Memphis: Letter to the editor suggesting that morality empowers women get angry responses from PP supporters

Memphis Commercial Appeal publishes a letter to the editor following the editorial from Wendi C. Thomas suggesting that the TN Legislature headed by Republicans  want to reduce teen pregnancies by duct  taping women's legs together.  A lady pens a perfectly logical letter speaking truth and is immediately inundated with shrieking comments blasting her ogic, defending Planned Parenthood who do have a business model out of unchecked sexual activity. 


To the Editor:
Why does Memphis have high rates of illegitimate births, children who die before their first birthday and sexually transmitted diseases, despite the current (dis)services Planned Parenthood provides?
Because Planned Parenthood is a business that relies on unchecked sexual activity. We live in a time of unparalleled access to birth control, yet we are still dealing with the problem of teen pregnancy.
In her May 8 column "Morality solved by duct tape on minds," Wendi C. Thomas wrote: "When women can control when and how they have children, those women are powerful. They have options and are more likely (to) chart their own fates." Yes, so why don't they make choices that would empower them? Because they believe the lies.
They have been told that everyone is having sex. And they have been told that there are no consequences to having sex. Those are the lies that hold women back. Those are the lies that rob women of controlling their destinies. And yet, that is the very propaganda that keeps Planned Parenthood in business.
Birth control has given women control over our reproductive health, but the immorality ushered in with the belief that a negative consequence of sex had been eliminated has led to devastation. Women have paid a huge price for the sexual revolution in the anxiety of unplanned pregnancy, the horror of STDs and the scars of abortion. And we will continue to pay it until we admit that engaging in sex outside of marriage is not empowering us as women.
I know how easily some will dismiss the morality that says premarital sex is wrong. But, as a teenager faced with sexual temptation, I did not see God's laws as harsh and unfair, but as protection given not out of hatred, but love. Following those rules has led to a life of freedom: freedom from shame, from STDs and from unwanted pregnancies. It is immorality that leads to bondage.
Let's truly empower young women to make better choices by thinking beyond government programs and services to a real future where education is valued, marriage is a desirable goal and children are the blessing they were intended to be. Let's help them see the logic in morality. 

Emily Ford
Bartlett