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January 14, 2005

Planned Parenthood and the Source of Intergalactic Evil

Dawn Eden describes and offers screen shots of an online game from Planned Parenthood called Birthcontroids, but you really can't appreciate just how disturbing it is without playing it for yourself — with the sound turned on.

As Dawn notes, the game is thematically confused, essentially putting the player in the role of the bad guy — the space penis shooting sperm at an egg (which has a force field and defensive missiles). When the player wins a level, there is no doubt that the outcome is meant to be bad, and that is where the game becomes sickening. Below an explanation of why "the birth control has failed," a sketch of a baby slams up against the screen to the sounds of an infant's grating cries. Message: fail to use contraception properly (or to abort), and you'll have to deal with one of these things.

The sensation is actually somewhat worse when the second-level "victory" brings the sound of a baby cooing. Even when cute, it seems, newborn human life is the scourge of the galaxy.

(via Patrick Sweeney)

Posted by Justin Katz at January 14, 2005 8:30 PM
Abortion
Comments

Boy are you ever overreacting. I wasn't offended in the least; its just a game made to teach about birth-control and STDs. Get a sense of humor and don't take everything so seriously - f***ing stuck up moron.

Posted by: Delbert at January 16, 2005 7:04 AM

Well, Delbert, it sure is surprising that someone with your refined sensibilities and natural levity wasn't offended in the least by that game.

Posted by: Justin Katz at January 16, 2005 8:34 AM

The use of derogatory terms applied to another human is a sure sign of somebody who takes themselves too seriously because they have no sense of humor Delbert.

Posted by: smmtheory at January 16, 2005 8:38 AM

This reminds me of two works of fiction -
"The Marching Morons" by Kornbluth and "Flickers"
(can't recall the author at the moment).

The former depicts a future world extrapolated from the then-current trend that the less education people have, the more children they have. A secret society of intelligent and highly educated people are trying to keep population growth down, and insert blatant 'kids are awful' messages into movies and television programs.
The masses watch, then go home and have more children.

In "Flickers", an secret society descended from the Catharists are doing much the same thing - and it's revealed at one point that the Church's opposition to birth control is based on the suspicion that it's a Catharist plot. Which, in the context of the book, is not only plausible, but likely.

Just struck me interesting, is all.

Posted by: Robert at January 18, 2005 12:59 PM