Let’s turn to an unpleasant subject — abortion.
When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the red flags were sent flying.
The message: As more states eliminated or restricted abortion, the number of the procedures would go down.
They have not.
The zero abortion rate in states where it is banned has been more than offset in states permitting it.
This column is not pro- or anti-abortion. It presents facts for you to use in building an informed opinion.
Such as that two-thirds of Americans accept abortion in some or all cases, while one-third are opposed.
Abortions actually have risen after Roe was reversed, according to the well-respected Guttmacher Institute.
That seems surprising given the hysterical fearmongering of the “pro choice” side that millions of women would be denied “health services.”
They were wrong.
Some were unable to obtain abortions, but not all that many.
Why?
1- Because no woman was more than two states away from a state that provided the service.
2- In the case of poor women, there was no shortage of philanthropic nonprofits willing to pay their transport and expenses.
3- The majority of abortions today are not surgical, but are medically induced, an estimated two-thirds, says Guttmacher. It is not all that hard to get those meds. An estimated 10% of abortions in states where it is banned were accomplished through telehealth care and prescriptions to patients.
There is pushback in some states, but a black market is certain to develop for those drugs.
So what’s the message here?
As with most things, the outcome of change is never as beneficial as promised, nor as terrible as feared.
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Gee. No surprise here. People will find a way to get them. Thankfully they are not of the coat hanger type. Another predictable consequence: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/01/15/abortion-vasectomies-tubal-ligations-surging/
If we, the people, want something badly enough and in great enough numbers, no laws are going to stop it.
One major issue is that most of those opposed to the rights of other family's freedom in this matter, base their opposition on their fervent religious doctrines. Fine for them, but please do not impose you religious beliefs on the rest of the nation. It is not allowed in our country.
Our Freedom of Religion also means freedom from the religious doctrines of others.
On a practical aspect of this issue; what is the cost, financial and emotional, to society in each state for all the unwanted children? There are schools for misbehaving delinquent children, who were unwanted from the start, and were then born into completely dysfunctional families, often born to women without a husband. Those young people had worn out everyone and their remaining choice was jail or attend the special schools, each at a great cost to taxpayers. Every one of the "students" had been badly, hurtfully and painfully abused, mostly abandoned in drug, alcohol, unemployed and uneducated households. Some of the abused children already had children of their own. Shouldn't our compassion or, to the religious anti-abortionists, shouldn't our holy hearts filled with the kindness of Christian compassion, want to provide family planning services for all those unfortunate women in that situation?
There is a heartless cruelty to the proclaimed religious stance of the anti-abortionists, which lacks any compassion at all for ones fellow man, quite opposite to their insufferably sanctimonious preaching.
I will agree with you Gardner on some of this. And the rhetoric of "slaughter of unborn babies" (which it is not) from the religious zealots does not help either. Having agreed with you, how is it that you cite only Christian compassion? I dare say, Stu, a fellow tribe member, is one of the squishiest, kindest, compassionate people I know. Your stance on privileging Christianity omits lots of other compassionate people besides us Jews -- atheists, agnostics, Hindus, Buddhists, Tao, and non fanatical Muslims among others. And holy hearts? What is holy about the muscle beating in our chests?
Agree with your comment; I wrote Christian values since it is the zealous religious right sects of Republicans which appears to be mostly very cruel "Christians" who oppose family planning for everyone else. Their cruelty is very hard to believe.
I would certainly include all the religions you mention as having compassion; of course. Thank you.
Just as the electric chair and the noose haven't ended murder, so outlawing abortion will not stop the slaughter of unborn babies. It's a version of what Yogi Berra said: "If the fans don't want to come to the ballpark, you can't stop them."