The New York Times Agrees with Planned Parenthood: Prevention Works

Should policies aimed at reducing the number of abortions focus on prevention or punishment?  At Planned Parenthood, the answer has always been a no-brainer.

The best way to reduce the number of abortions is through policies that prevent unintended pregnancies — policies, for example, that support medically accurate sex education and expand access to birth control.  

Punishing women who have unintended pregnancies by restricting access to reproductive health care does nothing to reduce the number of abortions — it just makes them less safe.  

In a recent editorial, the New York Times let the world know it agrees.  Drawing data from the Guttmacher Institute’s 14th census of abortion providers, the Times gave a clear snapshot of the rate of abortion in the United States, arguing that if more were done to prevent unintended pregnancy, the abortion rate would be even lower still.  

Singling out states that have the largest declines in abortion rates — California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Washington, and the District of Columbia — the Times made a direct correlation between a decline in the number of abortions and the state’s commitment to comprehensive sexuality education and access to birth control:

The lesson: prevention works. Restrictions on abortion serve mainly to hurt poor women by postponing abortions until later in pregnancy.

The Times has clearly caught on to Planned Parenthood’s commonsense message about pregnancy prevention.  Let’s hope it’s not too long before our nation’s policymakers do.

•  You Know, It's For Forward Looking...

  ...or maybe not even "forward looking" in some grand way, but merely basic, banal COMMON SENSE policies like these that make me glad I live in Massachusetts.

  If certain other states--even doing a cold and calculating cost-benefit analysis--that are particularly uncomfortable with abortion would deal with reality and help foster practical pregnancy prevention measures, the thing they REALLY hate would be less common.  Or do they hate the fact people have sex as much as the fact that abortions occur?  I really can't tell sometimes.

  by dyrrachium on Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 03:10:43 PM PDT

•  It is time for some common sense....

  people need to quit listening to AND VOTING FOR these screwheads that want to punish women for being human.

  If men could have children, there would be birth control or morning after pills on every stinking corner.

  by importer on Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 03:10:47 PM PDT

  •  And there would be no stigma attached

    and no information denied.

    by Partially Impartial on Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 03:14:20 PM PDT

  •  Those People Regard NYT As The Satan Daily

    and they are fine with the results of abstinence.

    This is religious war and the leadership both Protestant and Catholic do not accept suggestions or data.

    by Gooserock on Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 03:14:53 PM PDT

  •  Betty Friedan said that

    it would be a sacrament. And she's right.

    by Indexer on Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 03:17:53 PM PDT

•  Denying children full and accurate

  information on sex is backwards and misguided.  

  The idea that proper sex education (or an HPV vaccine) will hurt our children more than the consequences the lack of such an education (or vaccine) often lead to makes me so mad.

  by Partially Impartial on Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 03:12:06 PM PDT

  •  Children NEED to be educated

    about sex so they can make smart choices about their body & their relationships. There is nothing anti-religion about teaching our kids how their hormones & reproductive systems work. They have to be taught that sex isn't this attractively mysterious forbidden thing that no one dares talk about. It is part of being human, & it has significant benefits & significant risks (preventable and otherwise). The less they think of it as just another harmless thing their old fogey folks don't want them to do, the more they'll be able to think rationally about it IMHO :)

    by forestgreen on Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 04:35:13 PM PDT

•  Nice antidote to...

  the eye-rolling anti-choice claim, despite evidence, that the abortion decline is due to their abstinence campaigns, and their attempts to promote shame and stigma around abortion. Just anti-choice lies compounded on more anti-choice lies!

  Thanks Planned Parenthood, for being in the proven successful business of preventing unintended pregnancies.

  by choice joyce on Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 03:15:41 PM PDT

  •  Planned Parenthood has had to suffer a lot

    for standing up for common sense and decency.

    by hairspray on Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 06:56:59 PM PDT

•  Examples of pro-abstinence lies

  From my first-hand experience (not all directly pertain to sex, which goes to show how generally inaccurate education which emphasizes abstinence is):

  *Condoms are 80-85% effective
  *Every family fits into one of six classifications: nuclear, single-parent, mixed, and others which I can't even remember (a pointless set of delineations in the first place). To this idea I respond with one word: polyamory.
  *Most -- this was the word used -- teenagers who have sex go on to suffer feelings of shame and guilt
  *The teacher, when talking about following "your own values," just assumed that any valid value-set would frown upon sex. My own values hold sex in high esteem, thank you very much.

  by arainsb123 on Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 03:16:53 PM PDT

•  Jimmy Carter resigned from the Southern

  Baptist Convention in 2000 and one of his reasons for doin so was the SBC's policy of subjecting women.  In the Baptist Faith and Message, their Constitution, women are required to submit to the husband.  Does this male superior, female inferior, attitude affect prevention?  It seems to me that young girls would grow up believing that they are supposed to yield to the wishes of men.

  by hestal on Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 03:30:21 PM PDT

  •  It is that old time religion that takes the

    personal power away from them leading them to believe that they are following bible teachings. Research has shown that it is these girls who are most likely to get pregnant because they could not think proactively about the consequences of sex.

    by hairspray on Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 06:59:48 PM PDT

•  One more chink in the armor

  of the "pro-life" fallacy, which has always substituted hatred and self-righteousness for serious, careful thought about life as human beings actually live it in society. Good for the NYT and Planned Parenthood.

  by scardanelli on Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 03:31:23 PM PDT