There's a pretty interesting article up on MSNBC right now:
Abortion rate at lowest point since 1976
I think the author misses the point, though. Yes abortions are down from 1976. However, it's important to note that
...for every 1,000 pregnancies that did not result in miscarriage in 2002, there were 242 abortions. This figure was 245 in 2000 and 280 in 1990.
242 out of every 1000. That's almost a quarter of all (non-miscarried) pregnancies that ended in an abortion. Anyone still claiming that abortion is not that common or that banning abortions will not adversely affect a HUGE number of women clearly has no idea what they're talking about
Six in 10 women who had abortions in 2002 were mothers. "Despite the common belief, women who have abortions and those who have children are not two separate groups," said Finer.
The majority -- 56 percent -- of women who terminate their pregnancies are in their twenties. Teenagers between 15 and 19 make up 19 percent of abortions, although this percentage has dropped substantially in recent years.
Not teenage, high school dropouts; not cold, unfeeling feminazis. Mature, adult mothers.
Women with unintended pregnancies are those most likely to get abortions. According to the Guttmacher report, 47 percent of unintended pregnancies are aborted.
Perhaps someone should show this report to the wingnuts screaming for restrictions on birth control.
Almost 90 percent of abortions are performed in the first trimester -- during the first 12 weeks after the first day of the woman's last menstrual period -- with most performed before nine weeks.
Less than 1 percent of abortions are done after 24 weeks.
So I'm guessing "partial-birth abortions" AREN'T as common as we were brought to believe they were.
I guess what I'm trying to get at here is that abortions aren't just something that a small number of women have to deal with. They're far, far more common than any of us think. In fact it's highly likely that someone you know well, or are related to, has had one.
43% of women will have had at least one abortion by the time they are 45 years old (this statistic includes miscarriages in the term "abortion").
Banning abortions will not change the way these women feel. It'll merely force them to find other, and probably more dangerous, ways to accomplish what they want. Does anyone really want their mother/sister/daughter to go through a back-alley abortion?
I'm glad the Guttmacher Institute is making an effort to collect this information, but it isn't enough. If there's any hope of getting pro-lifers to change their mind, it needs to be out there where they can read it. The MSNBC/Washington Post article is a start but we need to be doing more. We can argue about the definition of "life" and when it officially begins over and over and over without any success, but cold hard FACTS will help us more. Once people get it through their heads that women they know and love WILL be forced to make this choice, they'll be a lot less impassioned in their demands for a ban. And a lot more likely to support the contraception which will prevent them from ending up in that position.
Abstract principles are all well and good until you're forced to reconcile them with the real world. Let's give these people a reality check.