9 Reasons Planned Parenthood Thinks Women Need Abortion
I am in green
1. Laws against abortion kill women.
To prohibit abortions does not stop them. When women feel it is absolutely necessary, they will choose to have abortions, even in secret, without medical care, in dangerous circumstances. In the two decades before abortion was legal in the U.S., it's been estimated that nearly a million women per year sought out illegal abortions. Thousands died. Tens of thousands were mutilated. All were forced to behave as if they were criminals.
What about the women who die today from "safe, legal abortions"? What about the fact that the numbers of deaths from illegal abortions were fabricated? Why are we taking the attitude that "well, of course women will have abortions!" rather than "what can we do to stop women from feeling compelled to abortion"? For a "progressive thinker" such as planned parenthood this is pretty pathetic.
2. Legal abortions protect women's health.
Legal abortion not only protects women's lives, it also protects their health. For tens of thousands of women with heart disease, kidney disease, severe hypertension, sickle-cell anemia and severe diabetes, and other illnesses that can be life-threatening, the availability of legal abortion has helped avert serious medical complications that could have resulted from childbirth. Before legal abortion, such women's choices were limited to dangerous illegal abortion or dangerous childbirth.
Hence the exception for the life of the mother. I would gladly include health as well if I was convinced that it wouldn't be used to allow the abortion of a 30 week fetus to a mother whose "mental health" was damaged by the finding that her child's nose looked a bit too much like his jerk of a fathers.
3. A woman is more than a fetus.
There's an argument these days that a fetus is a "person" that is "indistinguishable from the rest of us" and that it deserves rights equal to women's. On this question there is a tremendous spectrum of religious, philosophical, scientific, and medical opinion. It's been argued for centuries. Fortunately, our society has recognized that each woman must be able to make this decision, based on her own conscience. To impose
a law defining a fetus as a "person," granting it rights equal to or superior to a woman's ³ a thinking, feeling, conscious human being ³ is arrogant and absurd. It only serves to diminish women.
Exactly! Just like the argument about if blacks were people or jews or...oh wait...
4. Being a mother is just one option for women.
Many hard battles have been fought to win political and economic equality for women. These gains will not be worth much if reproductive choice is denied. To be able to choose a safe, legal abortion makes many other options possible. Otherwise an accident or a rape can end a woman's economic and personal freedom.
No, abortion has ruined women's chance at equality. Employers do not respect women who choose parenthood because they know that she could havchosenen abortion and thus helped the company. Companies see no reason to improvbenefitsts and childcare for mothers because they know at least half of their female employees will choose abortion. The "choice" has hurt any woman who chooses to keep her child and has mosdefiantlyly hurt women who feecompelleded to abort. Our society tells women that they can not be accepted "as is" (with baby making included) and must kill their children in order to enter a mans world. How is this good for women?
5. Outlawing abortion is discriminatory.
Anti-abortion laws discriminate against low-income women, who are driven to dangerous self-induced or back-alley abortions. That is all they can afford. But the rich can travel wherever necessary to obtain a safe abortion.
Right just like rich criminals often get away with their crimes while the poor sit in jail. This means we should legalize murder, theft, and any other crime right?
6. Compulsory pregnancy laws are incompatible with a free society.
If there is any matter which is personal and private, then pregnancy is it. There can be no more extreme invasion of privacy than requiring a woman to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term. If government is permitted to compel a woman to bear a child, where will government stop? The concept is morally repugnant. It violates traditional American ideas of individual rights and freedoms.
Being a parent means giving up some of your rights in order to not neglect your child. I no longer have complete "right to privacy" if my son comes into my bedroom at 4 am throwing up and needing a doctor. To lock my door and allow him to suffer would be neglect. I do not have the right to autonomy when I am obligated to allow my son into my home. Sure I could make him sleep on the lawn, but that would be neglect and that is illegal.
If I refuse these duties I must find a safe alternative. Just because I no longer want to take care of my sodoesn'tnt mean I don't have to. If there is no safe alternative I must wait until one exits. During a pregnancy there is no "safe alternative". That doesn't mean I can kill my child, but rather means I must stick it out and wait for a "safe alternative" to present itself (i.e give birth and adopt out). Yes it is unfortunate, but I can not neglect my child and I most certainly can not kill my child.
7. Outlaw abortion, and more children will bear children.
Forty percent of 14-year-old girls will become pregnant before they turn 20. This could happen to your daughter or someone else close to you. Here are the critical questions: Should the penalty for lack of knowledge or even for a moment's carelessness be enforced pregnancy and childrearing? Or dangerous illegal abortion? Should we consign a teenager to a life sentence of joblessness, hopelessness, and dependency?
Oh how hopeless the world is. Obviously if abortion is taken away teenagers will all live hopeless lives and there is nothing we can do about it. Seriously, this doesn't even deserve a response...But in the spirit of rebuttal- First of all, if abortion was taken away it is quitlikelyly that teens would be a bit more careful about sex. If the opportunity costs rise, teens think twice. Secondly, even if they didn't think twice, an explosion in teen birth would mean we as a society must do everything we can taccommodatete these teens and their children and ensure their prosperity. Better alternative learning and childcare would be a great start.
8. "Every child a wanted child."
If women are forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, the result is unwanted children. Everyone knows they are among society's most tragic cases, often uncared-for, unloved, brutalized, and abandoned. When they grow up, these children are often seriously disadvantaged, and sometimes inclined toward brutal behavior to others. This is not good for children, for families, or for the country. Children need love and families who want and will care for them.
"Every unwanted child a dead child." Interestingly most abused children were "wanted children" and post abortive women have a 144% higher chance of being abusive than their non abortive peers. Also, please show me how this "wanted child" generation has been better or more successful than any previous generation.
9. Choice is good for families.
Even when precautions are taken, accidents can and do happen. For some families, this is not a problem.
But for others, such an event can be catastrophic. An unintended pregnancy can increase tensions, disrupt stability, and push people below the line of economic survival. Family planning is the answer. All options must be open. At the most basic level, the abortion issue is not really about abortion. It is about the value of women in society. Should women make their own decisions about family, career, and how to live their lives? Or should government do that for them? Do women have the option of deciding when or whether to have children? Or is that a government decision?
What kind of family value is being issued when a mother and father decide that they do not want to accept responsibility and instead look for a "quick fix"? What sort of positive impact will the decision to kill their child have on their relationship? How will the knowledge of a parents abortion impact a child and her future decision making skills?
If our society truly "valued women" we woulbelieveve that the deserve far better than abortion. Abortion turns women into sex toys and demeans their verfemininityiy. Abortion tells women that without abortion they can not achieve their dreams. Is this really what we call pro-women?
1. Laws against abortion kill women.
To prohibit abortions does not stop them. When women feel it is absolutely necessary, they will choose to have abortions, even in secret, without medical care, in dangerous circumstances. In the two decades before abortion was legal in the U.S., it's been estimated that nearly a million women per year sought out illegal abortions. Thousands died. Tens of thousands were mutilated. All were forced to behave as if they were criminals.
What about the women who die today from "safe, legal abortions"? What about the fact that the numbers of deaths from illegal abortions were fabricated? Why are we taking the attitude that "well, of course women will have abortions!" rather than "what can we do to stop women from feeling compelled to abortion"? For a "progressive thinker" such as planned parenthood this is pretty pathetic.
2. Legal abortions protect women's health.
Legal abortion not only protects women's lives, it also protects their health. For tens of thousands of women with heart disease, kidney disease, severe hypertension, sickle-cell anemia and severe diabetes, and other illnesses that can be life-threatening, the availability of legal abortion has helped avert serious medical complications that could have resulted from childbirth. Before legal abortion, such women's choices were limited to dangerous illegal abortion or dangerous childbirth.
Hence the exception for the life of the mother. I would gladly include health as well if I was convinced that it wouldn't be used to allow the abortion of a 30 week fetus to a mother whose "mental health" was damaged by the finding that her child's nose looked a bit too much like his jerk of a fathers.
3. A woman is more than a fetus.
There's an argument these days that a fetus is a "person" that is "indistinguishable from the rest of us" and that it deserves rights equal to women's. On this question there is a tremendous spectrum of religious, philosophical, scientific, and medical opinion. It's been argued for centuries. Fortunately, our society has recognized that each woman must be able to make this decision, based on her own conscience. To impose
a law defining a fetus as a "person," granting it rights equal to or superior to a woman's ³ a thinking, feeling, conscious human being ³ is arrogant and absurd. It only serves to diminish women.
Exactly! Just like the argument about if blacks were people or jews or...oh wait...
4. Being a mother is just one option for women.
Many hard battles have been fought to win political and economic equality for women. These gains will not be worth much if reproductive choice is denied. To be able to choose a safe, legal abortion makes many other options possible. Otherwise an accident or a rape can end a woman's economic and personal freedom.
No, abortion has ruined women's chance at equality. Employers do not respect women who choose parenthood because they know that she could havchosenen abortion and thus helped the company. Companies see no reason to improvbenefitsts and childcare for mothers because they know at least half of their female employees will choose abortion. The "choice" has hurt any woman who chooses to keep her child and has mosdefiantlyly hurt women who feecompelleded to abort. Our society tells women that they can not be accepted "as is" (with baby making included) and must kill their children in order to enter a mans world. How is this good for women?
5. Outlawing abortion is discriminatory.
Anti-abortion laws discriminate against low-income women, who are driven to dangerous self-induced or back-alley abortions. That is all they can afford. But the rich can travel wherever necessary to obtain a safe abortion.
Right just like rich criminals often get away with their crimes while the poor sit in jail. This means we should legalize murder, theft, and any other crime right?
6. Compulsory pregnancy laws are incompatible with a free society.
If there is any matter which is personal and private, then pregnancy is it. There can be no more extreme invasion of privacy than requiring a woman to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term. If government is permitted to compel a woman to bear a child, where will government stop? The concept is morally repugnant. It violates traditional American ideas of individual rights and freedoms.
Being a parent means giving up some of your rights in order to not neglect your child. I no longer have complete "right to privacy" if my son comes into my bedroom at 4 am throwing up and needing a doctor. To lock my door and allow him to suffer would be neglect. I do not have the right to autonomy when I am obligated to allow my son into my home. Sure I could make him sleep on the lawn, but that would be neglect and that is illegal.
If I refuse these duties I must find a safe alternative. Just because I no longer want to take care of my sodoesn'tnt mean I don't have to. If there is no safe alternative I must wait until one exits. During a pregnancy there is no "safe alternative". That doesn't mean I can kill my child, but rather means I must stick it out and wait for a "safe alternative" to present itself (i.e give birth and adopt out). Yes it is unfortunate, but I can not neglect my child and I most certainly can not kill my child.
7. Outlaw abortion, and more children will bear children.
Forty percent of 14-year-old girls will become pregnant before they turn 20. This could happen to your daughter or someone else close to you. Here are the critical questions: Should the penalty for lack of knowledge or even for a moment's carelessness be enforced pregnancy and childrearing? Or dangerous illegal abortion? Should we consign a teenager to a life sentence of joblessness, hopelessness, and dependency?
Oh how hopeless the world is. Obviously if abortion is taken away teenagers will all live hopeless lives and there is nothing we can do about it. Seriously, this doesn't even deserve a response...But in the spirit of rebuttal- First of all, if abortion was taken away it is quitlikelyly that teens would be a bit more careful about sex. If the opportunity costs rise, teens think twice. Secondly, even if they didn't think twice, an explosion in teen birth would mean we as a society must do everything we can taccommodatete these teens and their children and ensure their prosperity. Better alternative learning and childcare would be a great start.
8. "Every child a wanted child."
If women are forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, the result is unwanted children. Everyone knows they are among society's most tragic cases, often uncared-for, unloved, brutalized, and abandoned. When they grow up, these children are often seriously disadvantaged, and sometimes inclined toward brutal behavior to others. This is not good for children, for families, or for the country. Children need love and families who want and will care for them.
"Every unwanted child a dead child." Interestingly most abused children were "wanted children" and post abortive women have a 144% higher chance of being abusive than their non abortive peers. Also, please show me how this "wanted child" generation has been better or more successful than any previous generation.
9. Choice is good for families.
Even when precautions are taken, accidents can and do happen. For some families, this is not a problem.
But for others, such an event can be catastrophic. An unintended pregnancy can increase tensions, disrupt stability, and push people below the line of economic survival. Family planning is the answer. All options must be open. At the most basic level, the abortion issue is not really about abortion. It is about the value of women in society. Should women make their own decisions about family, career, and how to live their lives? Or should government do that for them? Do women have the option of deciding when or whether to have children? Or is that a government decision?
What kind of family value is being issued when a mother and father decide that they do not want to accept responsibility and instead look for a "quick fix"? What sort of positive impact will the decision to kill their child have on their relationship? How will the knowledge of a parents abortion impact a child and her future decision making skills?
If our society truly "valued women" we woulbelieveve that the deserve far better than abortion. Abortion turns women into sex toys and demeans their verfemininityiy. Abortion tells women that without abortion they can not achieve their dreams. Is this really what we call pro-women?
Posted by Lauren at
4:19 PM
3 Comments:
Amen. :)
By
Sprittibee, at 6:00 PM
I want to address the illogical inconsistency of PP's argument about the fetus. It says "giving rights equal or superior to a woman is absurd" but that "there are a wide range of philosophical and religious opinions on this." Well, which is it? That acknowledging fetal rights is absurd, or that people have many opinions? Are those of us who believe in fetal equality suppose to just stand by and pretend like it's all relative? What they're really saying is: there's a diversity of opinion, and the only one that's acceptable is that unborn children are not equals.
By
Suzanne, at 6:09 PM
Forty percent of 14-year-old girls will become pregnant before they turn 20.
This is ridiculous! This statistic makes no sense! If the 14-year-olds will get pregnant before they're 20, that means they're no longer 14, right? They're 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19 when they get pregnant.
Oh my gosh...how insipid.
By
Fredi, at 1:34 PM
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