Oh snap, this girl must have lost her mind.....
Let me preface this post by saying that I am pro-life however, laws that allow abortion aren't the reason why so many youth are getting abortions. Proposition 4 is another proposition on the ballot that we should pay close attention to. What I desire most is that people can see the bigger picture.
An e-mail from a very wise friend prompted this post and I agree with him that there must be more to a politician than just being "pro-life" and that these things must be brought into the public square. I think that there are many factors that compel a person to abort a child and many of these can be prevented. I don't want a politician who is simply going to make a law banning abortions; I want a politician that can see the bigger picture and legislation that will address issues such as poverty and inadequate sex education.
There is a direct correlation between abortion rates and poverty. Those who are most frequently getting abortions are youth from low socioeconomic homes.
The United States leads virtually all other industrialized countries in std rates, pregnancy rates, and abortion rates. Why? Because, nearly all other industrialized countries have comprehensive sex education programs in their schools. Adolescents in the U.S. aren't having sex at a greater rate than other countries but rather our sex education is lacking. Although abstinence is ideal, the fact of the matter is that 48% of high school students have had sex and 15% have had 4 or more sexual partners. In 2007 39% of currently sexually active adolescents did not use a condom (CDC). The U.S. teen pregnancy rate is over 5 times that of the Netherlands, 4 times that of Germany, and over three times that of France. U.S. teens account for 71% of all teenage births occurring in all developed countries. The U.S. teen birth rate is 9 times higher than the Netherlands, 4 times higher than France and Germany. Furthermore, the abortion rate in the U.S is twice that of Germany and the Netherlands (National Abortion Registration, 2005). Lastly, it has been estimated that the public costs associated with teen births in the U.S were at least $9.1 billion in 2004. That is approximately $1,430 per child born to a teen mother per year (The Public Costs of Teen Childbearing. Washington DC: The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unintended Pregnancy, 2006)
If the U.S rates equaled those in France the number of U.S. teen pregnancies would be reduced by 51,5000; the number of teen births would be reduced by 333,000; and the number of U.S. teen abortions would be reduced by 8,000. If the U.S. rates equaled those in the Netherlands, teen pregnancies would be reduced by 617,000; the number of teen births would be reduced by 379,000; and the number of teen pregnancies would be reduced by 75,000 (Advocates for Youth).
If the U.S. birth rates in 2004 equaled those in the Netherlands, the U.S. annual public savings in 2004 would have equaled $541,970,000. That's money we could have given to AIG for another posh company outing...
There are bigger things at work than laws that allow youth to get abortions. There are preventable things that will significantly reduce the abortion rates and teen pregnancies. Where is the politician that is going to fight for these things?
What is more effective than anti abortion laws and abstinence only sex education? These aren't my original ideas but rather facts and ideas that I have come across through much research.
1. A vast majority of European countries are sex positive; meaning, that they aren't fearful of sex, they don't treat it as a scary, dangerous and taboo thing. This sex positive attitude allows for better communication between parents and their children.
2. European adults expect their youth to act responsibly and governments strongly support education and self-sufficiency for their young people.
3. European governments support massive long-term campaigns and work with schools and the media to educate youth on all types of preventative measures.
4. Accurate and reliable Sexual health information is easily available to youth and youth have convenient access to free or low-cost contraceptives through national health care.
5. Political and religious interest groups have little influence on public health policy.
6. I'm going to repeat that last one; Political and religious interest groups have little influence on public health policy.
Again, I am not saying that I am in favor of abortions and when/if a friend considers abortion, I would try to convince them otherwise. However, the reality of the world that we live in is that youth are having sex in large numbers whether we'd like to admit it or not. We must educate youth on not only abstinence but all forms of protection; and we must promote healthy dialogue between parents and their children.
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4 comments:
Our problem is not legal abortion. Our problem is a culture that even considers killing an innocent child an option. Until our hearts, minds, and culture are repaired, it doesn't matter if abortion is legal or not.
We need to re-discover personal responsibility. If you have sex, you might have a baby. It is not moral to then terminate the baby because you had sex. It's convenient and easy, but it is not moral. It seems to me any woman who would claim abortion rights are crucial to a woman retaining control of her own body, would also support women and men alike being responsible for their actions.
One thing though, you might want to do some research into Margaret Sanger.
"The most merciful thing that a family does to one of its infant members is to kill it."
Margaret Sanger (editor). The Woman Rebel, Volume I, Number 1. Reprinted in Woman and the New Race. New York: Brentanos Publishers, 1922.
"Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race."
Margaret Sanger. Woman, Morality, and Birth Control. New York: New York Publishing Company, 1922. Page 12.
"We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don't want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population. and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members."
Margaret Sanger's December 19, 1939 letter to Dr. Clarence Gamble, 255 Adams Street, Milton, Massachusetts. Original source: Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, North Hampton, Massachusetts. Also described in Linda Gordon's Woman's Body, Woman's Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1976.
"Eugenic sterilization is an urgent need ... We must prevent multiplication of this bad stock."
Margaret Sanger, April 1933 Birth Control Review.
"Eugenics is … the most adequate and thorough avenue to the solution of racial, political and social problems.
Margaret Sanger. "The Eugenic Value of Birth Control Propaganda." Birth Control Review, October 1921, page 5.
"Birth control itself, often denounced as a violation of natural law, is nothing more or less than the facilitation of the process of weeding out the unfit, of preventing the birth of defectives or of those who will become defectives."
[no source available at this time...]
As an advocate of birth control I wish ... to point out that the unbalance between the birth rate of the 'unfit' and the 'fit,' admittedly the greatest present menace to civilization, can never be rectified by the inauguration of a cradle competition between these two classes. In this matter, the example of the inferior classes, the fertility of the feeble-minded, the mentally defective, the poverty-stricken classes, should not be held up for emulation....
On the contrary, the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective.
Margaret Sanger. "The Eugenic Value of Birth Control Propaganda." Birth Control Review, October 1921, page 5.
"The campaign for birth control is not merely of eugenic value, but is practically identical with the final aims of eugenics."
Margaret Sanger. "The Eugenic Value of Birth Control Propaganda." Birth Control Review, October 1921, page 5.
"Our failure to segregate morons who are increasing and multiplying ... demonstrates our foolhardy and extravagant sentimentalism ... [Philanthropists] encourage the healthier and more normal sections of the world to shoulder the burden of unthinking and indiscriminate fecundity of others; which brings with it, as I think the reader must agree, a dead weight of human waste. Instead of decreasing and aiming to eliminate the stocks that are most detrimental to the future of the race and the world, it tends to render them to a menacing degree dominant ... We are paying for, and even submitting to, the dictates of an ever-increasing, unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never should have been born at all."
Margaret Sanger. The Pivot of Civilization, 1922. Chapter on "The Cruelty of Charity," pages 116, 122, and 189. Swarthmore College Library edition.
"The undeniably feeble-minded should, indeed, not only be discouraged but prevented from propagating their kind."
Margaret Sanger, quoted in Charles Valenza. "Was Margaret Sanger a Racist?" Family Planning Perspectives, January-February 1985, page 44.
"The third group [of society] are those irresponsible and reckless ones having little regard for the consequences of their acts, or whose religious scruples prevent their exercising control over their numbers. Many of this group are diseased, feeble-minded, and are of the pauper element dependent upon the normal and fit members of society for their support. There is no doubt in the minds of all thinking people that the procreation of this group should be stopped."
Margaret Sanger. Speech quoted in Birth Control: What It Is, How It Works, What It Will Do. The Proceedings of the First American Birth Control Conference. Held at the Hotel Plaza, New York City, November 11-12, 1921. Published by the Birth Control Review, Gothic Press, pages 172 and 174.
"The marriage bed is the most degenerative influence in the social order..."
Margaret Sanger (editor). The Woman Rebel, Volume I, Number 1. Reprinted in Woman and the New Race. New York: Brentanos Publishers, 1922.
"[Our objective is] unlimited sexual gratification without the burden of unwanted children..."
Margaret Sanger (editor). The Woman Rebel, Volume I, Number 1. Reprinted in Woman and the New Race. New York: Brentanos Publishers, 1922.
"Give dysgenic groups [people with 'bad genes'] in our population their choice of segregation or [compulsory] sterilization."
Margaret Sanger, April 1932 Birth Control Review.
Forgot to add this link:
http://www.citizenreviewonline.org/special_issues/population/the_negro_project.htm
I agree...Sanger was a poor choice which is why I removed the quote. My apologies.
I hope that doesn't take away from the point I am trying to make. There is no simple solution to the issue of abortion; there is no silver bullet. Regardless of if a person is going to vote yes or no on prop 4, the problem will not end with that piece of legislation. There are more issues that need to be addressed which contribute to abortions and teen pregnancy rates.
We certainly agree there.
I firmly believe this country needs less legislation. Far, far less.
“One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation”
-Thomas Brackett Reed.
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