How to Reduce Abortions in the United States

[Fantine]

Steve Waldman, the founder of Beliefnet.com, looks seriously at both parties' political positions and success in reducing abortion rates. His conclusions find fault with both approaches--and he suggests cooperation on the mutually acceptable initiatives that would reduce abortion rates. Some of the non-coercive means of reducing abortion--increasing payments for Women, Infants, and Children; improving male employment; sex education (including abstinence education, which could be supported by all faiths) all have been found to reduce abortions.

There is also discussion about how politics often trumps practicality in the pro-life movement. In order to keep the Catholic Church, it opposes contraception. In order to keep the evangelicals, it opposes all types of sex education. In order to keep the conservatives, it alleges that social programs lead to moral decline. The result is that you have a strong pro-life coalition so concerned about keeping all its component groups happy that many initiatives which would greatly reduce abortions are vetoed by one or another of the components.

The impact of overturning Roe v. Wade would not be great.

Joseph Wright, a visiting professor at Notre Dame, estimated that if abortion bans were enacted in states where a majority of the population is now pro life, that would lead to a 10% reduction in abortions nationally.
This is a possibility acknowledged by neither pro-life forces (which have placed all their eggs in the Roe basket) nor pro-choice forces (which like to cast such an event as doomsday).
So we’re left with this stunning possibility: a comprehensive abortion reduction agenda of the sort advocated by pro-life progressives could reduce abortions by twice as much as overturning Roe v Wade.
Read more at http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists...rats-reduce-abortion.html#jZMBbh82kwKMAqwo.99

I would like to see legislators of good faith work together on every aspect of reducing abortion that can be mutually agreed upon. It's a good start, and if they actually did start working together maybe a lot of the wild, mean-spirited accusations that prevail would end as they supported their goal.

 

[samir]

Steve Waldman, the founder of Beliefnet.com, looks seriously at both parties' political positions and success in reducing abortion rates. His conclusions find fault with both approaches--and he suggests cooperation on the mutually acceptable initiatives that would reduce abortion rates. Some of the non-coercive means of reducing abortion--increasing payments for Women, Infants, and Children; improving male employment; sex education (including abstinence education, which could be supported by all faiths) all have been found to reduce abortions.

There is also discussion about how politics often trumps practicality in the pro-life movement. In order to keep the Catholic Church, it opposes contraception. In order to keep the evangelicals, it opposes all types of sex education. In order to keep the conservatives, it alleges that social programs lead to moral decline. The result is that you have a strong pro-life coalition so concerned about keeping all its component groups happy that many initiatives which would greatly reduce abortions are vetoed by one or another of the components.

The impact of overturning Roe v. Wade would not be great.



I would like to see legislators of good faith work together on every aspect of reducing abortion that can be mutually agreed upon. It's a good start, and if they actually did start working together maybe a lot of the wild, mean-spirited accusations that prevail would end as they supported their goal.

The best way to stop abortion is to treat it as it really is - the cold-blooded murder of an innocent human being. If we outlaw abortion, charge women who abort their children with murder, and put them to death then the number of cold-blooded women murders who kill their children because they are an inconvenience to their lifestyle would drop dramatically and abortion would become practically nonexistent. It would create a culture of life where everyone is valued so the elderly and disabled wouldn't have to worry about pro-abortionists targeting them next by labeling them non-human beings who can legally be killed if they can't survive on their own.

Edit: This isn't about the death penalty. If you're opposed, life in prison would be an acceptable alternative.

 

[Mountain_Girl406]

Putting thousands of people to death always helps create a culture of life.

 

[Godlovesmetwo]

This old chestnut again. I suspect the ones most vocal about anti-abortion have never been truly tested. It's easy to hold the moral high ground, if you have never been faced with awful dilemmas.

 

[Godlovesmetwo]

so the elderly and disabled wouldn't have to worry about pro-abortionists targeting them next

slippery slope taken to extremes I fear........

 

[Shiloh Raven]

This old chestnut again. I suspect the ones most vocal about anti-abortion have never been truly tested. It's easy to hold the moral high ground, if you have never been faced with awful dilemmas.

QFT.

I suspect when something awful happens to them and they get knocked off their high horse, they might change their mind.

 

[samir]

Putting thousands of people to death always helps create a culture of life.

They wouldn't have an abortion if the penalty was death. I know that because it used to be legal and common for ungodly women to murder their children after they gave birth but after Christians fought and succeeded in making it illegal it hardly ever occurs anymore. That's why using the death penalty to deter ungodly women from murdering their husband's innocent children will create a culture of life because it sends the message that all life is valuable and will be treated with respect in the eyes of the law.

 

[samir]

Putting thousands of people to death always helps create a culture of life.

Putting thousands of ungodly women to death to save millions of innocent babies from being murdered in cold-blood is pro-life.

Immoral women wouldn't have an abortion if the penalty was death. I know that because it used to be legal and common for ungodly women to murder their children after they gave birth but after Christians fought and succeeded in making it illegal it hardly ever occurs anymore. That's why using the death penalty to deter ungodly women from murdering their husband's innocent children will create a culture of life because it sends the message that all life is valuable and will be treated with respect in the eyes of the law.

 

[Shiloh Raven]

They wouldn't have an abortion if the penalty was death. I know that because it used to be legal and common for ungodly women to murder their children after they gave birth but after Christians fought and succeeded in making it illegal it hardly ever occurs anymore. That's why using the death penalty to deter ungodly women from murdering their husband's innocent children will create a culture of life because it sends the message that all life is valuable and will be treated with respect in the eyes of the law.

If you honestly believed all life is valuable, then you would be against the death penalty. So, please stop with the hypocrisy.

 

[Shiloh Raven]

 

[samir]

If you honestly believed all life is valuable, then you would be against the death penalty. So, please stop with the hypocrisy.

God believes all life is valuable, yet he commanded Israel to impose the death penalty on certain crimes. So, please don't accuse God of hypocrisy.

 

[Shiloh Raven]

God believes all life is valuable, yet he commanded Israel to impose the death penalty on certain crimes. So please, stop accusing God of hypocrisy.

That is not believing all life is valuable. And I was speaking to you.

 

[tadoflamb]

This old chestnut again. I suspect the ones most vocal about anti-abortion have never been truly tested. It's easy to hold the moral high ground, if you have never been faced with awful dilemmas.

Being raised as an actual liberal, I used to be pro-choice. That all changed when I was in RCIA. I remember the day well. I was taking out a hedge that my neighbor had half killed, so I was angry, digging in the dirt and chopping through roots and having an argument with God.

It's interesting arguing with God. His voice comes up quietly from the heart, and it's impossible to argue against. It was then that I had a change of heart and learned that all life has dignity from conception to natural death.

It was also then that I learned that when I paid to have my own child murdered in his/her mother's womb during college and that, without repentance, my eternal destination was hell. I knew in my heart that God's judgement was fair and just and I had no problem with it.

I was brought up with what I call 'bad information'. I was taught that it was OK to have sex with women you had no intention of marrying or having children with just as long as you had a plan for if the woman got pregnant. Abortion was offered as a viable option.

As a Catholic, the right-to-life means sticking up for the least of these. As a liberal, for me, that always meant sticking up for the little guy, so the right-to-life is the ultimate liberal cause.

I'm grateful for Fantine and her consideration of other approaches for increasing the respect for the dignity of life. I'm sick to death of the political spectrum. As Catholics, the Church asks us to make an informed vote, but I still maintain, if we want to promote a culture that respects the dignity of life, we're going to have to find a way to do that in our daily lives and quit looking to politicians for an answer. As Catholics, we're enjoy a special position in which we can realize that goal.

 

[samir]

That is not believing all life is valuable. And I was speaking to you. I know the Old Testament and the slaughter of people that was recorded there, so I would not refer to the Old Testament or to the Bible in general to claim that all life is valuable.

I believe ALL life is valuable. Although I don't want to see anyone killed, I realize that putting a few murderers to death to prevent them from murdering millions of innocent people is the best way to preserve life. It's no different than the police killing an active shooter to prevent him from killing more people.

 

[Fantine]

I notice you don't mention the man! Kind of a glaring omission.

 

[Mountain_Girl406]

They wouldn't have an abortion if the penalty was death. I know that because it used to be legal and common for ungodly women to murder their children after they gave birth but after Christians fought and succeeded in making it illegal it hardly ever occurs anymore. That's why using the death penalty to deter ungodly women from murdering their husband's innocent children will create a culture of life because it sends the message that all life is valuable and will be treated with respect in the eyes of the law.

The majority of abortions in America are had by Christian women.
I might also note that as an unwed pregnant 19 year old many decades ago, I didn't choose abortion, despite it being legal. I chose adoption, not out of fear of punishment but because I thought it was the right thing to do. I also saw first hand the obstacles for women in crisis pregnancies that push them towards abortion and have worked since then to share my experience and help change the system that puts obstacles to keeping the baby or placing it for adoption in the path of the pregnant woman. All that without the threat of execution!

 

[Godlovesmetwo]

I used to be pro-choice

I'm not pro choice. I'm just anti holier than thou idealists who have never been thrown a curve ball in life.

 

[Fantine]

The best way to stop abortion is to treat it as it really is - the cold-blooded murder of an innocent human being. If we outlaw abortion, charge women who abort their children with murder, and put them to death then the number of cold-blooded women murders who kill their children because they are an inconvenience to their lifestyle would drop dramatically and abortion would become practically nonexistent. It would create a culture of life where everyone is valued so the elderly and disabled wouldn't have to worry about pro-abortionists targeting them next by labeling them non-human beings who can legally be killed if they can't survive on their own.

While I do not know you, and while my comment is general, it seems to me that only an exceptionally cold-blooded person could make a blanket judgment about the motives, trials, difficulties, and emotions of many thousands of women about whom the person has absolutely no knowledge.

I know you are acting out of your concern for the unborn babies--and perhaps you do not realize that your extremely misguided solution, if enacted, would leave millions of infants, toddlers, and children orphaned--since many women who have abortions already have children they love and care for. That would be just one side-effect of such a misguided solution--millions of orphans, weeping for their mother and cursing the heartless villains who enacted such a law.

 

[samir]

The majority of abortions in America are had by Christian women.

How can a person be a Christian murderer since a Christian is someone who follows Christ and murdering an innocent child is the exact opposite of what Christ taught?

I might also note that as an unwed pregnant 19 year old many decades ago, I didn't choose abortion, despite it being legal. I chose adoption, not out of fear of punishment but because I thought it was the right thing to do.

That's great. Unfortunately, not every women cares about the right thing to do. Some are so selfish they will kill an innocent person simply because they consider him/her an inconvenience.

I also saw first hand the obstacles for women in crisis pregnancies that push them towards abortion and have worked since then to share my experience and help change the system that puts obstacles to keeping the baby or placing it for adoption in the path of the pregnant woman. All that without the threat of execution!

That's great too. If we had the death penalty, you wouldn't have to work to convince them not to abort because they be so afraid of being put to death they'd keep the child.

 

[samir]

I notice you don't mention the man! Kind of a glaring omission.

An excellent point. It really is an outrage how a woman can murder another man's child without his knowledge or consent. It's about time we stand up for the rights of men who are fathers.