Washington NARAL Protests “March of the Penguins”

SEATTLE—August 1, 2005. Coming on the heels of their recent protest in front of a Seattle area crisis pregnancy center, WA-NARAL came out to protest the family-friendly movie of the summer, “March of the Penguins”. They cited the movie as yet another example of the perpetuation of the “cult of motherhood” by the extreme right-wing and the Catholic Church.

Karen Cooper of WA-NARAL said “This movie makes clear to the world that penguins do not have full access to the reproductive health services all animals have a right to regardless of species.” There are currently no abortion clinics in Antarctica where the majority of the penguins live. “Access to birth control and abortion are critical to the rights of penguins if they are to achieve equal status with whales, sea lions, salmon and humans” she continued.

Planned Parenthood is exploring the opening of a clinic in Antarctica, the only continent where they do not have a clinic, in late 2006 but is having trouble finding doctors willing to spend 6 months out of the year in the freezing temperatures of Antarctica.

Even though the Catholic Church has no noticeable presence in Antarctica the movie clearly show the oppression of penguins, especially the females who must swim great distances to find food. “Clearly this movie is biased in favor of the mythological view of motherhood and parenting put forward by the Pope.” The producers failed to respond to questions about why they didn’t include more balance in the portrayals of penguin life in their film. “There wasn’t any footage of non-parenting penguins enjoying a life free from offspring -- swimming, playing on the ice, or taking a cruise through the Panama Canal,” she added.

An island covered in ice for most of the year, Antarctica is at risk for overpopulation and thus a lowering in the quality of life for all penguins if they continue to produce offspring. “The movie completely ignores this part of the debate” Cooper further explained. WA-NARAL is asking the producers of the film to remove the film from all area theatres. So far they have fail to comply but the Seattle City Council has already declared July Animal Reproductive Health Month and Dow Constantine, celebrity judge at last year’s “Chocolates for Choice” WA-NARAL fundraiser has pledged to fly any penguin to Seattle for an abortion at his district’s Planned Parenthood. “I fully support a penguin’s right to choose,” he said. He also supports an idea put forward by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickles to fly a one-year supply of Ortho-Evra to any penguin in the Antarctic but acknowledged that it remains to be seen if “the patch” will stay on in the icy waters of the Antarctic Ocean.

Dan Kennedy of Human Life of Washington only had this comment, “They’ve really flown the coop on this one.”

The Seattle PI is asking residents of Seattle to contribute to WA-NARAL’s Penguin Reproductive Health Fund. You can make a donation at any local branch of Bank of America.

Silent No More Awareness Seattle

Let's consider abortion from the perspective of those who have personally experienced it. The Silent No More Awareness Campaign is holding an event in Washington state on Saturday October 1st, 2005 at 12:30 pm at Westlake Park in Downtown Seattle to bring women and men together to share the truth about the emotional, spiritual and physical consequences they have lived with after their abortion. Many women and men suffer in silence from their abortion experience; it is time for them to know that help is available and they can be set free from their pain.

Washington State: Mecca for Bestiality

This is so upsetting but not really surprising in Washington.

One point several articles have made is that Washington has become a "Mecca" for bestiality because it is outlawed in other states. So what should we expect to occur when Roe v. Wade is overturned and abortion is outlawed in other states but remains legal in this state --Washington becomes a "Mecca" for abortion of course.

And what to make of the Seattle PI and their anemic and brief editorial supporting Pam Roach's efforts to pass a law banning bestiality? Banning bestiality is a "no-brainer" they say but offer no compelling arguments against it as Wesley Smith has done in his article. All they can really muster in way of a prohibition on bestiality is the following:

The legal and regulated hunting of animals in no way grants us a carte blanche on all aspects of animal life.

It's a watered down quasi-version of "just because we can do something doesn't mean we should". This is a good start for the PI but not quite the correct reasoning behind prohibitions on bestiality. In the minds of the editorial board, the "maybe some things aren't such a good idea" attidude only extends to animal life, not human life. It is also surprising that the pro-abortion Seattle PI has actually found something related to sex they want the government to regulate.

The PI regularly supports abortion and embryonic stem cell research; both areas of human life where the law says we can kill (abortion) and, in the absence of laws to the contrary, we have carte blanche over all aspects of human life (embryonic stem cell research). They don't seem to have a problem with that and want the government to pay for it. It's a strange and destructive ideology and the sad part of it all is that this is also the official position of our state government.