"Should Birth Control be Free?" response

I agree with the article “Should Birth Control be Free?”. In this article, it states that birth control being free and covered by the affordable care act is a good measure in preventing pregnancies and helping women with other medical needs. After doing my own research on this topic, I found some more great statistics that support why birth control should be free. According to bedsider.org, unplanned pregnancies cost U.S taxpayers 12 billion per year. 12 billion dollars is a significant amount of money that could be used elsewhere. This amount is significantly reduced when birth control is free for all women. It also significantly reduces the number of abortions. This protects the health of the woman since abortions can come with many risks and saves women money because of the cost of the abortion. All around, having free birth control saves money. Many women said they are on birth control strictly because they cannot afford to become pregnant. When a woman does not have birth control and becomes pregnant when they were not ready, this significantly increases their likelihood of living in poverty. Providing free birth control prevents women from living a life of poverty. Birth control also has medical uses such as clearing acne, preventing cancer and reducing menstrual cramps. When we make birth control cost money, it makes managing these medical problems harder. Overall, the benefits of free birth control significantly out weight any of its negatives. 

Armed Teachers

      Should we allow teachers to protect their classrooms with a gun? We should be allowing teachers to protect herself or himself and the 10-20 other lives in their classroom with an approved handgun, and a thorough mental health screening. I do not think a teacher should be required to have one, but it should be an option if they would like further protection for their classroom. It is a right given to us in the Bill of Rights that we can bare arms and I find that there is no better way to carry out that right than to use it to protect others. 

     Think back to the awful Sandy Hook shooting of 2012. Do you think 27 people would have died that day if just one teacher had been able to protect the school with their own fire arm? I do not have any children of my own, but I would be worried sick daily if I knew I was sending my child to school and their teacher had absolutely no way of protecting them other than locking the door and hiding in the corner. What good does that do? The number of school shootings would significantly decrease if a shooter knew that there were armed teachers in the building. Schools are targets. It’s a bunch of people, confined in one space with no way to protect themselves other than turning some lights off, locking doors and hiding in the corner. That does not seem to be stopping shooters. We need to take action and stop playing victims. We need to allow teachers to protect themselves and their classrooms if they feel comfortable.

     So how do we carry this out? How do we make sure teachers are ready and properly prepared to have a gun in their classroom? First and foremost, I believe a mental health screening is most important. We need to make sure these teachers are mentally stable and prepared for the responsibility that comes with handling a gun. Second, there should be extensive and proper training on how to handle, work with, and shoot a gun. Gun safety classes are the second most important step in allowing a teacher to have a gun in their classroom. We must make sure that they are extremely knowledgeable about the safety and significance of having a gun in a school. Third, they should stay in a safe at all times, so that it is ensured that only the approved teachers have access to the weapon. I believe that these are the top 3 most important things we must do so that teachers may have a gun to protect their classroom.

     Allowing teachers to carry in schools is a significant and vital step to protect the children and stop more school shootings from happening. Just as having a gun in your home is optional, teachers should have the option to protect themselves and their students throughout the school day. It would deter many potential school shooters and I believe that is an important step in completely eliminating school shootings. 

Planned Parenthood - Commentary

       After reading Brookes article on why planned parenthood should not be defunded, I decided to do my own research about it to learn more. I have always considered myself to be a pro-lifer and have had a very negative view of Planned Parenthood. I will admit, I viewed it more as an abortion center rather than the doctor's office that it is. After reading her critique and doing my own research, I do regret not supporting Planned Parenthood. Although I still do not agree with abortions, Planned Parenthood is so much more than that. 

In 2017, they provided birth control for nearly 2 million people, over 4.2 million STD tests and treatments, over 320,000 breast exams, and almost 295,000 Pap tests. Defunding Planned Parenthood would significantly decrease those numbers. Each woman or man that was treated by PP, was helped, comforted and taken care of. Those 2 million people on birth control are now having safer sex, the 4.2 million STI tests and treatments made somebodies life easier and the breast exams and pap tests made sure women bodies were safe and hopefully not suffering from something like cancer. Almost 7 million people were positively impacted by the help from Planned Parenthood. What would these 7 million have done without it?

Now after realizing how much Planned Parenthood does outside of abortion, I agree that they should not be defunded. The money isn’t coming from the government like Brooke said, but rather from being reimbursed from the medical companies. Planned Parenthood is a sexual health safe space which is much needed in our society. With pregnancy tests, STI tests and sexual health being a taboo topic, we need a place like Planned Parenthood where it is safe to bring up these topics.

Paid Parental Leave

The United states should have government funded maternity and paternity leave. A child is one of life’s greatest gifts and money should be the last thing a family stresses about in their first few weeks of being a new parent. A few countries such as Australia, Ghana and India offer paid maternity/paternal leave and have had glowing results. As the child of a single mom, I have seen the struggles of her being out of work and not being paid. I wonder how much better her mental state would have been had she had government aid. I wonder how much more time my mom would have been able to spend with my brother and I if she was able to have more time off instead of rushing back to work. 

Australia is the leader in paid maternity leave. They offer 18 weeks of paid leave if you qualify. They have a very simple qualification process with requirements such as having to have worked 10 of the 13 months before the child is born, be the primary care taker of the child, and make less than $150,00 single income per year. The parent will get a minimum wage weekly amount of $650 before taxes. This amount of money may not be large, but think about how much more you could provide for a child with an extra $2,000 a month. This would eliminate copious amounts of stress that financial burdens bring a family. I feel that the United States should adopt these requirements and the exact ways that Australia does their paid leave.

Second, the mental state of the mother and father is greatly affected by the governments financial aid. Women's health magazine published a study that showed that 12 weeks or less of maternity leave increases the risk of postpartum depression. Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in new moms. If government assistance is all it takes the lower these number so that mothers can stay at home and recover longer without financial burdens, it is worth it. 

The United States is not doing what it should to help new families create the best beginning for their child. We need to consider the person more than the price tag we put on them. Mental health, and the Childs development in those first few moths is what we need to be paying most attention to. Lowering suicide rates and creating a better family environment will create a positive impact on both the baby and the parents. 

Citations-

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29729837

https://www.fairwork.gov.au/leave/maternity-and-parental-leave 

Birthright Citizenship

CNN is one of the most controversial news sources which is why I have chosen this article by them to cover. It is about birthright citizenship and how president trump is wanting to get rid of it. It covers his misleading comments about how we are the only country to allow this. The author provides a clear argument about how were are in fact not one of the only ones and that there are many more countries who also allow this. The author of this article seems to be more worried about the facts behind what Trump is saying rather than the problems with what he is actually wanting to do. The intended audience is clearly non-Trump supporters who are pro birthright citizenship. I know this because he is clearly wanting to prove him wrong and find ways to show that what he is saying is incorrect. Although the author is clearly leaning one way, she does seem to be very credible, clearly crediting her sources such as CIA World Fact Book. She shows a map with the countries that also do birthright citizenship from the CIA World Fact Book. I find her argument about how Trump is wrong when he says that we are one of the only countries who allow birthright citizenship to be credible because of her sources. He also credits the constitution by talking about how getting rid of birthright citizenship would be against the constitution and would require a constitutional amendment. Overall James Griffiths, the publisher has a good argument with credible information supporting his claims.

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