joefromchicago wrote:
Would you then agree that such contraceptives should be banned entirely?
I do agree with the basic idea of banning all contraceptive means which result in the death of the child, chemical or mechanical.
That does not mean banning all the chemicals involved, because some of them have very good uses for other purposes.
Someone else noted, and I thank you for saying that because I remembered it and then it slipped my mind while I typed other things, that abortions have always happened and the question is whether they will be allowed to continue in clean environments or in back alleys with coat hangers. This is an excellent point with way too much truth in it. Is 100% truth too much?
Changes in culture and religious positions must be made to stop the necessity of using abortions for birth control.
I have already said that penalties for rape need to me extreme.
The religions must get their collective craniums out of their collective lower waste elimination tracts. Sex has been happening rather continiously since at least Adam and Eve. I think it is reasonable to expect it to continue. The expressed, and acted upon, moral outrage over pre-marital sex must be toned down and discussed frankly with young men and women. Those folks need to know what happens when peg A goes in hole B.
Yes, I DO support sex education in the schools by people who can explain the whole process, and results, without stammering or blushing the whole time. Education has been documented time and again to reduce the amount of premarital sex and premarital pregnancies. This can and should include explicit statements that the best way to avoid pregnancy is not to have sex. But all the rest of the information needs to be clearly stated without moral/religious judgements attached.
There are also issues of women, in marriages, not wanting any more children, but not wanting to give up sex, or deny their husbands. There are various social pressures, economic pressures, and for my point here, religious pressures on them not to employ preventive measures. Trouble is that too many of them then turn to abortion to "fix" the problem. The culture has to change so that these women have access to preventive measures without all the social and especially religious pressures against such measures.
Preventive contraceptives must be made more readily available, without embarassment or shame, to younger people. A short list is: codoms, diaphrams, sponges, foam. I know there would be horrendous outcry, but the idea of putting condom machines in the high school restrooms, for a price, seems reasonable to me.
There are chemicals which do prevent ovulation. These should be talked up more so that women know which pills work which way. I suspect if you were to conduct a survey of 100 randomly chosen women you would find most of them know what "the pill" is supposed to do, "prevent pregnancy", but they don't know how the different versions work.
More development needs to be done toward an effective male contraceptive. One that allows him to fire blanks. This seems to be tricky because things tried so far tend to reduce desire, reduce ability to penetrate, and/or reduce staying power. Maybe it would have to be something he takes every day, but it must not reduce interest, ability, or stamina. Yes I support condom use, but I also find that they reduce sensitivity and my pleasure significantly. I can't speak for the effects of the female condoms. If there is a woman in this debate perhaps she can inform of us whether the woman finds any reduction in sensations from a female condom.
So there are some things I think need to happen to reduce the overall need for abortions. I honestly don't expect the religions to change their pitch and rules, although I think all of them should, and could without violation of their truly basic tennants. Cultural changes have been documented to take a minimum of twenty years. But those numbers are for the majority, and for general response/behavior. Pockets of resistance remain for much longer times, even multiple generations. But these things attack the root causes of why people find themselves in want of an abortion. Changing them will go a very long way toward removing the demand for abortions.
Kelly
Perhaps the general public would do a better job than the politcicians? :wink:
