THANK YOU FOR YOUR STORY, RUSS.

By Tim Rohr

At about 1:35:00 into Bob Klitzkie's Tall Tales this past Thursday, a caller named "Russ" calls in and makes the argument: "why don't you use birth control...then we wouldn't need abortion." 

Russ isn't alone in this seeming logical argument. But of course the fact is that all manner of "birth control" has been cheap and available for decades. 

Any dude can pick up a pack of condoms along with a pack of cigarettes at any gas station for a couple bucks. In fact, the condoms are cheaper than the cigs.

Moreover, birth control is pretty much free: "[t]he 2010 Affordable Care Act requires insurance companies to cover all Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptive methods and sterilization procedures without co-pays or deductibles beginning August 2012 on new policies."

So what's up? 

Well, abortions are up. 

So wait. Birth control is more available now more than ever, and cheaper now more than ever, and in fact, in many cases, if not paid for by "Obamacare" then at least distributed for free (Condom Availability Programs).

But abortions are "ticking up." 

Huh?

It's not hard for the thinking person to figure out. So let's give it a go.

First, let's establish the fact that after "the pill" and female sterilization, condoms are the most "popular" method of birth control. In fact, we don't have to guess. 

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So then we go to the CDC and look up the stats on condom effectiveness and we find that condoms have a 13% failure rate. Umm, guys. That's like 1 out of 7. Minus one bullet, that's like putting a six-shooter to your head with one loaded chamber and pulling the trigger. 

However, even the CDC stats are "optimistic" because they don't account for The Peltzman Effect which posits:

...when safety measures are implemented, people’s perception of risk decreases, and so people may feel that they can now afford to make riskier decisions. As a result, the phenomenon predicts that mandatory safety measures actually experience a lower benefit than we would expect, because the safety benefits brought about by these measures are offset to some extent by increases in risky behavior.

In other words, we're more likely to do stupid stuff, and more frequently, when we think we are "safe." So, functionally, increased reliance on birth control equals increased risk of pregnancy. And what do people do when they conceive a child they were not expecting to conceive? 

You can fill in the blank, but the answer is abortion: the ultimate "birth control."

Aside from abortion, this also explains why Guam is a national leader in chlamydia:

In 2016, Guam reported 934 cases of chlamydia and in 2017, 1,107 cases were reported among men and women of Guam. This represents an increase of 18.5%. Guam’s rate of chlamydia of 663.3 per 100,000 was higher than the US rate of 528 per 100,000, a difference of 25.6%. - State Action Plan - Women/Maternal Health - Annual Report - Guam - 2020

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Ever since the initial AIDS scare, condom use has been heavily promoted under the moniker: "safe sex." However, a virus is much smaller than a sperm. And if a condom fails 13% of the time to "corral" sperm, then how many viruses (or whatever you call them) are getting through? 

Apparently "lots!" LOL (or maybe not) 

Note: About ten years ago or so, I was in a meeting with the then-director of HHS. Venereal disease in general was a mounting issue and chlamydia was already a scandal. Yet, the meeting was about promoting condom use. I didn't object, but politely posited that perhaps, at least, the failure rate of condoms, pursuant to the the published CDC data, should at least be made known. The then-director scoffed and said "we can't do that because then no one would ever use a condom." Or something like that. Funny. That pack of cigs has a warning on it...not so that pack of condoms. Meanwhile, people die...and babies die. 

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Back to Russ' call on Tall Tales. Russ ends with a heart-warming testimony which goes something like this:

"I gotta say this one thing. And it chokes me every time I even think about it, but my daughter, who was young, got pregnant. I thought about abortion and kinda recommended it to her …. And now I regret ever having said that because I got a beautiful grandson that I love to death and the thought that I ever even thought of that was … I don’t know. I think you know what I’m thinking and feeling." 

Russ, in making a personal case against abortion, sort of makes his case against birth control as well. Whether it be birth control or abortion for his daughter, Russ would have been denied the "beautiful grandson that I love to death." 

Russ, I hear you. My wife and I brought eleven children into this world. And aside from the first one, every pregnancy scared the hell out of me. I had no clue how we were going to "afford another baby." No clue. Nothing. 

And to be frank, I seriously considered birth control and even vasectomy at one point. It's another story. But I didn't. And today I have eleven children that "I love to death," especially the last three...who we had "no business" having. At least that's what the doctors told us.

Thank you for your story Russ. I hope you have many more grandchildren and that you all go to heaven. God bless and keep you.