Anti-Vaxxers, Abortion Opponents, and Free Raif: Things We’d Like to See Happen This Week
Photo by Luis Carceller / 123RF Humanists strive for a progressive society that upholds the worth and dignity of every individual. But there are a number of efforts bent on bringing us back to the Dark Ages. In just the past week alone, three major news stories related to vaccines, abortions, and religious freedom circled online forums. What changes do humanists want to see in these areas?
Oppose Anti-Vaxxers
It would be nice if people would stop creating public health emergencies by exposing their virus-ridden children to the public because they refuse to vaccinate out of fear of autism.
Vaccines, especially among children and the elderly, can be critical to an individual’s health. Many parents are opting out of vaccinating their children for fear of horrible side effects like autism despite scientific evidence conveying the opposite. If you want to deprive you child of potentially life-saving preventative medicine, go for it, but please stop using an excuse science has already told you isn’t true. Your fears are not backed by evidence or even rationality. It is your job as a parent to protect your children and it is your job as a human to not put everyone else at risk because of your paranoia.
Stop House Resolution 7: No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act
We would like to see President Obama veto the ridiculous bill to prevent a woman’s access to safe abortions because a group of male bullies think they know more about pregnancy than women and doctors.
Here’s the deal, Congress: You can’t make laws about my reproductive process based on your opinions, faith, and Jesus, which, by the way, is getting a little tiring. If President Obama vetoes this bill, women will continue to have access to safe abortions instead of risking their lives through back-alley abortions—because, as history has shown, women will find a way to have abortions whether they are legal or not. Women will be financially capable of having an abortion if they feel they are unfit to become a parent and wouldn’t have to bring a child into the world they are unable to care for (not like the church would help). Families who are ready to have children will have the option of sparring their child a life of extreme pain and difficulty by having the ability to terminate a fetus who has developed life-threatening diseases in the womb.
One final and very important reason why this law should not exist is the freedom of one’s body is basic human right. If we take those rights away, laws are bound to restrict us in life where they never should. What’s next? Should we be told when we can and cannot have sex? How to dress? Will birth control go out the window? Congress, can we please spend more time on sexual and reproductive education and less time telling us what we can and can’t do?
Free Raif Badawi
King Salman of Saudi Arabia, I would like to see Raif Badawi receive the freedom that should have never been taken from him—the freedom to express his views openly without fear of persecution. Sentenced to prison for establishing a web forum where people could express and debate their views, Badawi has become the victim of outrageous blasphemy laws that continue to stifle freedom of speech all over the world.
While you are at it, Your Highness, why don’t you enact laws to protect free speech in your country rather than destroying the lives of every person who doesn’t agree with you? Be a leader unified with his country from respect rather than simply obeyed out of fear. Besides, it seems like your people are starting to vocalize how they really feel, and you may be creating more enemies than you bargained for.