Tuesday, February 6, 2007

roe v. wade

(All of this is quoted from an article in Glamour Magazine for February 2007. I think that all women should read it and begin to stand up for these proposed bills.

Please read it. It is the part of the issue that really means a lot to me and it is not a cry for or against abortion. I promise, just read it. It's worth it. And the bold stuff is my emphasis.)



Abortion is a fundamental right. Abortion is morally wrong. Abortion is...
We interrupt the decades-long battle over reproductive rights with this news flash: Abortion is preventable. Reduce the sky-high number of unplanned pregnancies in the United States, and abortions will decrease too. Isn't it time?

"People aren't going to change their opinions about abortion, but most agree that women shouldn't have to make that decision in the first place," says Sarah Brown, director of the nonpartisan National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. Adds pro-life Representative Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), "We need to transcend this bitter debate and reduce the need for abortion." It may sound like a Nobel Prize-winning feat, but it is doable - and it needs to happen.

A whopping 49 percent of all pregnancies in the United States are unintended - that's 3.1 million a year, topping most industrialized nations. Almost half of those accidental pregnancies end in abortion. Among our poorest women, unplanned pregnancies have risen almost 30 percent in the past decade, and abortions are up for them too.

Sad but true: The world's lone superpower can't get a grip on family planning. Our mothers and grandmothers fought hard for women's right to control their fertility - why is it still out of reach for so many? Well, first off, there's the gutting of family planning programs. Half of all women seeking birth control need publicly funded services, but 22 states have cut such programs in recent years. Nurse-practitioner Cathy Hansell of the Castleton, Indiana, Planned Parenthood clinic says, "It's sad, but many patients come in for pregnancy tests after they ran out of birth control and couldn't afford more." Compounding the problem, at press time the Bush administration had appointed a new chief of family planning services with an anti-contraception track record.

Most Americans do agree - as polls show - that contraception should be readily available and that sex education in schools should be frank and clear. Two proposals in Congress could make that happen. Pro-life Rep. Ryan joined pro-choice Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) to create a bill that would require birth control coverage for women who can't afford it and establish grants for comprehensive sex ed. In the Senate, a similar bill from pro-choice Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and pro-life Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.) could prevent an estimated 500,000 unplanned pregnancies and nearly 200,000 abortions per year.

Hopefully these measures will get bipartisan support. Pro-choice Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Me.), for one, plans to work with her colleagues on this issue. "In order to reduce unwanted pregnancies, we must teach abstinence, responsible behavior and the use of contraception," she tells Glamour. "It just makes sense."

Not to everyone, though: When NARAL Pro-Choice America ran ads last year in conservative publications inviting abortion rights opponents to collaborate on a program to reduce unplanned pregnancies, "the silence was deafening," says NARAL president Nancy Keenan.

That's good reason for you to speak up and let your elected officials know that you're behind the cause. The longer we let this dire situation go on, the more women will have to make painful decisions about abortions. Women out there need help now - let's give it to them.

4 comments:

Peter Brackney said...

Roe v. Wade is a landmark decision that was wrongly decided by a court seeking to expand the scope and reach of Federal government power. Abortion should have been decided at the state level. However, Roe has become interwoven into the fabric of our society - its principled 'freedom of privacy' has become as American as apple pie.

However, the most ardent pro-choicer is not pro-abortion. All concede that it is an undesirable medical practice and that we must encourage safe, protected sex.

However, the churchies get their panties in a wad when the government tries to provide condoms. (Heck, these are the people who think vaccinating girls from cervical cancer (HPV vaccine) will cause sexual promiscuity.)

I agree with you fully that we need cooperation. Pro-choice people are willing to reach out to cut the number, but not the right to, abortions. It is the pro-life movement that is preventing any progress in improving the situation.

aus blog said...

People have to stop using abortion as birth control.

People should be able to choose to use birth control,
so as to avoid having to make another choice.

aus blog said...

DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU CAN GET AN IMPLANT (in arm)
THAT IS SAFE, 99.9% EFFECTIVE AND LASTS FOR THREE YEARS?

Implanon is new to the US but has been widely used in Aus for about five years.
The only bad report iv'e heard is if your a smoker you can't use them due to increased risk of cardiovascular conditions.
Good incentive to give the cigs a miss............
any way my daughter has one, and no problems, no pills to remember,and she is protected from unwanted pregnancies for three years.

Emily said...

I agree with all of this. Birth control should be readily available to everyone- however in my perfect world, 16 year olds wouldn't be having sex and people that couldn't afford to keep a child would give it to someone who can't have one. Ofcourse this even sounds silly in todays society!

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