Abortion Down, Contraception Up: Recipe for Health Reform?

If covering birth control and abortion in the ways described here ultimately reduces the number of abortions, and education and other factors further help that number, then we should all support it. We all want fewer abortions. Nobody wants an abortion. If we can prevent a lose/lose situation, then that's what we do.

kevin reed of WA 1:23PM March 04, 2010

You people do know that this article was promoting reform in health care that fund contraception NOT abortion. Contraception is the solution to abortions. And they do think that as a last resort abortion is acceptable. I know that if I was raped and got pregnant I wouldn't want to live knowing I had that awful things child. The child would be an awful reminder every day of the traumatic rape that occurred. Also, if I were to get pregnant in high school I would definetely consider abortion. Is it worth the ridicule through the rest of high school to keep the baby or even to give it up for adoption. If you keep the baby your life will be ruined, you will be labeled damaged goods by men who might have potentially dated you. Or if you give the baby up for adoption you wonder if the people are taking good enough care of the baby, and the child will most likely feel unwanted when they find out what had happened.

And if you people would want a pregnant woman AND her baby dead instead of allowing a safe abortion you are idiotic.

Brooke-agnostic smarter than you of NY 12:26AM January 25, 2010

Rape cases are not an exception-- it's not like the baby is a criminal. The baby is an innocent defenseless living human being, who should not be punished for what his or her father did. The baby, starting at fertilization, has a unique DNA that sets him/her apart as a unique individual, a member of human society.

Also:

Medical textbooks consistently agree that life begins at conception, when the sperm penetrates the egg and all the instructions for that baby's hair color, eye color, height, are set.

Starting at fertilization, the baby goes through cognitive and physical development, and lessens in dependency from the mother. When he/she is born, the same changes occur. Personhood is not about size, skill, intelligence, or functioning body parts. The unborn is the same as the born in that they are living human beings.

The individual circumstances do not matter, ie. financially unstable, readiness. If a woman and a man had a baby, and soon they lost their jobs and became poor. Would they kill their baby then? No, because it's breathing air. This is illogical. The born and the unborn are both living human beings, and so financial instability should not be a reason to kill a living baby.

Say a woman got raped. However she was married to her husband. She didn't know whose the baby was-- the rapist's or the husband's. So she had her baby. DNA tests proved that the baby was the rapist's. Kill the baby then? No. It has a right to live. An unborn baby is the same as a born baby so abortion is not the answer-- a woman should not kill an innocent baby for something his/her father did.

Pro-choice supporters say that a woman has a right to privacy. Women's rights! feminism! Yes, a woman has rights. But a woman does not have a right to kill another human being. Right to privacy? If there was a woman trying to kill a toddler, we'd try to stop her. Born and unborn, they are all living human beings. So we're not going to let you kill your baby, kill an innocent defenseless human baby.

Every child a wanted child? = If not wanted, kill.

I'd hate to be that baby, whose parents decided to abort it becasue they did not want me. They did not give me a chance to live; didn't recognize my right to live.

Saying that legalizing abortion is the right way to go because women were seeking illegal abortions in unsanitary conditions is misleading. In the early 1900s, yes, many women died. However, in the late 1900s, less than 20 women were dying from illegal abortions. To say that legalizing abortion will make the process safer is illogical. Antibiotics and technology were the cause.

Remember, an unborn baby is a living human being. Please recognize its right to live.

clchefiw of MD 7:08PM November 05, 2009

The Guttmacher Institute is the research-arm of Planned Parenthood, and it is pro-choice. The WHO has said that they cannot give accurate figures on the number of deaths of illegal abortions, because there is inadequate information. I'm very skeptical that Guttmacher's figures are reliable; they have an ideological reason to make the figures higher than they are. Also, in another report Guttmacher put out, they argued that countries with stricter abortion laws had lower abortion rates. So, which is it?

Mary of DE 11:09PM October 18, 2009