I've always been pro choice but anti abortion; I believe in a woman's right to choose but personally I find the concept of abortion abhorrent. Recently I was reading the Economist and there was an article in there regarding a fresh debate on abortion. I was reading away quite fine until I saw the graph. 200 000 abortions in a year?? 200 000????
I simply am astonished that there are so many "mistakes". Should people who make the rather stupid and easy to solve mistake of having unprotected sex be allowed to solve their problem by aborting their child? Even Lord Steel thinks it's getting slightly out of hand.
I'm not saying abortion should be banned or made harder to obtain (even if my question above suggests I was!), we all know what lies down that road; death, disease and unhappiness.
However, we need far better safe sex education out there. We need to ensure contraception is used to avoid the need for abortions. I'm fairly sure a condom would cost less than an abortion.
Abortion should always been seen as a necessary evil and the very last line of action in the event of an unwanted pregnancy. Our consumer "get what you want" society should not be allowed to turn abortion into a form of contraception. It's far too gruesome a practice to allow it to become that.
Well, I don't think it's abhorrent, but I strongly agree that sex education must be improved.
ReplyDeleteIn the United States, women living below the federal poverty level ($9,570 for a single woman are more than FOUR TIMES as likely to have abortions as women making three times as much (which is still a meager amount). In other words, poverty and abortion in the U.S. go hand in hand.
ReplyDeleteI don't know a whole lot about abortion in Britain, but I would not be surprised to see a similar trend. When it comes down to it, the poorest of the poor are still going to have sex, even if they aren't protecting themselves all the time.
If it's true that abortion is really being used as contraception in England, people ought to be asking WHY. Pregnancy and abortion procedures are far more expensive, burdensome, controversial, and uncomfortable than just about all forms of birth control. Maybe today's sex education should include a side-by-side comparison of the benefits and drawbacks to prevention vs. abortion.
Meanwhile, I look forward to the male oral contraceptive. :D
First I would like to say that it is nice hearing about abortion from a guys point of veiw. I totally agree with you on how why we should not allowed women to correct their mistake of having unprotected sex. But don't you think that sometimes it is okay to have an abortion because the women might be too young or isn't able to take care of the baby? I was shock to find out that we have 200,000 abortion every year. I appreciate that your blog was about abortion and how you brought up the problem with abortion. The links that was provided also help talk about abortion ans what others thought about it. When you have the time I would greatly appreciated if you would stop by my page and check it out, it is also about abortion. Thanks http://killingbortion.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeletei agree with you i think that we do need more better sex education expecially for teens. In my opinion i think that abortions are wrong it is the same thing as killing a new born child. There is no difference it is MURDER! But there are some cases where it is okay and you are right it is the mother's choice on what she wants to do it. Also i think that the goverment should do something to lower the rates of abortion. Well i am doig a similar topic about abortions you should check it out. it's http://wrongabortions.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteJae, I'm thinking that you and I are going to have to agree to disagree on a few things here...
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that sex education needs to be improved, I think you're casting the issue as being black and white: "Should people who make the rather stupid and easy to solve mistake of having unprotected sex be allowed to solve their problem by aborting their child?" It's not as simple as that.
I know women who have had abortions, and arriving at the decision to have the procedure was the most difficult, painful process they've ever been through. Abortion is not something that is entered into lightly. While I'm sure there is the odd woman who doesn't give it a lot of thought, making that decision is nothing short of agonizing for most!
You say that you find abortion abhorrent. Let me tell you, no one likes abortion. And while ultimately you do indicate that you believe keeping abortion legal is a necessary evil, the tone of this post is judgemental, if not decidedly paternalistic. It's very easy to spout platitudes about not using abortion as contaception when you are in no danger of becoming pregnant.
Natalie, I agree we'll probably have to disagree. But that's healthy.
ReplyDeleteWhilst I agree with another comment that there are plenty of circumstances where abortion is the right choice (young mothers being an obvious one) and I agree with you that having an abortion is one hell of an agonising decision for most... I think it IS as simple as people using contraception to avoid the need for an abortion, in a significant number of cases. You say it's not as simple as that, and I would be interested (honestly interested!) in what you mean by that. Why is it not as simple as that?
Surely there can't be 200 000 conceptions in the UK caused by contraception failure rather than human error? And obviously there'd be far more failed contraception conceptions if that was the case, as I'd hope there would be a fair few women who'd live with their "mistakes" (thank heavens my Mum decided to live with hers!)
Whilst I agree that abortion is the right choice in a lot of cases, I also think there are a lot of abortions that could be rendered unnecessary by people being a little bit more responsible for themselves.
I'm not suggesting we should stop any person deemed "irresponsible", by my judgement, be stopped from getting an abortion. I just think we need to be do something proactive to stop those situations from occuring. People are always going to be irresponsible and make silly mistakes, that's are nature; that doesn't mean we can't try to correct ourselves.
Nobody likes abortions, as you say, so it's time the Government did something to make sure less people get themselves into situations where they need to make one of the most harrowing decisions of their lives.
What I was referring to as not being as simple was not the act of using contraception to prevent pregnancy, but your contention that abortion is seen as a quick-fix solution for unwanted pregnancy!!! THAT is what I found so judgemental and paternalistic about your tone: in effect, you reduce women who have abortions to irresponsible, stupid whores, who are incapable of doing such a "simple" thing as ensuring they have contraception!
ReplyDeleteMethods of contraception do fail--I know at least one woman (who, incidentally, decided to keep her baby) who got pregnant while she was on the pill!!
Statements like, " Should people who make the rather stupid and easy to solve mistake of having unprotected sex be allowed to solve their problem by aborting their child?" are reductive, as oversimplify an exceedingly complex issue.
It must be nice to have that male privilege to help you see this issue so clearly! /sarcasm
I certainly would not call women who get unintentionally pregnant "whores".
ReplyDeleteI agree contraception can fail. And I agree that for lots of people abortion is not a quick-fix for an unwanted pregnancy. As I said there are plenty of valid reasons someone might have an abortion. I'm NOT suggesting that even a large minority of people are misusing our fairly liberal abortion laws.
However we know there are some people, male and female, who do use abortion as a quick fix. I'm certainly not looking at this from a "male perspective". Hence I don't single out women in any of my comments. After all abortion is not always solely a womans decision. Her husband/boyfriend or her family might pressure her into having an abortion, especially if she is young and confused.
This is not simply a womans issue. It takes two to make a baby and I resent the idea I'm being sexist.
All I've said is there are extremely irresponsible people out there who are unnecessarily having abortions because of a lack of sex education which is at such a poor level it's unbelievable. This is pushing the rate of abortions (and teenage pregnancies!) to a worryingly high level. And all I've suggested is an increase in education, not a ban nor curtailment of a womans right to choose.
200 000 abortions is a bloody high number, and I'm pretty sure there's leeway for reduction.
And your use of someone who had taken precautions does not take away from my simple statement that someone who does have unprotected sex is stupid. Everyone should have protection. That's not paternalistic. It's just a fact.
Jae, most people (including me) were born with some sort of privilege (whether that be being white, male, heterosexual, rich, etc., See this post, which takes as its subject white privilege, for a better explanation of privilege than I can give here) based on the way we are perceived superficially by society, and the advantages that are given to us accordingly. This privilege is one of the filters through which we we percieve the world around us and the injustices therein.
ReplyDeleteWhile I don't think you're sexist (while I didn't make reference to it in my comments, I did, in fact, take notice that you didn't refer to women specifically), I do think that your male privilege is affecting the way you see and write about the issue of abortion! You may have stats, etc., on which to formulate your opinion on the matter, but you're not going to fully understand abortion--let alone why I found your tone (again, it was your TONE! NOT so much WHAT you said) offensive/paternalistic!--because of your male privilege! You aren't at risk of getting pregnant; you are not the one who society faults for an unwanted pregnancy; you are not the one who society holds solely responsible for contraception (while I do feel that being accountable for one's own body means taking charge of contraception, society--at least here in North America--holds women to account in ways that it does not do for men.) I'm not saying that one can never understand an issue without empathy. What I am saying is that there are certain issues we're not capable of fully understanding unless we're on the opposite side of privilege--for example, my heterosexual privilege prevents me from really getting LGBT issues.
But privilege doesn't mean that we can't TRY to understand, or that we can't be advocates! The thing is, we need identify and own our privilege first; we need to realize that privilege can hinder our ability to empathize and, consequently, understand.
Jae, I apologize if I've offended you, but this is an issue about which I feel very strongly. The numbers are apalling, but there's more to abortion than numbers.
Anyway, seeing as we've already agreed to disagree and that I have to get ready for my grandfather's funeral home visitations and funeral, this is the last comment I'm going to post on this. Thanks for this!