services.  Republicans are forgetting that these establishments do not only provide abortions, but some vital services for women such as cancer screenings. All this decision will do is put women's health at risk, especially because they are not willing to offer low-income women any more or special healthcare options.

From motleynews.net

    Oregon pro-life protesters shoved a girl exiting the building after she had kicked one of their signs. Later that day, she came back with her father. Angry, he punched the protester. In turn, the protester stabbed the man, Ted Clair, seven times. Last year in my anthropology class, I learned that anti-choice people have had an outstanding history  in violent protests, ranging from fistfights to  attacks involving arson.  If you are defending life, why would you do anything to damage another's or your own? Protesters need to understand that they should practice what they preach.

From boyculture.com

    And Republicans need to understand that without abortion, our economy will be even worse. Teenage pregnancy is on the rise, and many of these girls aren't even old enough to have a job yet. All these mothers who cannot support themselves, nevertheless a newborn child or twins, will make our economy worse. Even if these new mothers were to find jobs, chances are they'd have to drop out of school or not continue to college. So not only will they be poor on welfare but uneducated and unable to move up in the business world. Without abortions, women may have to die for their children, who may grow up poor without the second income or as an orphan if the father was never around. Then victims of rape or incest will have to revisit the burden of the most demeaning day of their lives whenever they lay their eyes on the children they never wanted to begin with. There are more orphans than couples willing to adopt, so that option is not always available. There's seven billion people in this world. According to National Geographic's 2010 video "7 Billion," about five people are born each second in the world. Taking away abortion in the states can probably increase that by one more person each day. Why take away the one option that regulates this? We cannot afford more people. There are already too many in our nation alone that are suffering in this era of economic turmoil. Why put more people in the streets instead of saving them from their suffering?

  

    Republicans need to realize that there is a reason why we have a separation of Church and state. Personal beliefs should not interfere with political ones, especially not if thousands of people will be at a loss because of it.

From realitychex.com

    And this is why I do not trust Romney. He changes his stances and his opinions way too often and drastically during his campaign.  Who's to say if he gets elected that he won't "change his mind" again and do things just because he can, because he has an advantage that Obama didn't -- there are more Republicans in the House of representatives than Democrats. There goes our freedom and what is truly best for those near or under the poverty line.

   
    Romney acts like he doesn't care what the people want. He only cares about what he and his friends want. He just wants to be the poster-boy of America. It doesn't matter who he hurts in the process. Taking away the funding for Planned Parenthood should be a sin. Pro-lifers should take a more realistic perspective. Here's to the old saying, "Don't fix it if it ain't broke." Abortion is not broken. Our government is. 

Can too much sex really be that bad?

    The word hypersexuality will be newly defined when the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual updates its terminology this coming May. This 'sex addiction,' to be known as hypersexual disorder, has proved itself evident in certain people's lives.

    Research shows that some of the patients tested used sex as a means to cope with depression and anxiety or other unhealthy emotional states and occurrences. However, as these people continually use sex as an escape, their problems and mood swings only get progressively worse over time, ruining their relationships with other people and most importantly, their relationships with themselves. It also ruins their ability to achieve healthy sex.

    It is interesting that in the study, the 150 patients who had gone in for a diagnosis were primarily white males. It seems that the hypersexuality took place mostly with themselves, turning to masturbation and pornography.

    Lindsay Abrams asked the question in her article, "Do claims to "hypersexuality" really make one disordered, and deserve a place in the same book that defines debilitating afflictions like depression or schizophrenia?"

    My answer: yes. Hypersexual Disorder (known as HD) does exist. I have a friend who once sought self-satisfaction three or more times a day after going through a bad breakup. It negatively affected him physically, emotionally and socially. When it came time for him to actually perform, he couldn't. He was terrified that he had erectile dysfunction and thought to himself, "No, I'm way too young to have that." He was relieved when his doctor told him it was all in his head, but does that really make it any better?

    It is a mental problem that can easily escalate into something more and can even lead to other disorders or dysfunctions, including schizophrenia. If HD is not a manifestation of one's depression, it can certainly lead to it due to the negative effects.

    I just do not understand why these psychiatrists are saying that only people over the age of 18 can be diagnosed with this. Many adolescents start exploring their sexuality at a much younger age, and although I could not fathom anyone younger experiencing or falling victim to this extreme condition, I do not think age should be part of the criteria for diagnosis. That's like saying young children cannot be depressed or schizophrenic, when they can.

    I like that Abrams wrote about this because it sheds a light on something people normally wouldn't think of. Sex has such a positive image in our society, but too much of a good thing can really be a bad thing. Who knew that sex, a personal tension-releasing natural act, can be so traumatizing to some people? Sex can be as addicting as alcohol, cigarettes or any other drug.

    Mostly, it's sad to see that it can be completely unnoticed unless the person going through this shares the information with someone else, which is unlikely. It's embarrassing to talk about, and many people just wouldn't understand.

    I just hope that the people who seek self-satisfaction too often don't think that because of this diagnosis, that they are a mental case or an emotional mess. Abrams explains that porn, masturbation, fetishes and sex in general moderation are healthy. Just be wary of the line that can be crossed.

    Abrams did a good job in explaining HD, but I have one unanswered question. How does being diagnosed with this disorder actually help the patient? How will they be treated? I think that is almost more important than the actual study of the soon-to-be-offical dysfunction. I am interested in learning how people who have this will be able to put it behind them.

Google Earth helps boy find home after missing for 25 years

   David Kushner shared the captivating story of Saroo Munshi Khan, an Indian boy who could not find his way home one day when he was only five years old. Khan was fostered to an Australian family, and 25 years later he found his way back to his birth mother and siblings using Google Earth, Facebook and hazy childhood memories.

   Khan's journey was trekked in Kushner's article "A Home at the End of Google Earth," which is featured in Vanity Fair's recent November issue.

   This article resembles what brought me to journalism in the first place. This inspirational masterpiece that Kushner has created made me feel like I was not just reading any old, informative article but a short story that he was narrating. Khan's story was beautifully illustrated to us. Kushner also touched on what the advances we've made in technology in the past decade or so have and can achieve without focusing on it.

"The tracks led away from the city like a spiderweb, crisscrossing the country."

    His similes, as such, kept us imagining Khan's in-depth process. I also appreciate the way Kushner organized the article chronologically and separating the article into sections that describe what we would be reading about in the next few paragraphs. The story showed us every step from "The Separation" to "The Search Begins" to "The Reunion." Naming the sections brought the story together while breaking it up to give the readers a break.

   All in all, I admire the way Kushner worded this article because it is newsworthy, recent and the summed-up life story of Saroo Munshi Khan. It is something people would actually care about, and I am happy it was featured in a celebrity-driven magazine's print edition.