Tired of your musings on parenthood being dismissed as so much fluff? Clancy writes in response to a NYTimes article on parenting blogs for which she was interviewed.
I was interviewed for this story because part of my dissertation research focuses on women’s weblogs, many of whom are mothers. When David Hochman was talking to me about the story, he used the words “narcissistic” and “confessional” to describe parents’ weblogs, albeit in a questioning way (“Aren’t they just kind of narcissistic and confessional?” that kind of thing). As I told him about my dissertation, I tried so hard to explain to and persuade him that “baby blogs” are often — almost always — so much more than “the new baby book,” that they’re a way for parents to express what’s on their minds, but children figure in prominently, obviously.
The Well-Timed Period’s “A Government Guide to Reducing Abortion” dissects the language of President Bush’s recent phone call from Camp David to the anti-abortion protesters gathered at the White House near the anniversary of Roe v. Wade:
according to our most benevolent leaders the way to reduce abortion is to: 1) enact some more laws that don’t work; and 2) lie to women, and offer to increase their intraop risks. [If some of the anesthesiologists out there could blog a little about the difference between administering anesthesia to a pregnant patient vs. a nonpregnant one, the inherent difficulties and risks, drug delivery to the fetus, and what anesthetizing a fetus during an abortion procedure would entail, that would be most instructive.]
To reduce the number of abortions, instead of misguided politics and dreamy religion, how about some science? Emergency contraception (estimated to prevent 800,000 abortions per year). Education [one based on facts, not wishful thinking]. Increasing the availability of existing birth control methods to American women. Encouraging R&D of new methods.
Her look at the president’s speech itself is invaluable. Please read the rest.