Womens' Health After Abortion

I recently sampled statistics on womens' health after abortion. Here are some chilling facts:
*Post-abortive women are five times more likely to say they abuse drugs or alcohol than women who deliver their children.
*A study from New Zealand reports "Approximately 42% of women with a history of abortion had experienced major depression in the last four years-nearly double the rate of women who had not been pregnant, and 35% higher than women who had live births".

*A study conducted in Finland found suicide rates among post-abortive women were six times higher than for women who gave birth to their children.

This is but a tiny sample of the documented negative effects of abortion on women. Visit www.afterabortion.org for more information.



Swaziland is beginning to see the importance of protecting and promoting women's well-being. Abortion threatens the physical, emotional, and spiritual health of women. Abortion has no place in the effort to uplift women. Instead, let us support women through difficult pregnancies and circumstances, that they and their children may prosper in life.



Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com

Preventing Teenage Pregnancy

Friday's Times carried a full-page article entitled "Preventing Teenage Pregnancy". Teen pregnancy is indeed a serious issue, as we all know many aspiring girls drop out of school due to pregnancy. Teen pregnancy is also a leading cause of poverty. Contraception, however, will not end unwed pregnancies. Why?

Like every other man-made device, contraceptives fail-even when used perfectly correctly.  But they generally are not used perfectly. As contraceptive use increases, those failure rates translate into more unintended pregnancies. This is an empirically-demonstrated fact; visit http://www.lifenews.com/2012/02/17/studies-birth-control-contraception-dont-cut-abortions/ to learn more.

Less-known, but vitally important, is the connection between contraception and HIV. From a report published in April 2010: "More than 50 medical studies, to date, have investigated the association of hormonal contraceptive use and HIV/AIDS infection. The studies show that hormonal contraceptives—the oral pill and Depo-Provera—increase almost all known risk factors for HIV, from upping a woman’s risk of infection, to increasing the replication of the HIV virus, to speeding the debilitating and deadly progression of the disease."  

When I first read about this, I hoped it wasn't true, so I contacted a leading HIV researcher who I have come to know.  He has been involved in HIV research since the early days.  He told me that "a link between hormonal contraception and increased risk of contracting HIV emerged in the EARLIEST studies of HIV risk factors... Usually, those early studies offered no interpretation of the associations that they were finding ...and then, even the association itself stopped being reported."  He says the reason was that so many of the early HIV researchers like himself had been heavily involved in promoting contraceptives and no one likes to publically say that their previous advice was bad.

The last thing teenage Swazi girls need at this time is a pill that makes them more susceptible to HIV. Read the full report at http://catholicexchange.com/2010/04/26/129702/ 

So if the technologically-driven pharmaceutical approach to curbing teenage pregnancy won't work, what will?

Let fathers and mothers train their children in chastity. Let us teach, by example and word, the value of saving one's sexual debut for the wedding night. As a boy or girl grows from childhood through adolescence to full maturity, the discipline and character they develop through channeling their energies away from sexual activity and into life-enhancing activities (school, sports, helping at home and in the community, etc.) will profit them greatly when they do get married. Fathers and mothers need to walk their children through those difficult years of puberty; doing so will not only help our children for the rest of their lives, it will cause our hearts to swell with pride when we see them living upright, meaningful, fulfilling, happy lives.

Ultimately, a young man and woman who save themselves for each other on their wedding night can look forward to a lifetime of disease-free, worry-free sex. Let us not short-change and insult our youth by telling them they can't wait until marriage for sex. With our help they CAN wait, and they can fill that waiting period with healthy and character-building activity that will help them have great marriages. The last line of Friday's article had it exactly right: "The word 'NO' works wonders and saves lives to the present day". That NO to premarital sex opens the doors to many YES replies to good things before marriage, and to a life-long, dream-fulfilling "I do" to a husband or wife at the altar. Swazi youth deserve as much.

Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com

Conservation

I teach high school biology and recently our class discussed conservation. Conservation means protecting the natural resources (air, water, soil) of the nation, so that the country remains healthy and strong.

It strikes me, however, that the greatest resource of any nation is its people. A nation consists of its people; if the people vanish, so does the nation. Furthermore, the health and vitality of a country depends primarily on its citizens, not its natural resources. Countries like Singapore (4% the size of Swaziland) have no natural resources, yet their people make such countries vibrantly successful.

A grave threat faces Swaziland's citizenry-AIDS. Yet the Swazi nation can protect her most precious natural resource by saving sex for marriage only. Keeping sex exclusively in marriage will make AIDS a distant, painful memory,  will increase marital satisfaction, and will provide a healthy environment for raising the next generation of children.

For the preservation of Swaziland's greatest natural resource-her people-may the nation save sex for marriage, and keep it there. Doing so will prosper the nation.

Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com

Mother Teresa on Abortion

I write on my first-born daughter's 10th birthday. What a gift she has been to us! I am grateful that God gave her to us.Many people remember the sacrificial love Mother Teresa gave to the people dying on the streets of Calcutta, India for decades. Less well-known (except in the United States) is the speech she gave at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC in 1994. The following is a quote from that talk.
"I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even His life to love us. So, the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love, that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free
time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts. By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And, by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child
he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion."
Let us choose the path of love, even when it hurts. Let us respect and help women and their children, born and unborn. To foster peace and love in the world, no to abortion and yes to love and life.
Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com

Top 10 Ways to Keep a Marriage Alive

I am so excited that a dear former student of mine is getting married, that I thought I would share with you some advice I gave to them.

I found this list at a friend's house many years ago. I read over the list each morning, and whichever one catches my attention, I try to do it that day. My marriage is great, and this list has helped us.

Here's the list. Try it yourself, and start making a happier marriage-and a healthier country.

1) Pray for your mate each day.
2) Express appreciation for each other.
3) Show respect for each other.
4) Do small favors.
5) Pray together.
6) Have fun together.
7) Develop mutual interests.
8) Forgive each other daily.
9) Listen to each other.
10) Smile at each other.

Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com

Ephesians chapter 5

Today I learned that a dear former student of mine will get married this year. I hope we can attend the wedding. My wife and I have been married for 11 wonderful years. At our wedding, we read the following scripture from Ephesians chapter 5: "Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands." I trust most adults reading this letter have heard this scripture at a wedding, and have heard it expounded upon, perhaps with great enthusiasm. I will not expound upon it here, because I want to go on to the next verse, which was also read at our wedding. It says, "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her". I wonder, How many times has this verse been read and preached upon at weddings with equal enthusiasm?

How did Christ love his church? I am Catholic, and when I attend Mater Dolorosa I get my answer when I walk in the door and look at the front of the church: Jesus went willingly to the cross and died for his beloved church. He sacrificed himself, so that his church would come to life.

This is what husbands are called to do. And paradoxically, just as Jesus rose from the dead after his crucifixion, so will we men, and our marriages, and our children, spring to unexpected new life when we willingly surrender ourselves for our wives' good. I am not a perfect husband, by any stretch of the imagination. But I do know that when I sacrifice for my wife, new life springs forth.

Examples:

I love soccer, and have a number of matches on video. I could happily watch match after match in the evenings. Instead, I leave those videos on the shelf to talk and play with the family. This brings us emotionally closer to each other. Again, a (small) sacrifice on my part makes my wife, my children, and myself prosper.

We live in the country, and a Saturday trip to Mbabane presents me with the chance to get a lot of things done. If I take some of my children, I will get much less accomplished and I won't get to do all the things I'd like to. But if I do take them with me, they have a marvelous time, and my wife gets a break at home. When I make that sacrifice, my spouse and my children are happier-and they radiate that happiness back onto me. A sacrifice from me brings greater joy and life to all.

After the birth of our fourth child, I asked my wife what  more I could do to support her now that she had additional responsibilities.  She said that in the evening, when it was time to cook,  the baby was often fussy and she get frustrated under the pressure of cooking dinner coupled with the demands of a crying baby. I said that I could cook dinner, and have done that for the last two years.  My wife can take care of our children or have some time to herself  after a very busy day.  When dinner is served, she is rested and happy, not frustrated and irritable.

If the soon-to-be husband of my former student loves his bride as Christ loved his church, he too will experience the life and happiness that springs from small sacrifices. I will encourage him to do so.

This space usually discusses pro-life issues, specifically ending abortion. Were men to love their wives and girlfriends as Christ loved his church, I suggest that the desire for and number of abortions would fall nearly to zero. This is so because a boyfriend would save sex with the one he loves until marriage-that is respecting and sacrificing for her; and a wife who unexpectedly found herself pregnant would reflect on all the loving sacrifices her husband had made for her, and know that he would continue to do so to provide for this new one. Abortion would drown in a sea of loving sacrifice. Let us build a culture of love and life; let us men take the lead in sacrificial loving action.

Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com

Fetal Pain

We all know children feel pain more acutely than adults. Parents know the experience of treating a child's mildly scraped knees as if, judging by the tears and shouts of our little ones, they were life-threatening injuries. How far back in life does the ability to experience pain reach? And what bearing does this have on the abortion issue?

Nurse Barbara Willke and her husband, Dr. John Willke, explain that unborn humans feel pain from 8 weeks after conception. They write: "What is needed is 1) a sensory nerve to feel the pain and send a message to 2) the thalamus, a part of the base of the brain, and 3) motor nerves to send a message to that area. These are present at 8 weeks." Referencing a 1980 British Medical Journal article entitled "What the fetus feels", the Willke's continue: "Try sticking an 8 week old fetus in the palm of his hand. He opens his mouth and pulls his hand away. A more technical description would add that changes in heart rate and fetal movement also suggest that intrauterine manipulations are painful to the fetus." Naturally, ability to feel pain continues for the rest of a child's time in the womb and into post-birth life.

Concern that children not suffer unjust pain features more and more prominently in Swaziland's public discussions. Let us take one step to ensure children do not suffer unjust pain and punishment by making sure no child experiences the excruciating and inescapable pain of a life-ending abortion. No to abortion; yes to life.

Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com