17 Clones and Counting

17 Kids and Counting- This is a show on TLC that chronicles the life and times of the Duggar family. They have 18 kids! 18! It's not the number of kids that upsets me; if you want to be pregnant your whole life go for it. The thing that upsets me is how in-the-dark they keep their kids. They don't watch any T.V. They don't really get to use the computer or the internet. They don't get to go to school; their lives are wholy comprised of what happens at home. That's fine if we are living in an 18th century agrarian society, but this is 2009!

It also annoys me that these people blame the birth control pill for a miscarriage. They got pregnant and didn't know, so they continued to take the pill. Here's an excerpt from their website:

"At that point they talked with a Christian medical doctor and read the fine print in the contraceptives package. They found that while taking the pill you can get pregnant and then miscarry."

I don't know who the crap they went too, but their "Christian medical doctor" must not be a very good doctor. (why the need to specify Christian? or the fact that he/she is a medical doctor?) I have researched this issue pretty thouroughly and I cannot find any information to support their claims that the pill can cause a miscarriage. In fact, I found suffucient evidence to the contrary. In summary, "A large 2008 study examined a registry of 92,719 women and found no evidence of increased risk of fetal death in babies exposed to artificial hormones during pregnancy."

I would say that I am open-minded, but in this situation I am not. These children are under the protectorate of their parents and the Duggar's are taking advantage of that. I don't want to tell people how to raise their children, but I do think that they should be given all of the information and make a decision once they've reached a certain age.

I can't watch this show anymore, it's making me angry.