A comprehensive global study of abortion has concluded that abortion rates are similar in countries where it is legal and those where it is not, suggesting that outlawing the procedure does little to deter women seeking it.Readers know I am ardently Pro-Life and Anti-Abotion (choose your label, as you will). Honestly, I suspect this study is flawed as it is extremely counter-intuitive to me. However, I admit counter-intuitive does not always mean wrong. Quantum mechanics and man-woman social interactions prove that quite easily. And I wonder how different this study would look adjusted for moral and social outlooks.
Moreover, the researchers found that abortion was safe in countries where it was legal, but dangerous in countries where it was outlawed and performed clandestinely. Globally, abortion accounts for 13 percent of women’s deaths during pregnancy and childbirth, and there are 31 abortions for every 100 live births, the study said.
I guess the next question IF the study is accurate is, does this support the Pro-Choice position? It certainly lends credence to the practical argument of those looking to never return to the coat-hanger days. However, it means little to the moral argument. And less to te spiritual argument. After all, it seems like adultery is a constant, despite legal or moral controls on it. But still, we recognize the detrimental effects of adulterous interactions upon society.
It's not just counter-intuitive, it's got to be false on its face, because it ignores the fact (well documented) that legalizing abortion increases the abortion rate. Even Christopher Tietze, guru of the abortion advocacy movement, noted that. It's not that women make different choices about what to do with pregnancies that would have occurred anyway. It's that women engage in sexual activities they'd otherwise not engage in, and are less careful with birth control, when they percieve abortion as readily available and safe, than when they percieve abortion as difficult to access and risky.
YanıtlaSilRead Kirsten Luker's "Abortion and the Decision Not to Contracept".
Part of the study points out that Western Europe, where there is access to contraception and legal abortion, has the lowest abortion rate per capita in the world, which DOES support part of the pro-choice argument - that access to contraception helps prevent abortions.
YanıtlaSilI think that what this really shows is that the debate with abortion actually has nothing to do with the law. To end abortion we need to change the hearts of people that might get abortions. Legal or not women are getting abortions because they see it as an answer to their problem. We need to work to change the hearts of people so that abortion - whether it's legal or not - is not the option they lean toward.
YanıtlaSilAnonymous said...
YanıtlaSilPart of the study points out that Western Europe, where there is access to contraception and legal abortion, has the lowest abortion rate per capita in the world, which DOES support part of the pro-choice argument - that access to contraception helps prevent abortions.
But what would the abortion rate be like in Europe if abortion wasn't available as a "backup"?
Tietze noted that every country that legalizes abortion sees a change in the attitude toward sex and contraception -- a loosening. Women become more likely to engage in sex in situations in which they don't want to become pregnant, and they become more lax in their use of contraceptives. This will result in more pregnancies that would not otherwise have happened. And since these pregnancies occur among women who consider abortion morally acceptable -- who were more lax in their sexual practices precicesly because they knew they could resort to abortion -- the women in question do resort to abortion.
Look at the studies of contraceptive practices of aborters. They're overwhelmingly true believers who slipped up.
Sean, it's utterly absurd to think that legalizing abortion has no impact on who resorts to it, and how often, if only because of basic supply and demand. If something is readily avaiable and relatively cheap, more people will buy it.
YanıtlaSilBoth statistical and anecdotal evidence support this. How many women in the Silent No More movement only had their abortions because it was legal and readily available? I know of a lot of women in my list of the dead who didn't want abortions but got browbeaten into them by doctors or social workers. These doctors and social workers couldn't have done the same had abortion been illegal. Marla Cardamone would be alive today had abortion been illegal.