Let's compromise on abortion: Readers of this blog know that I'm pro-life, but then again, so is Barack Obama. As recently as the last debate, he said that he's not for abortion--nobody is.
So, in the spirit of bipartisanship, let's work together find ways to reduce this problem. Let's do it this way: each side can offer up one idea, and we can next find out how effective the idea is.
You first. Expand public support of birth control for needy women, you say? Great, I'm all for the maximum use of contraceptives as a way to lower the abortion rate. So how effective is it? Well, using Guttmacher data for all 50 states, I calculated the correlation between the percent of needy women getting their birth control paid for by the state and the rate of abortion. It's -.22 (not statistically significant at the .05 level). Not very impressive, but hey, better than nothing (maybe).
Now my idea. Shrink, or at least do not increase, the number of counties around the country with abortion clinics. How much of a difference would this make? The correlation across all 50 states is .68. Much more impressive--it explains almost half of the variance--which is not surprising since it is a conservative idea, but let's not try to score points here. Let's hold hands on this one and do both ideas.
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How about leaving "it" up to the States where "it" isn't just abortion, but infanticide, corporal punishment of children, genital mutilation of infants, sex education before puberty, exposure to homosexual indoctrination, or any other treatment of minors constented to by their parents up to the age at which cerebral growth is complete?
ReplyDeleteIf you really object to the way others are treating their children, then you can always change the State's laws or move to another State. I really don't get what is particularly magic about the moment of conception vs birth vs the first day of school vs puberty, etc.
I like abortion. It has a eugenic effect that increases the average IQ of the population.
ReplyDeleteYou really think Obama is pro-life? I think he's trying to get elected and figured Hillary's 'safe, legal, and rare' was a smart stance for the third of the country in the middle that thinks abortion should be legal and restricted.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of abortion and a "woman's right to choose", why doen't men also have rights to choose in the even of an unwanted and pregnancy?
ReplyDeleteAfter all with birth control and contemporary attitudes towards premarital sex shared by at least very large parts of the population, and I dare say nearly all pro choice women (and men), there is no presumption that sex means babies.
But we all know that sometimes accidents happen. Women control most of the methods of birth control, all but one actually which is rather joint or anyway certainly open to easy joint inspection (the condom), and that's a relatively high failure rate, and also lower pleasure option. But anyway, regardless of the method, failures happen.
No wonder women don't want to be FORCED to have and raise a baby when they do. They want to right to choose.
Well men should have the same right, or as close as we can make it without violating the woman's body of course. No right to order, or veto her going under the knife of course.
Just the right to veto his OWN financial responsibility if he does so right after he's told he's gonna be a dad. If she's told him in a timely manner, which will thereby be much encouraged, she can factor his dicision into her own as to whether to abort or not.
And then she can always still decide to give the baby up for adoption if she decides not.
It's simply absolute oppression to give men no choice whatsoever in whether the accident should become his half an adult lifetime HUGE financial and other responsibility or not. make no mistake, for men earning good or very good scratch, child support = alimony payments can be a HUGE portion of after tax income- and for two decades.
Fiminists often say he chose when he unzipped. Well the dame could be said of her when she spread her legs.
Only feminists have insisteed that the fail safe of abortion to backstop birth control when sex leads to unwanted pregnancies should be availabe to them. Well men should have at least some post accident choices here as well.
It's high time more than a few men raised their voices around this issue.
"You really think Obama is pro-life?"
ReplyDeleteI went for subtle sarcasm in this post, but I guess readers are not used to my being subtle!
It's high time more than a few men raised their voices around this issue
ReplyDeleteCount me out. I, and the rest of the American public, have little interest paying to raise someone else's little bastard. And cutting off welfare to children who did not choose to be born is a political non-starter.