Re: Abortion
Walter Hinteler wrote:If these figures are from the USA, they really seem rather high.
I know that even higher numbers have been reported from the USSR until about 15, 10 years ago - I know from my own work (here: with Germans from Russia) that abortion there was seen as a kind of birth control.
Finn d'Abuzz wrote:Anyone who goes back to the abortion clinic for a second time, did not have a life altering experience with the first one.
I've never heard that abortion clinics have the purpose to give life altering experiences. But I don't live in the USA.
Nor have I Walter. The purpose of abortion clinics is to rid a women of a fetus she has growing in her womb, and in the process destroy the unborn child.
My tenuous support of a woman's right to choose has been based, in part, in the belief that for at least a large percentage of women having abortions, it is a painful and serious decision, and that having made that grim decision once, they would be inclined to do all in their power to not have to make it again.
Let's keep in mind that it is well within the power of the great majority of women having abortions to avoid unwanted pregnancies. Contraceptive drugs and devices are easily obtained by all women in America - irrespective of financial means.
54% of all women say that they were using
some form of contraceptive during the month they became pregnant, but this seems very difficult to believe, unless a prayer to their preferred deity before they get busy is considered a form of contraceptive. We all know that no contraceptive drug or device has a 100% success rate, but only 46%?
3% of abortions are for the reason of the mother's health
3% of abortions are for reason of the physical condition of the fetus
1% of abortions are for the reason of rape and incest
I couldn't find statistics for the incidence of repeat abortions in these three categories, but it seems reasonable to believe it would be less than 50%, and even if it were higher, the percentage of abortions represented by these categories is minimal and unable to drive statistical trends across the whole.
These statistics leave me, at least, with a firm believe that the vast number of abortions being conducted are for a wide range of socially related reasons (96%). This is not a newly formed belief, and while it has always made me somewhat uncomfortable in my support of the pro-choice position, I've maintained that position based on the additional belief that in, in the main, the women having these abortions have made very serious and deeply considered decisions. When very close to half of them have, at least, one repeat abortion, that belief is seriously called into question.
I appreciate that there is a school of thought that supports abortion based solely on the issue of personal choice, and that the reasons for having an abortion are irrelevant. I've never been a member of that school, and I don't believe that the majority of Americans who support the legalization of abortion are either.