11-29-2008, 09:17 PM
Acer wrote:
OK, I'll be less obtuse.
If the "pro-choice" camp is not really "pro-abortion," then I presume you would agree that abortion is not the best possible outcome for a problem pregnancy in most cases. Is making abortion rare a goal of the "pro-choice" group? If so, what policies do they have to make them less common? Are these policies working?
I'm not an activist of any persuasion, so I can't answer the question about policy. What I do know is that the rate of abortion, as of 2005, which is the most current year for which I could find numbers, is dropping. The article I read, however, did not examine causes, so I don't know if those numbers dropped because of "policy" or not. Nor do I happen to know if "policy" is even the right word to describe the efforts to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies. Does education about birth control constitute "policy"? I suppose that could become a heated debate all by itself, especially among those who have strong beliefs about abstinence as opposed to birth control.
And, yes, I do agree that abortion is not the best possible outcome, but I also believe that I will never be able to walk in the shoes of another person, so I don't feel it's my right to judge them for the decisions they make. Plus, the sad truth is that in some cases it really might be the best possible outcome, if you take into consideration the safety and well being of the children after their birth. This becomes exceptionally complex if you consider all the possible aspects.
Furthermore, I don't believe that abortion should ever become an acceptable form of first line birth control. Unwanted pregnancies do happen, though, even to some who believed they were adequately protected. What I have been is a young woman of child bearing age, and I would never have wanted someone else to tell me what I could or could not do in the event I became pregnant with a child I had not planned on having.
The bottom line is that I simply do not believe in legislating what a woman can or cannot do if she finds herself pregnant. That does not, however, mean I am "pro abortion." I don't happen to consider the two to be the same.
If you want an eye opening experience, spend some time around two groups - one is teenage unwed mothers and the other is abused and neglected children. I don't mean just drop in for a visit; I mean spend enough time with them so that you can really get to know the range and the experiences of both the young women and the children, and that time has to be measured more in the range of years, not hours, days, or weeks.
I could actually go on about this subject, because I spent over five years working in a school with a program for teenage mothers. I spent another seven years working in the dependency program of the local juvenile court system. My current position is based on what I saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears. Theories are great, but they don't always represent the real world.