Something I love about deadissue.com and blogs in general is that a spoof topic like ‘Faking Your Own Death’ can somehow spawn a debate on abortion, of course after veering into the rhelm of animal rights and whether or not we should kill bears.
This is a topic that has a special way of affecting each of us emotionally, and for as long as I’ve been alive on this earth, nothing seems to get the blood boiling quite like a good ol’ fashioned abortion debate. My own experience as a militant pro-lifer provided a cause I was able to champion outside the rhelm of numbers or facts, and as I grew older and further away from fundamentalist religion, numbers and facts gained more and more relevance with each passing year.
As a society, policy effects us as a whole and at times individually. The policy question as I see it in terms of abortion is ‘legal or illegal’. My position is based entirely on the statistics available, and here are a few samples of what happens when abortion is criminalized:
For proof that criminalizing abortion doesn’t reduce abortion rates and only endangers the lives of women, consider Latin America. In most of the region, abortions are a crime, but the abortion rate is far higher than in Western Europe or the United States. Colombia – where abortion is illegal even if a woman’s life is in danger – averages more than one abortion per woman over all of her fertile years. In Peru, the average is nearly two abortions per woman over the course of her reproductive years.
In a region where there is little sex education and social taboos keep unmarried women from seeking contraception, criminalizing abortion has not made it rare, only dangerous. Rich women can go to private doctors. The rest rely on quacks or amateurs or do it themselves. Up to 5,000 women die each year from abortions in Latin America, and hundreds of thousands more are hospitalized.
It’s a matter of science to me, and the day someone on the pro-life side of the argument can produce a study or example somewhere else in the world where abortion is illegal and it doesn’t adversely affect society as a whole, it’ll be a first.
This debate is unwinable with someone like I used to be, because in that arena, numbers, facts and how a change in policy would effect the country as a whole are never considered. Yet this is the year 2006, and in lieu of emotions or mysticism alone, we DO have data available to us that can help our society decide what’s right.
Keep in mind, that when it comes to public policy, it’s impossible to incorporate every single person’s beliefs into the end product. What I hope our leaders do (and I know that in a lot of cases they don’t) is gather all the information available and make the decision that best serves the country as a whole. That’s my idea of sound governing, and it’s the only way that progress is allowed to continue in a world full of people who insist they have God’s ear on issues like these!
Criminalizing abortion and not talking about sex does not make the problems go away, it just seems to make them much harder to deal with.
Nice post Chris
I agree with Karl.
One place where criminialized abortion actually improved society: FANTASYLAND! (Mellon in Back To School, 1986)
I have not seen to many conservative web-sites talking about the SD anti-abortion law. I wonder if they are even embarrassed by the pro-incest, pro-rape, aspect of the bill.
I have seen many comments, most of which indicate that people are certain that this will not succeed.
I do not live in South Dakota, nor can I imagine a reason for doing so, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out.
“Everyone Wants to be Famous”…this statement is the answer to WHY South Dakota would want to pass their law with such haste.
Adam Viniteri, hundreds of RICH, INCREDIBLE old-west stories (with the reading rate declining each year, generations are unaware of whether or not anything every happened in South Dakota)…
Guarantee that if you as 100 people to name something about South Dakota, the most common answer will be ‘That movie FARGO’
Those of you who doubt me probably know the ironic reality of that response, but think about it for a second. In a mall…c’mon, I’d put 100 bucks down on this result.
SDakota…God bless them, they all believe in this, and they want to feel proud about having done the right thing. What I realize when I read this though, is that there’s a stark difference between rural America and the rest of it. Give everyone the same common knowledge test and guess who’d come up on the low end of the curve…
I pick on rural America…but they provide an ample amount of material. Now they’re knee deep in crystal meth, and only Montana knows what to do about it…more on that later…
Washington:
If the Supreme Court declares the SD law unconstitional it seems like the true believers in the republican party are going to have a cow. If the court lets it stand most of the country will have a cow.
Seems like no win situation for our president.
They should provide armed security for the judges to and from the courthouse if they strike it down.
They should provide armed security for the judges to and from the courthouse if they strike it down.
Or if they let it stand. The power to decide the fate of another life without consequence is very intoxicating and I doubt the liberals, and especially, radical feminists are going to sit back and surrender their short reign of control.
If it fails then nothing really changes at all so I don’t expect the Right to make a huge deal about it. Evangelicals will probably be the loudest critics but they will just try again next year. Who is behind the S. Dakota legislation anyway?
Right:
Things change in that the only reason most social conservative, AKA christian socialists, support Bush is so that they could get Roe v. Wade overturned. If this legislation fails suddenly the social conservatives are going to realize they have been played. I have a feeling it will get ugly.
If the SCOTUS does uphold the SD law then social conservatives don’t need to put up with corruption and losing wars and everything else that goes with repubs, so they probably stop voting.
My guess is that the people who drafted the SD law know that if abortion goes away as an issue so does the republican base, so they intentionally set it up to fail.
My guess is that the people who drafted the SD law know that if abortion goes away as an issue so does the republican base, so they intentionally set it up to fail.
The only thing is Republicans aren’t one issue voters in general, but the one that are will stick around to keep stem cell research away. This is why it’s now safe to overturn R v. W, the stem cell issue replaces abortion for some as the issue of the day.
R v. W was a bad decision anyway, whether your pro or anti life, it’s just bad governence.
Repubs have more than one issue? I guess if you call being Pro-deficit a position.
Pro-defecit? Liberal media…their numbers and projections…look, once the estate tax and the taxes on dividends and capital gains are gotten rid of, that will trickle down, up AND SIDEWAYS, and the defecit will disappear just like that!
…and once the rest of the muslim world sees our superior firepower as demonstrated in Iraq they will throw down their weapons and accept jesus.
I wish the liberal media would stop reporting those biased facts.
You just reminded me of something I’ve been saying to everyone for the past few days, about a guy everyone knows about, has been right on the ball and 100% kor-ekt since day one…
Pat Robertson
Bush thinks he’s the spiritual alpha of his time, but it’s really Pat. The only thing that can save him now…in my opinion, would be to can Cheney and bring Robertson on to replace him.
Sound the sirens, terror alert, fake a Cheney heart attack, invade somewhere else and by the time the dust settles, the raisin is saving us all!
Chris – you are full of hatred-not just for Republicans but for everything you talk about…I don’t like Pat Robertson nor do I care for Cheney but you can’t just say that-you have to Rush Limbaugh everything.
Washington:
Don’t you think part of being a good blogger is to make it entertaining. Just like part of being a successful radio host is to make it entertaining.
Chris has been very entertaining lately and I not particularly hateful, it is not like he is comparing anyones kid to the whitehouse dog or anything.
Washington – every once in a while, it turns into ‘Waiting for Guffman’ at deadissue…everyone’s encouraged to join in…can’t take the uber-ultra-sarcasm sessions too seriously. Just blowing off steam. karl and I get into one of these every so often.
Understood. I see your point.