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Teen Birth Rates Higher in States Where Religion Is Widespread

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Armand Hammer wrote a book that tells how his surgeon father, did an abortion on a woman who had many illnesses & flu of the kind that killed millions in l915=17 era. She had peritonis. His father said died of the flu, but he was not believed. Our government was enforcing Canon Law that bans abortion. I make this comment to add the fact that the woman & her husband fled Russia during the Revolution. Doctors told her she must never have a baby. But her husband kept impregnating her. She did many abortions on herself with bent wire, and some were done illegally by doctors who dared. Who would imagine that a husband could be so sadistically cruel and mean to his wife, as to continue harming her that way. Since he fled Russia, he must have been an Orthodox Catholic, obeying church commands not to use birth control and abortion. That law existed to make women produce big families of tithers. Some commentators say all abortions are done for selfish reasons, after "careless sex." Who knows how many husbands are still doing what that man did, exposing wives to danger?

aura dawn veirs of CA 9:11PM October 25, 2009

In another comment, I listed bone disease & impaired skeletal development as reasons why some women cannot safely be mothers. Some are too old or too young. Demands for fetal nutrition,- and strength to carry the weight -are not there. I found these other reasons: Phrenology & cardiology explain kidney & heart disease. All organs can have flaws that make abortion a necessity, not a preference. It's disgusting that religionists, using old books that were written in an age of ignorance, insist on interfering in the lives of fertile men and women. I blame all of them, personally, for the deaths of women who die in illegal botched abortions or bleed out after trying to rid their bodies of unwanted tissue. Males have all the surgery they want, but females alone are exposed to hazards of conception. Civil Rights laws must be enforced against these hitherto unpunished people, guilty of the crime of murder. They say abortion "kills babies" but Prolifers kill the mothers.

auradawn veirs of CA 3:23PM October 17, 2009

Preachers depend on MONEY from tithes. They believe each conception has potential to become a believer who will tithe the enormous 10% lifetime tithe. It's worth going after for church income. It's $160,000 if a person pays 40 years on annual income of $40,000. If the conception is aborted, it's worth Zero to a church. Historically, where theres' a church there's a orphanage nearby. And a workhouse of some kind. Now there are church hospitals that refuse to do abortions. Churches are a leading cause of poverty and the burden it puts on taxpayers. Churches attack homosexual marriages because they're not likely to produce BIG families of tithers. They may adopt a few waifs cast off by religious parents who dared Hell to abort, but they don't guarantee big income to churches. I suggest Prochoice demonstrators should use picket signs saying "For a POTENTIAL TITHER, life begins at conception." It's all about church income. If preaching were free, there would be no organized religious attack on atheists, homosexuals, and abortion.

auradawn veirs of CA 3:11PM October 17, 2009

Today I found an excellent site to assure Pro-Choicers we're right to demand full access to abortion. I asked for skeleton development. On a site with "Dry Bones Chapter 8." There's proof that some women, too old or young or malnourished or with genetic disease, should not be mothers. The site reminds us that earlier civilizations "needed" big families. Children grew to be warriors, field workers and support for old parents. "Osteoapathy" explains what goes wrong with bones as skeletons and individual parts of bodies. One genetic disease is "brittle bone." Other diseases cause bones to be misshapen, such as a rickets pelvis, narrowed to be too small to let an in infant''s head pass through. Pro-Lifers, out of mercy, should read about skeletons and why conception always means death for some women. Low-income areas in states often have many churches that preach God's message to "Be Fruitful and fill the earth with God's people." Sadly, women with skeletal problems may want to abort, but family and pew-mate pressure makes them try to go full term. I advise all compassionate citizens to find these osteopathy web sites and use them.

auradawn veirs of CA 5:28PM September 26, 2009

This article lacks credibility. Dr Strayhorn writes a 20 page agenda driven “term paper” citing the CDC as a reference and the rags blindly run it as news. The agenda is obvious; ignorant religious communities teach abstinence and it doesn’t work, enlightened liberal communities teach safe sex and contraceptives that work. If that is truly the goal then the “journalist” should have questioned the live birth statistics cited, because teen pregnancy rate is the better measure. The Alan Guttmacher Institute compiles statistics on teen pregnancy rates including girls aged 15-19 (pregnancy rate per 1,000). The top ten are D.C. (128), Nevada (113), Arizona (104), Mississippi (103), New Mexico (103), Texas (101), Florida (97), California (96), Georgia (95), and North Carolina (95). I really only count four religious states here and North Carolina did go blue last election cycle. Falling out of Dr. Strayhorn’s top ten were Arkansas (4th to 11th), Oklahoma (6th to 22nd), Tennessee (8th to 19th), and Kentucky (9th to 26th). If we expand to the top 15, we add one religious state and four more “blue” states: Arkansas (93), Delaware (93), Hawaii (93), Maryland (91), and New York (91). The reason Dr. Strayhorn’s study falls apart is because it was driven by an agenda, not statistics. Simply reading the CDC report provides the demographics for live births (see Table 3, pg 9 of the CDC report): Non-Hispanic white 27.2, Non-Hispanic black 64.3, and Hispanic 81.7. Therefore the obvious correlation would have been “States with higher Black and Hispanic teen populations have higher teen pregnancy rates”. Further proof, the bottom ten for teen pregnancy rates follow: Nebraska (59), Wisconsin (55), Iowa (55), South Dakota (54), Utah (53), Maine (52), Minnesota (50), New Hampshire (47), Vermont (44), and North Dakota (42).

Jeff of VA 11:08AM September 20, 2009

Garrido's a satyrist, meaning he can't have too many orgasms, He makes females give him more, even if he kills them when they resist. He obviously carries extremely flawed genetic material. He should have been sterilized after his first conviction so his genes wouldn't be passed along. Psychologists explain her reaction, as a little girl, to the horrific situation. I would make rape a capital crime, done immediately after fool-proof conviction, with no appeal. I would steriiize all rapists and incestors, for reasons above. There are too few women in Congress, wnich is why laws are so lax about the way males have been able to victimize females and have parole, etc. I'm an atheist so I ask people to remember Garrido stresses his Christianity. He truly believes the Bible when it says when people accept Christ, He personally and instantly forgives their past, present and future sins. (Crimes.) News says there are two concrete slabs in his yard & mountains of junk. How did his property escape being cited for zoning & fire and health code violations? Let's hope this ghastly situation starts inspections of all peculiar property.

auradawn veirs of CA 2:52AM September 20, 2009

Here's the explanation of why so many immature girls are forced to carry conceptions full term. Church income depends on women to produce ongoing generations of tithers, to replace those who die or lose faith. The Code of Canon Law says abortion is a crime--worse than that, it's a sin punished by eternal torture in hell. Non-Catholic churches need income & many of them join the Vatican in banning abortion. See the text of the Code of Canon Law that criminalizes abortion, suicide and attempted self-destruction. Doesn't it explain Prolife lobbying? Until l973 (Roe v Wade) our civil government actually did enforce that part of Canon Law. Until l972, it also enforced law that made it a crime to sell contraceptives even to married couples. I urge taxpayers to remember these facts. We're still forced to have our taxes subsidize poor, unwed moms & couples who have big families they can't afford. Our retirement assets dwindle as we give them welfare, ADC, food stamps, free county hospitals & subsidized housing. Often they get federal grants for education. If you agree, please work for Pro-Choice based on the Constitution.

auradawn veirs of CA 7:20PM September 19, 2009

I will guarantee that the next study will prove MORE abortions in religious areas.
There is MORE proven teen births and pornography in religious areas.
Who wants to bet that there is more INCEST in religious areas?

William of NV 1:36PM September 18, 2009

Glad to see that two previous comments made the same conclusion about this study that I made. More Teen Births = (may be because) Less Aborted Babies. Have the researchers, see what the Abortion numbers are (per capita) in the more religious states (vs. less)? That will give us a better picture. Maybe the truth is that true Christianity is based on God's forgiveness. Maybe Christian families are strong enough live with the axiom "hate the sin/love the sinner."
SINCE ABORTION IS PART OF THE DISCUSSION...SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT...
As a Catholic, I'm able to understand, (not accept as right), Abortion in the case of rape/incest. But the Philip Garrido / Casey Dugard case in CA, has me re-thinking my position. I can't remember ever hearing of any children being born via rape, let alone 2 girls that are now at the age of 11 and 15.
My interpretation of Pro-Abortion advocates is: Had Casey escaped from Garrido while pregnant with either of these girls, then Casey would have been counseled to have an abortion. Why? I've understood the argument to be: not sparing the R/I victim the extra emotional pain of the pregnancy,and then lifelong reminder, of the rape itself, is downright cruel. That argument was always enough for me to accept, until Casey Dugard. In my re-thinking, I now realize, that accepting this argument pre-supposes that a rape victim wouldn't remember the attack everyday for the rest of their lives anyway. Which I imagine is false.
Aren't we all pulling for all three of these girls, now? Aren't we all hoping that they all get the best clinical and long term pyschological help possible to aid in their recovery from their ordeal. 20 years from now, I want to see them on whatever Oprah/Dr. Phil Show is the rage. I imagine we will see they've survived.
Having given up easily before, simply on the cruelty argument, on accepting abortions in R/I case, I imagine the next line of reasoning would be: But the baby's "Quality of life" would be so troubling. With the Garrido/Dugard case, that argument is now moot. Why?
We've seen the great work DNA has done to exonerate Death Penalty Criminals, right? Innocent criminals won't get the time in jail back, and their future life might be hard, but they're free. They survived, and now have the opportunity to make their way in the world. See, Quality of Life, isn't as important as LIFE itself. All LIFE is sacred. If those girls can survive that ordeal, then I believe, Christians-RTL groups should find a way to reach out to victims of Rape/Incest and provide whatever Financial Assistance, Long Term Counseling, Etc, for that R/I victim to carry the child to term and be raised by loving families, who still believe in the potential of every human being from conception, not the burden (and carbon footprint) of every human.
Sure, it may lead to higher Teen Births in more religious states, but it's what I now believe I,(and the babies), can live with.

Brian of DC 12:13PM September 18, 2009