Editorial: Contraceptives, not extremists, reduce abortion rates

[kpete]

Editorial: Contraceptives, not extremists, reduce abortion rates


From balancing the federal budget to improving the economy, politicians have no shortage of important issues to tackle. Yet some continue to fixate on uteruses. They never tire of talking about ways to limit access to abortion. Some don’t even want the procedure available to save a woman’s life....

The bottom line: Women are undergoing fewer abortions because they’re not getting pregnant in the first place. They are using birth control, including long-range contraception like intrauterine devices. They are receiving education and information about how to avoid unwanted pregnancies.

This important tidbit that should be recognized by anti-abortion zealots. Because Planned Parenthood, the very health provider they demonize and want defunded, is frequently the provider of this birth control and education. In fact, additional support and funding for its health clinics and programs could cut abortion rates even more.

............

There is a smart, little observation circulating on the Internet that sums up the absurdity of political priorities in this country. The unidentified author suggests treating every young man who wants to buy a gun like every woman seeking an abortion.

“Mandatory 48-hour waiting period, parental permission, a note from his doctor proving he understands what he’s about to do, a video he has to watch about the effects of gun violence, an ultrasound wand up the — (just because). Let’s close down all but one gun shop in every state and make him travel hundreds of miles, take time off work, and stay overnight in a strange town to get a gun. Make him walk thorough a gauntlet of people holding photos of loved ones who were shot to death, people who call him a murder and beg him not to buy a gun….”

It makes more sense to expose gun buyers to such requirements and harassment than women seeking a legal health procedure, the author asserts. “No woman getting an abortion has killed a room full of people in seconds, right?


MORE:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/editorials/2015/10/22/editorial-contraceptives-not-extremists-reduce-abortion-rates/74288410/?utm_campaign=FB&utm_medium=urlshortener&utm_source=nar.al