If the only thing that matters is righteous ideology without concern for results, then we want the term “pro-life” back. The Pro-Life movement must make reducing the rate of abortion the goal, and seek rational methods and solutions that will serve this purpose. News & World Report and the Guttmacher Institute, their low abortion rate is credited to very comprehensive sex education and easy access to contraceptives.Īn ideological war on abortion that ignores the data and sets its sights on low-income women who lack proper education and resources must stop. What do they have that we don’t? Accordingly to U.S. Where is the lowest abortion rate? The Netherlands – where abortion (and prostitution) are completely legal.
Researchers at the University of California saw a 46 percent decline in the odds of an abortion when low-income women had access to public healthcare (or any healthcare) that provided contraception in year-long supplies. Or take Uganda, where abortion is illegal and sex education focuses exclusively on abstinence: the abortion rate there is more than double what it is in the United States.
But a RAND Corporation study that tracked the heavy drop in the late 1980s and 1990s in Russia observed that it was expansion of contraceptive access that curbed the practice. Russia has (and has had) one of the highest abortion rates in the world. I didn’t talk politics with people I didn’t know well, I didn’t display my views on buttons or. Prioritizing safety and politeness, I tried not to make waves. I have always been a conflict- (and danger-) averse person. This is speaking from overwhelming international and historical evidence. My work at Planned Parenthood can be exhausting, and stressful, but I love it more every day. It’s going to happen by expanding healthcare access, contraceptive use and sex education. Wade, or cutting funding for healthcare to low-income women and families. That’s a given.īut it’s not going to happen by overturning Roe vs. I want the abortion rate in this country – and every country – to plummet. They substitute ideologies for solutions, and favor short-term irrational emotion rather than long-term pragmatic decisions.
These would be ridiculous actions because they completely miss the point. Wade?įor that matter, why haven’t I emptied my bank account – and demanded that the government do the same – to send meals and vaccines to every person on the planet? Why don’t I spring for motel rooms for every homeless person I meet, unlock the cells in every prison, and demand our country surrender every war? So why aren’t I trying to defund Planned Parenthood, calling abortion doctors “murderers,” and petitioning the federal government to overturn Roe vs. I also value the nascent human life of the unborn. I value the lives of criminals on death row, homeless living in the streets, and soldiers serving our country abroad. I value the lives of children living in poverty, and victims of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in the Third World. I value the lives of every person living in my country. I’m pro-life because I value all human life. This originally appeared on John Saveland's Open Salon blog.Ĭan we have the term “pro-life” back, if everyone else is just going to misuse it?
0 kommentar(er)
