Earlier today two Live Action contributors Lisa Grass and Jennie Stone pointed out a factual error here and here in Charles Blow’s piece titled “Failing Forward.”
The New York times column now has this correction at the bottom:
The same article is also posted at The Root in uncorrected form. The Root is owned by the Washington Post.
Screenshot from The Root. Click on image for larger version.
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As Lisa Graas wrote:
Charles Blow offers a decidedly schizophrenic view at the New York Times about children, religion and sex that merits a thorough fact check.
Blow propagates a false statistic in regard to the rate of unintended pregnancy.
According to a report issued this week by the Guttmacher Institute, the unintended pregnancy rate has jumped 50 percent since 1994 […]
Guttmacher actually reported, “the overall U.S. unintended pregnancy rate has remained essentially flat—about 5% of U.S. women have an unintended pregnancy every year.”
The unintended pregnancy rate among the poor had gone up, but among everyone else the rate went down. The overall rate is flat. Blow seems to think the rate for the poor is the overall rate.
Blow slams people of faith for saying that if you get pregnant you should not abort and classifies children as “punishment”.
Blow: “Even if you follow a primitive religious concept of punishment for sex […]“
Blow makes clear a second time a contention that a child is “punishment” for sex and that people of faith desire this “punishment”.
Blow: “This is what we’re saying: actions have consequences. If you didn’t want a child, you shouldn’t have had sex. You must be punished by becoming a parent even if you know that you are not willing or able to be one.”
Blow refuses to say the word “abortion” while advocating for the acceptance of child killing.
Blow: “We also have to preserve women’s birth options should they become pregnant, including the option not to give birth.”
Blow claims unintended pregnancies are happening because of stigma or judgment about sex.
Blow: “We have to remove the stigma and judgment around sex.”
Who is against sex? No one. It is when sex becomes solely an act of selfish pleasure as opposed to a giving of one’s self completely to one person as an act of love that it becomes unhealthy morally, socially, emotionally and even physically. Sex that is solely for selfish pleasure is the type of sex that leads to parents not caring about a child that may be conceived. These unhealthy relationships are the ones in which children are rejected as if they are a “punishment.”
Winston Churchill once said, “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.” One can only imagine what it is that prompts so many to adopt such a disregard for truth as we find in Charles Blow’s claims at the New York Times, but in the end, truth will be there. Falsehood cannot withstand the light of truth.
LifeNews.com Note: David Schmidt is the CFO and Media Director for Life Action, the pro-life group best known for exposing sexual abuse coverup at Planned Parenthood. David is a human rights activist who specializes in grassroots organizing with an emphasis on web technology and reaching today’s youth. Lisa Graas is a Live Action contributing writer. This column appeared at the Live Action blog and is reprinted with permission.
