Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Fundamentalism Causes Abortion In America
The abortion debate is old. It's also a false debate. The debate isn't about ending abortion, it's about ending pleasure from sex. Pro-lifers scream about the millions of fetuses who have been murdered, but have done exactly the wrong thing to end it.
The Netherlands for example has a very sexually positive attitude, the condoms are flowing like wine, and their rate of abortion is under 7 in 1,000 women of reproductive age. In the U.S. the number is closer to 23. A pro-life site states that 35,000,000 abortions have been performed in the US since 1973. If we adopted the policies of The Netherlands, what would those numbers be by now?
There are different cultural phenomena in the U.S. including our mixed ethnic population, and of course our toleration of poverty that would not give a direct 23 down to 7 in 1000 reduction. Let's say it was halved. Kids are taught to use condoms, use birth control, explained the birds and the bees, and taught not to be ashamed about sex. 17,500,000 abortions wouldn't have happened. Everybody is excited right?
Not really.
It's not about reducing abortions. It's about stamping one's feet on the ground and demanding 100% compliance with a restrictive sexual belief or nothing at all. They call abortion a holocaust, which is offensive in and of itself. The analogy doesn't work as well as they think it does.
It would be like saying you wouldn't liberate one camp full of Jews, unless all camps could be liberated at the same time. Would anybody buy that argument? Pro-lifers are doing that now. They would rather punish people for not using birth control and having to get an abortion than reduce the amount of abortion. Reducing abortions until they can magically get their way could save the lives of the "babies" they will promptly want services to be cut off for once out of the womb. They won't.
Politicians get elected by promising an end to abortion just any day now. Twenty-four years after Roe V. Wade, we have more abortions than any other industrialized country in world by number, and per capita. The pro-lifers are on God's side though, so that is what is important.
Reducing the amount of abortions would be a wonderful thing. Women having control about their own sexuality, men feeling empowered to insist on wearing condoms when they aren't ready to start a family is a positive. Not to these moral scolds.
Speaking of being on God's side, around 25% to 33% of pregnancies end in miscarriage at a minimum. The number is likely higher. How many fertlized eggs never implant, or slough off in the first week of pregnancy is anybody's guess. "God" has killed hundreds of millions, if not billions of fetuses in the history of humanity.
It feels better to yell at a single woman in Queens who forgot to take her pill, or to take steps to reduce unwanted pregnancies that don't allow you to waive your moral superiority over others.
You pro-lifer fundamentalists are responsible for millions of abortions. Think about that before preaching to others.
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