Surprises

From our little troll:

(New York-WABC, April 22, 2005) — We told you yesterday the mayor is launching a $3 million program to reduce unintended pregnancies by pushing emergency contraception.

[. . .]

The two pills of Plan B run $30 at a drugstore. The mayor has just announced that they will be free to any girl or woman of reproductive age at city clinics and hospitals.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg: "Ninety-thousand abortions is an outrage. We should recognize this as a problem."

Kelli Conlin, NARAL Pro-Choice NY: "People use it - they say 'whew' - saved the day for me and now I'm going to be more responsible."

[. . .]

No matter what side you're on the numbers are pretty amazing. Every single year in the city there are 215,000 pregnancies and 60 percent of them are unintentional and result in 90,000 abortions.

[. . .]

I am very pro-choice, but I'm not a big fan of abortion, especially as a treatment for chronic pregnancy. What bothers me more than seeing 90,000 abortions is 90,000 unwanted children born with two strikes against them. Take a ride up to Attica, Sing Sing, or Rikers Island and see the wreckage of our society.

Now, we have our own wingnut assholes here in New York. To wit:

[. . .]

Michael Long, NY State Conservative Party Chairman: "I don't think that's what tax dollars should be used for.

Michael Long with the Conservative Party says there are simply other ways to deal with the problem.

Michael Long: "If you make a mistake you have to be accountable and you have to understand the fact that you have an obligation - that's a human being."

[. . .]

You know, it's one thing being held accountable for your mistakes. You speed, get a ticket, you steal, get arrested, fuck up at work, you get fired, but do you really think it's a good thing to hold a young girl accountable for having sex (think about that) by forcing her to birth a child she doesn't want? Should the life of a newborn be used as an ankle bracelet to hold its mother accountable? The mother and child are both losers if the wingnuts get their way. A baby should be born into the loving arms of parents who want it, not as a ball and chain for a teenage girl.

My hat's off to the little dwarf on this one. It seems like a good compromise between Right and Left without penalizing an infant for being born to a disinterested mother. The New York Conservative Party and its Chairman should shut the fuck up, buncha assholes. 90,000 kids won't be aborted and only a few cells will be flushed from the mother's body only hours after fertilization, even before the fertilized zygote begins to grow. I don't mind paying for this, unlike some of the other fool shit they shake me down for, and I certainly wouldn't mind paying for free contraception for anyone who wants it.

Like I said, every so often Mayor Bloomberg does something smart and he should be commended. This is one of those times. Now, if only he could get the trains to run regularly . . .