"Think Abortion Laws Reduce Abortions? Think Again!"

[applegrove]

Think Abortion Laws Reduce Abortions? Think Again!

by Manny Schewitz at Forward Progressive

http://www.forwardprogressives.com/think-abortion-laws-reduce-abortions-think/

"SNIP........................


know that trying to explain statistics to people who believe that being gay is a choice and that a fertilized egg is worthy of government protection but a migrant child seeking asylum is not is like trying to catch a greased pig, but let’s go ahead and try anyhow.

No matter how many restrictions you place on abortion, it does not stop women from getting one. Sure, it may make it more difficult for women on a limited income, but it doesn’t magically make the problem go away. Here’s another pesky fact: In Canada there are zero laws against abortion, and the rate of abortions is lower than in the United States. Yes, you heard that right. Canada, our hockey and nationalized healthcare-loving neighbor to the north has a lower abortion rate than here in the United States, despite all of the laws here against it.

How could that be? For starters, Canada places a lot of emphasis on sex education. Here in the United States, the religious right does everything they can to shelter kids from the facts of life, or teach abstinence-only which is almost as ineffective as “praying away the gay.” They also do everything to shame women who have sex, block access to contraception by any means possible (including voting to defund Planned Parenthood) and when someone ends up pregnant, the wagging of fingers and judgmental remarks begin. Canada also has less of an issue with poverty, which is a large factor in the need for an abortion as well. Again, social conservatives blame the poor for their condition, slash the social safety net every chance they get, and then act astonished when a single mom gets an abortion because she can’t afford another child. If the “pro-life” crowd really wanted to end abortions, they would support a system in which all women, regardless of income, have access to reproductive healthcare and contraception. They would support education in schools that doesn’t teach abstinence-only and not turn their backs on the poor – the opposite of what much of Christian America does now.

...........................SNIP"

[SheilaT]

1. I often point out that women have been

having abortions since the first one ever got pregnant. It's not as though no woman ever had an abortion before Roe v Wade, or that outlawing them makes them go away. I well remember before Roe v Wade and I well remember what women went through to end an unwanted pregnancy.

Unfortunately, Roe v Wade was over 40 years ago, and a lot of us who really cared back then are well past menopause, and the younger women do not understand what's at stake.

[Quantess]

2. DUH.

OBVIOUSLY.
How fucking hard is this to understand?

[theHandpuppet]

3. K&R