ABORTION
as a LAST RESORT !
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Abstinence is one way of avoiding
teenager pregnancies. Sexual education is another.
We live in a society that indulges on anything that
would cause instant gratification (sex, cigarettes, drugs, alcohol),
even when the pleasurable effects are temporary. Often with
disregard of the long term consequences. Some would pay dearly,
others get scarred for life. I do not even kill flies, and I
walk cautiously to avoid stepping on ants. So I
have difficulty saying that I am pro-choice.
But I am, only because, I do not have
religious taboos,
and I am compassionate when I see people in
distress. |
 | With an Anti-choice President in the White
House, opponents of women rights have a distressing opportunity to
undermine the choice and reproductive freedom in this country.
Legislation has been introduced by Congressman Lindsey Graham and Senator
Mike DeWine to protect the so-called "rights of the unborn".
If this bill ("Unborn Victims of Violence Act") were to be enacted
it would grant an embryo special protection under the law, giving the
embryo the same rights as the woman carrying it. The title of
the bill has been chosen very smartly. The intent of this bill -no doubt- is
to challenge once again the foundation of Roe versus Wade.
The bill passed the House, and it is on its way to the Senate.
Obviously there will not be a veto by the President. Pro-choice
Americans are indeed the majority, but that does not mean much when our
system is being smartly manipulated by a well organized -and very active-
religious right wing. They are committed to take control of women's
choices. Since 1995 Congress voted 139 times to restrict
reproductive rights. Pro-choice lost all but 24. Freedom
loving Citizens, please beware! |
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| Abortion is probably the most difficult decision
that a person might have to face in her life. I do not think religion should
dictate how to go about it. It is my strong belief that each person
should have the right to make her/his own decision on this.
And for the rest of us, if we
have any compassion at all in our hearts, we should support that person as
much as possible not making things more difficult than they already are. |
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| If this medical procedure were to be needed,
in principle should not be treated differently than any other procedure covered by the universal
medical plan of every citizen (topic covered on a page of this website), as painful as this might be to
all of us who are taxpayers. |
| However, although
this position in principle may sound fair to many of us, in
practice I am sure it will not be found fair to those many religious
individuals -probably the large majority- on this country of us.
After all, they have a right to request that their tax contributions are not to
be used to do malevolent things (from their perspective), what they can not tolerate based on
their faith and beliefs. It is for that reason, that I would
not support these procedures to be paid with public moneys. It is then necessary
that those of us who strongly believe in freedom of choice do charitable support to
those institutions who try help these women in such a difficult predicament. |
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| MORE
FUNDING OF FAMILY PLANNING IS NEEDED.- Yearly, there are about 6.3
million pregnancies. Nearly
half of those pregnancies (3.1 million) are unintended, and the outcome is
sad: 1.5 million births without joy, and 1.6 million abortions.
We lead the Western World in
teenager's pregnancies. Every year one in nine young
women become pregnant. About half of them have the baby. Yes, abstinence is one way
to avoid
teenager pregnancies. Sexual education and Family
Planning are others. And if we want to open our eyes, given the
values and circumstances of our modern society, those latter options are
much more realistic. |
| And yet -when
adjusted for inflation- Title X has suffered reduced
allocations for the last two decades. It is our Federally funded
Family Planning (contraceptive services) that has averted 1.3 million
unintended pregnancies (and 600,000 abortions) each year in America.
Of these unintended pregnancies 380,000 would have been teenager's
pregnancies (which would have ended in 180,000 abortions).
Moreover, 350,000 averted pregnancies would have been to unmarried
woman, that would have increased the total out-of-wedlock births by 25
percent. If all publicly
funded Family Planning were to be eliminated, the number of abortions in the
USA it is estimated would increase by 40%, to 2.24
million per year. |
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