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Did stricter abortion laws get us this decline? Of course not:
One of the largest factors in the decline has been the drop in teenage pregnancies and abortions, [Rachel] Jones [senior researcher, Guttmacher Institute] said. "We've done a lot of work addressing teen pregnancy, including comprehensive sex education, access to contraceptive services and providing kids with information to help them delay sexual activity," she said [Steven Reinberg, "U.S. Abortion Rate at 30-Year Low," HealthDay via Yahoo News, 2008.09.23].
Abortion bans don't stop abortion, any more than making it legal and safe increases it. Give women access to birth control and health care, create a healthy economy where women can get good jobs, and build a just society that protects women's rights, and abortion becomes a non-issue (as it should be, politically speaking).
What about the stats on how many women are having children out of wedlock? It's a sign that the stigma of going it alone is fading, along with the other forces at play, so that going after reproductive rights is becoming an easier political ploy.
ReplyDeleteThis topic is sooooo old. I just wish it would go away. I am tired of seeing tax dollars wasted on putting this thing on the ballot every year.
ReplyDeleteThank you for bringing attention to those stats. I am sick of this issue as well and hoping we can say once again South Dakota does not support an abortion ban. I know the government doesn't believe this, but individuals and families are very capable of making their own decisions.
ReplyDeleteIf my tax dollars are paying for these abortions, then I think I have a right to question abortion on demand in SD. If it's truly an issue of women's privacy and rights, then they have the right to pay for it themselves too and in private!
ReplyDeleteThere is another individual involved in these decisions besides the doctor and the woman, and that is the child/fetus/whatever you choose to call the living human yet unborn. But in some people's opinion that living human has no right to choose and no right to live.
Red herring, Anon 11:43: IM11 doesn't say a thing about tax dollars for abortions. Women are paying for their own abortions. IM11 bans almost all abortions, regardless of who pays for it. And as I understand it, it's Leslee Unruh's Abstinence Clearinghouse that's getting your tax dollars, not Planned Parenthood.
ReplyDeleteBut back to the point: abortions are on the decline, and abortion bans don't have anything to do with it.