Subscribe• In 2000, there were 2 abortion providers in South Dakota. This represents a 100% increase from 1996, when there was 1 abortion provider.
• In 2000, 87% of U.S. counties had no abortion provider. 1/3 of American women lived in these counties, which meant they would have to travel outside their county to obtain an abortion. Of women obtaining abortions in 2000, 25% traveled at least 50 miles, and 8% traveled more than 100 miles.
• In 2000, 98% of South Dakota counties had no abortion provider. 78% of South Dakota women lived in these counties. In the Midwest census region, where South Dakota is located, 28% of women having abortions traveled at least 50 miles, and 10% traveled more than 100 miles.
Pope Innocent III (?-1216) wrote a letter which ruled on a case of a Carthusian monk who had arranged for his female lover to obtain an abortion. The Pope decided that the monk was not guilty of homicide if the fetus was not "animated."As far as I know, in developmental terms - at least in the early stages in foetal development - there's little that distinguishes human foetuses from the foetuses of other mammals - mainly, differences in DNA.
Early in the 13th century, Pope Innocent III stated that the soul enters the body of the fetus at the time of "quickening" - when the woman first feels movement of the fetus. After ensoulment, abortion was equated with murder; before that time, it was a less serious sin, because it terminated only potential human life, not human life.
St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) also considered only the abortion of an "animated" fetus as murder.
Pope Sixtus V issued a Papal bull "Effraenatam" in 1588 which threatened those who carried out abortions at any stage of gestation with excommunication and the death penalty. Pope Gregory XIV revoked the Papal bull shortly after taking office in 1591. He reinstated the "quickening" test, which he said happened 116 days into pregnancy (16½ weeks)....
In the 17th century, the concept of "simultaneous animation" gained acceptance within the medical and church communities in Western Europe. 9 This is the belief that an embryo acquires a soul at conception, not at 40 or 80 days into gestation as the church was teaching. In 1658 Hieronymus Florentinius, a Franciscan, asserted that all embryos or fetuses, regardless of its gestational age, which were in danger of death must be baptized. However, his opinion did not change the status of abortion as seen by the church.
Pope Pius IX reversed the stance of the Roman Catholic church once more. He dropped the distinction between the "fetus animatus" and "fetus inanimatus" in 1869. Canon law was revised in 1917 and 1983 and to refer simply to "the fetus." The tolerant approach to abortion which had prevailed in the Roman Catholic Church for centuries ended. The church requires excommunication for abortions at any stage of pregnancy.
By age 15, most boys have established a regular pattern of sexual outlet; they have fewer erections to nonsexual stimuli and may have fewer sex materials around, as fantasy alone is sufficient for arousal. Their masturbatory frequency increases, and some have regular sex with girls.This poll has some interesting information about teenage sex habits, but unfortunately not much of the information is presented separately for the sexes. Although I will say that girls seem to be receiving a lot more oral sex now then when I was a teenager 30 years ago.
(...) Most girls are worried about reputation and fear being found out, but may decide to have intercourse if they are in love, if they trust the boy and if the relationship seems secure. Boys, experiencing the sexual urgency of adolescence, attempt to persuade, manipulate and coerce girls into actual coitus. “If you love me, you will let me put it in,” “if you don't, someone else will” and “if you let me put it in, I'll pull out in time,” are dilemmas the mid adolescent girl is called upon to deal with as she negotiates the relationship or potential relationship that affords her social status and a sense of personal worth. Girls have been raised to understand the importance of the primary relationship and to feel responsible for maintaining it. Now they must deal with the needs, expectations and requirement of the boys who are the necessary other half of the dyad. The culture says, “if you're easy and give them what they want, they will leave you.” The boys say, “if you don't give me what I need, I'll have to find someone who will.”
In grappling with some difficult questions about young women’s sexuality, the researcher Judith Jordan outlined two developmental paths in adolescence: the emergence in boys of “sexual entitlement” and in girls of “sexual accommodation,” which can ultimately lead to a lack of clarity for young women about sexual desire. 23 Another prominent child development expert calls this “the two cultures of childhood.” 15 Many young women learn about sexuality in the context of reproduction and relationships, not in terms of their own sexual pleasure.is exactly what I have been trying to convey (so clumsily) that for many girls (evidently not Raedyn and her friends) sex which can lead to pregnancy is not about desire but rather about accomodation. So the punishment of forcing them to carry an unwanted child to term seems particularily harsh-- especially when there is no punishment of equal severity for the opposite sex: being pregnant, giving birth, and either giving up the child or taking care of the child 24 hours a day.
According to the Canadian survey of Now magazine readers cited above, the frequency of masturbation declines after the age of 17. However, most males masturbate daily or even more frequently well into their 20s and sometimes way beyond. This decline is more drastic among females, and more gradual among males. While females aged 13-17 masturbated almost once a day on average (and almost as often as their male peers), adult women only masturbated 8-9 times a month, compared to the 18-22 among men. It is also apparent that the ability to masturbate declines with age. Adolescent youths report being able to masturbate to ejaculation six or more times per day, while men in middle age report being hard pressed to ejaculate even once per day. The survey does not give a full demographic breakdown of respondents, however, and the sexual history of respondents to this poll, who are readers of an urban Toronto lifestyle magazine, may not extend to the general population. (emphasis added)More than 21 a month was defined as "high ejaculation frequency" by the Leitzmann prostate cancer study. With the low frequency pegged at 4-7/month.
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posted by Saucy Intruder at 12:31 PM on February 26, 2006