Quite a few of us everytime the abortion discussion comes up have stated repeatedly that the focus should be on preventing pregancies in the first place. That if this was done abortion would become even less of a topic of discussion. So this article in today's Washington Post, confirms what we already knew:
At a time when policymakers have made reducing unintended pregnancies a national priority, 33 states have made it more difficult or more expensive for poor women and teenagers to obtain contraceptives and related medical services, according to an analysis released yesterday by the nonpartisan Guttmacher Institute.
From 1994 to 2001, many states cut funds for family planning, enacted laws restricting access to birth control and placed tight controls on sex education, said the institute, a privately funded research group that focuses on sexual health and family issues.
The statewide trends help explain why more than half of the 6 million pregnancies in the United States each year are unintended and offer clues for tackling problems associated with teenage pregnancy and abortion, said researchers who specialize in the field.
And we didn't even need to be researchers or specialists in the field to figure that out....
The real question is what will they do with this information. Do something or continue to focus on eliminating abortion when that does not deal directly with what creates the pregnancy in the first place.
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18 comments:
Not to kick Catholics on Ash Wednesday, but the "birth-control-is-evil-and-so-is-abortion" argument also falls pretty flat.
(historymike is a Catholic, so it's more like self-flagellation)
I'm Catholic too, while I realize if you are Catholic birth control is supposed to be wrong, for me it comes down to which is better, to prevent a pregnancy in the first place or to have an abortion.
Not to mention if a person isn't a Catholic most other religions don't have the same birth control "edicts".
:-)
A few years back I read an interview of the Dalai Lama regarding abortion. He stated that since Buddhists believe that the ending of a life is wrong (including animals, true Buddhists are vegetarian, and yes, plants are alive, but they're not as cute or interactive as animals I guess, and yes, we have to draw the line somewhere, we can't live on air... but I digress). So, he stated that abortion is wrong because life is ended. However, he said that such decision was for the woman to make nonetheless. And then he added that if all of this could be avoided by the use of contraception, then contraception should be used.
Quite refreshing having a religious leader with common sense, don't you think?
Yes, he is refreshing and I have read similar articles where he has expressed common sense.
:-)
What will "they" do with this common sense information? NOT A DAMN THING!
There is money in making the lives of the poor hell. My life is semihellish since I am semi-poor.
Semi-hell...lmao
I can relate to that but it was funny.
They probably won't do anything then when abortion numbers go up? There will be this big "surprise".
The problem that I see with addressing teens is balancing the "since you're going to do it anyway, here's some condoms" with the "you're never going to do it, so why should I tell you about condoms" mentalities. Neither are a good idea, imo.
As a teen (not too very long ago), I got the "you're going to do it anyway" a lot, so I thought it was pretty standard and that if you weren't doing it there really was something wrong with you. Of course, that lessened as I advanced through the teen-age years. However, the "you won't do it if I don't talk about it" doesn't work either. My parents rarely ever talked about sex, then were shocked years after the fact when they found out that I was not only raped, but also miscarried a baby.
My recommendation is the burden should fall on parents, and other adults that care about the children in question since some parents just won't. If you're not okay with your child having sex, say so frequently and explain why. However, that doesn't mean you don't talk about what they should do if they do choose to have sex. Cover your bases all the way around.
Also, not funding birth control for those who can't afford it themselves...really bad idea!!! If they can't afford the birth control, how the hell are they going to afford the baby...and who'll be picking up the tab then?
As a product of Catholic schools, we knew planty about birth control and how to use it early on. Maybe it was because the girls were promiscuous early on. I often wanted to ask Billy Joel why he says Catholic girls start much too late.
We went to a fairly liberal church though. Sex in the church basement, gay friendly, and many mafia type members. My church forgave anyone who gave money. And that is the way God intended religion to be
I agree Stephanie, as a parent it is a hard line to determine. You don't want to feel as if you are implying permission, yet you also don't want to end up having one of them end up pregnant either.
I had to learn the hard way so I tried to make sure things were easier for my bunch.
me4 I'm glad that my experience with the Catholic Church growing up wasn't like what you went thru. I doubt I'd be Catholic after that.
:-)
I don't know. It was a good time. We had some cool priests who were pretty liberal and encouraged us to think on our own. My biggest problem with churches are the number of people who go just to be seen or say they went.
Most of the 'right-to-lifers' are such two faced hypocrites that they make me ill. Their main [nearly total] focus is the 9-month pregnancy. After the baby is born, many will support legislation that is contrary to healthy baby/mother issues. And the Catholic lifers stupidly object to birth control.
Before the birth and after it, they could care less about 'life.' Even more outrageous is that some of them are capital punishment supporters.
Yes, lib_dem I know a few like that. Which is why I try to be consistent. I'm personally against abortion but I don't feel it's my right to tell another woman she has to have a baby. I'm against the death penalty in most situations because our legal system is not perfect and if a person is executed in error there is no way to correct that.
I'm usually pretty liberal when it comes to social causes, but abortion is different with me. I feel it is wrong because I feel life begins at conception, not birth. I think that the spirit starts at conception, not birth. It takes away basic inherent human rights (namely life). I am ok with a mother/doctor decision during severe medical cases.
I don't buy the argument that the child would be better off dead than growing up in poverty, because poverty for us is like the lap of luxury for probably a billion people. Happy and fufilling lives can be had in nearly all socio economic scopes.
Of course, these are my thoughts, and I don't go out protesting clinics or poo pooing people who disagree. My stance is not faith based, it is based on rational thought and debate, as are most things with Unitarian Universalists.
Aaron,
I suggest you spend time with unwanted, abused children with attachment problems, ensuing behavioral problems, whose parents were poorly prepared, for many reasons, to have them. Then there are the women/girls who were raped (sometimes by family members) who are forced to keep the child (and sometimes to marry the perpetrator). It may be quite educational for you. Once you see the suffering that can be prevented, things for you may change.
We as men have little right to opine. We don't carry a baby inside of us for nine months...
If a woman is against abortion, that's fine, she shouldn't have one, but all should have the right to make that decision. If right to lifers spoke to women in this posicion, they may also see that they decision is not an easy one and is not taken willy nilly.
However, if we concentrated on making birth control more available and managed to prevent most of these unwanted pregnancies then the whole abortion discussion would become less of a focus for all of us.
I am a woman and I am not going to presume to tell another woman what her decision should be. The goal should be to prevent and then provide realistic options, abortion is probably always going to be one of those options no matter what.
Try telling a homeless family or one just barely making it how much better off they are than in other places around the world. I spent most of my childhood on the brink of hunger and homelessness because of an irresponsible father and would have found little comfort in hearing that I was better off eating government cheese as a meal than nothing at all
Me4, if you were aborted we wouldn't be blessed with your presense now! Yes, even government cheese is a positive compared to a bowl of rice every day. I used to eat that white label stuff and live in a cold stinky trailer too. That was the Taj Mahal compared to what many in the world are accustomed to.
Catdaddy - all the problems the problems in human society can be eliminated by death, but for whom are they being solved?
I've spent a good deal of time volunteering to help homeless families, and thier impoverished children are often such jewels that it pains me to think we'd be better off without them, without giving them a choice and a chance.
Lisa, I agree with you, living intentionally is the first step. We can educate people and subsidize profilactics but you can't make people use them. I know that was the point of your post, and sorry for taking it off for a tangent.
Aaron, that's perfectly fine, abortion is a topic that is hard to discuss so it's understandable. I go off on tangents from time to time too.
:-)
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