Abortion Debate

I’ve been having some discussions, admittedly civil, with a woman who is fervently anti-abortion. She even rejects abortion when the mother’s life is in danger, blithely remarking that doctors can deal with any such issues without ending the pregnancy. She also is opposed to abortions when the fetus in not viable. Now polls seem to show that only about 20% of the American public is opposed to abortion under all circumstances.

Her opposition to such things is such that she even opposes the use of IUDs, saying that they cause a fertilized egg to not be implanted. Now WebMD and other sites seem to think that IUDs prevent sperm from fertilizing the ovum, but in her infinite wisdom she thinks otherwise. Now mind you, she is neither a doctor nor a nurse, nor so far as I know does she have any medical training. She just “knows” things, whether medical science agrees or not.

It is interesting to converse with someone who is not satisfied to control her own body, but feels obliged to try to impose her religious beliefs on other women, regardless of the religious beliefs of the others. Her beliefs mirror those of some fundamentalist Christian groups, and frankly as long as they don’t try to impose their beliefs on others, I am all in favor of them holding whatever beliefs they choose and following them in their own lives.

How is it that someone feels they have such omniscience as to be able to make life altering decisions for others, without knowing the circumstances of those others?

Truth be told, most Americans do not like abortion and would like to keep it at a minimum, but the vast majority seem to want it kept legal, at least in some instances. If we wanted to, we could significantly reduce the number both of abortions, and of unwanted pregnancies, including teen pregnancies. How could we do that? We have seen both other countries and some states do exactly that.

We start by having better sex education – not merely promoting abstinence, but actually teaching teens the hows and whys of sex. We then provide free or low cost birth control to women, and make it easy to obtain. Doing just those things can reduce abortions and unplanned pregnancies by upwards of 40%. That was proven in Colorado and in some European countries.

Now I know some will ask how we are going to pay for these things. It would, in fact, save money for taxpayers. The costs for Medicaid for prenatal care, and delivery, along with pediatric care for the resulting babies exceeds the cost of providing birth control for the woman. A Thomson Healthcare study shows prenatal, delivery, and post-partum care runs roughly $8,800. That does not include any costs to support that baby, assuming the mother is indigent.

In comparison to the $8,800 just for the delivery, etc, birth control pills or patches run perhaps $600 per year, IUDs cost between $500 and $1000, but last for 3 to 12 years. Other birth control methods have costs of $300 to $1000 a year, with varying effectiveness. According to research IUDs are 99% effective, which means that if only one out of every eight women is saved from an unwanted pregnancy, there has been a cost savings.

Our anti-abortion agitators are not happy with reducing unwanted pregnancies. They seem to dismiss that idea altogether. Many, in fact, push for abstinence only sex education. Seriously folks, when you have teens who are in the midst of hormonal urges, how damned effective will it be to tell them just to avoid sex? Fact is, it is highly ineffective, but facts be damned to those opposing both abortion and expanded birth control.