South Dakota abortion ban

[dreamer_easy]

Not everyone will care to wade through the Christian- and Republican-bashing at www.fucksouthdakota.com. However, the satirical essay there links to some important facts, so as a public service, here's a summary of them, with my comments.

Firstly, the simple fact: banning abortion does not work. Wealthy women will pay for comparatively safe illegal abortions; poor and minority women will try self-induced procedures or risk back-alley abortions. Prior to Roe v Wade, there were hundreds of thousands of abortions annually in the US.

Unsafe abortions killed hundreds or thousands of American women each year; they continue to kill thousands of women in Latin America. It's difficult to grasp numbers like that, but a personal story from a grieving mother brings it home, hard.

An essay from Common Dreams challenges the claim that women have abortions merely for "convenience". If this were so, millions of women worldwide would not risk their lives each year in unsafe abortions. Another challenge to this claim comes from the anecotal reports of anti-choice people, including committed activists, seeking abortions for themselves or their daughters; surely they were motivated by much more than "convenience".

How then to reduce the number of abortions? Comprehensive sex education and access to sexual health services, including the Pill and the Morning After Pill, are essential to preventing unwanted pregnancies. Anti-rape education for both sexes, and access to the Morning After Pill for rape survivors, is also crucial to prevent thousands of abortions each year. The South Dakota ban tackles the problem from the wrong end.

For a quick and eye-opening rundown on US statistics, see Women Who Have Abortions.

Comments

[hnpcc]

Thanks for the links, particularly the anecdotal anti-choice stories. Bizarre.

Don't know if you've seen it or not, but the Good Weekend magazine in The Age and SMH has a story on the doctor who first stood up to the backyard abortions in Victoria. The statistic that really got to me was that pre-antibiotics there was a death from post-abortion complications per week at the Royal Women's Hospital and the hospital had an entire ward devoted to post-abortion cases.

I really, really hope that we never go back to backyard abortions.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Whether or not the clinic eventuates, that lady kicks ass.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[ex-benpayne119.livejournal.com]

Sadly, my impression is that the lack of focus on contraception is ideological, rather than based in ignorance. Sadly it seems that the choice betwee abstinence and dangerous, life-threatening illegal abortions is exactly what certain members of the right think the choice should be...

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

one happy fact out of the stats is that the teenagers who sign up for the "silver ring" celibacy programs (that are increasingly popular over in the states) are the ones who have the highest teen pregnancy and STD rates - the reason being that they dont go to the sex ed classes so they're completely unprepared when almost inevitably, they break their vows of chastity before marriage...

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

Well I wouldn't call it a "happy fact" but the interesting thing is in many places the abstinence shtick results in oral and anal sex being done instead -- with no protection used against STD's (back to that misinformation thing). But hey, they never broke their vows! Those girls are still virgins...

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

i was being bitterly sarcastic about it being a happy fact *shrugs*

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

Sadly it seems that the choice betwee abstinence and dangerous, life-threatening illegal abortions is exactly what certain members of the right think the choice should be...

This is the sticking point. Public health arguments, like the one I posted in another comment, aren't going to persuade these people because from their perspective, public health funds shouldn't pay for the consequences of promiscuity. Oh, no, it's MUCH better for a single woman below the poverty line to have to cope with the dangers of pregnancy (and you know she won't get the same quality of prenatal care as someone with money/a good health insurance policy) and attempt to raise a kid on her own with no money and no support.

The people who say "Well, she should've thought of that before she had sex" have obviously never made an impulse decision they later regretted IN THEIR LIVES.

Grr.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

The stories of anti-choice people seeking abortions are fascinating - some are terrible hypocrites, but others were simply naive, and have learned the hard way what an unwanted pregnancy means.

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

You might also be interested in this:

The Public Health Impact of Legal Abortion: 30 Years Later (http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3502503.html)

Not that I expect this to convince people who think the HPV vaccine shouldn't be administered because it'll make women have more sex zomg.

[purplepooka.livejournal.com]

On a related note, Funny cartoon with cool protest idea for those who live in the states (http://community.livejournal.com/anarchists/1614267.html).

[richardjgrayson.livejournal.com]

Friend of mine pointed me at this rant a couple days back - pretty vitriolic, but contains a lot of referential links to back it up.

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=31250