Let's start off by stating one very simple fact. Abortions are not good. They aren't evil, but they aren't good either. At the very least, it is an unnecessary medical procedure, and somewhere in the middle, it has a tremendous impact to the mother, both physically, and psychologically, and at the "Pro-Life" end, it is murder.
The Pro-Life arguement right now is similar to supply side economics, in that it doesn't work. If we criminalize abortion, then abortion will stop... Right? Doesn't follow. What we need to do is negatively stimulate demand... Lets make less people want abortions if we want to reduce the numbers of abortions. By the time an abortion is an option, its too late. Read on...
I think that we, as an individual people who either identifies as Pro-Life or Pro-Choice would like to see the number of abortions as close to zero as possible... The problem is that making abortion illegal doesn't necessarily achieve that goal, and that is something that we in this country knew at one time, and have since forgotten. Are there things we CAN do to get the number of abortions to zero? Sure, but so far, George W. Bush and the Republican congress has been doing nothing but gut social programs whose goal it was to reduce unwanted pregnancy. Have they proposed their own program to replace these? Nope. (Sorry, Abstinence contracts don't work!)
I worked with a gentleman, named Bob, who voted for Bush solely because he thought Bush would appoint Supremes who would overturn Roe v. Wade. Bob referred to abortions as a wholesale slaughter of babies. And he is perfectly entitled to this viewpoint. I've been spending a lot of time since the elections thinking about Bob, and people like him, and oddly, I think we have more in common on this issue than we have differences. And to me, the key difference is that he has been told, and believes that criminalizing abortion will stop abortion.
I believe that the way to stop abortion is through education and dialogue. Let's get birth control into the hands of sexually active people who aren't looking to conceive. Does this send the wrong message to young people? Let's ask this question another way. Are young people incredibly stupid? No. Does a Teen say, "You know, if some method of Birth Control were available to me, I'd want to have sex." Of course not.
We need to frame this issue better, the Republicans have been using it as a wedge issue, lets make it issue that can attract people to the Democratic Party. Being Pro-Life isn't a bad thing, and being Pro-Choice also isn't a bad thing. Lets be both. For those of you who are Pro-Choice, protecting the rights of women to chose is an admirable thing, but let us also work to reduce the number or abortions. For those of you who are Pro-Life, yes, human life is a precious thing; continue to not only value the child, but also the mother. Let's educate, let's get involved, and let's communicate. You must STOP criminalizing and vilifying. Instead, let try and reduce the demand for abortion.