Pro-life blog buzz 2-11-14
by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN, and Kelli
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- Michael J. New believes other reasons may be behind the U.S.’s declining abortion rate:
Interestingly, none of these analysts [who claim increased contraception is the reason behind the decline] is willing to consider that shifts in public opinion on abortion may be playing a role. May of 2009 was the first time that a majority of Americans identified themselves as “pro-life” in a Gallup survey. “Pro-life” has outpolled “pro-choice” six out of nine times since the spring of 2009….Since the abortion rate is falling while the unintended-pregnancy rate is stable, a higher percentage of women facing unintended pregnancies are choosing to carry their children to term. Data from the Department of Health and Human Services support this, pro-lifers should take heart in it.
- Abstinence Clearinghouse notes that Memphis Planned Parenthood likes to place edgy billboards in places that shock people, like the one pictured, which is near a crosswalk for an elementary school:
Children reading these signs are being indoctrinated with a message that cannot protect them from pregnancy or STDs. The irony is Planned Parenthood promotes sexual adventures without discrimination and without promoting sex being reserved for marriage, while their purpose for creating the signs is to “prevent HIV and STD’s.”Let’s not forget that our these condoms come from our tax dollars sent to them from Washington.
- After Abortion lauds the work of Allan Parker, who founded The Center Against Forced Abortions as part of his work at the Texas Justice Foundation. If you or anyone you know is being coerced into an abortion, call (210) 614-7157 or email info@txjf.org.
- Americans United for Life is proud of the Oklahoma House Committee on Public Health’s “approv[al of] a perinatal hospice bill (OK HB 2685) to provide any woman seeking an abortion for an unborn child diagnosed with a fatal condition to be informed about perinatal hospice. It is partially based on Americans United for Life model legislation.” AUL notes, “Should Oklahoma enact this legislation, it will join Arizona, Kansas, and Minnesota as states that offer parents a compassionate response to a horrifying diagnosis.”
- Fletcher Armstong discusses the sidewalk outreach at the Passion Conference in Atlanta, which set out to encourage the 20K attendees to extend their passion to saving the most vulnerable among us – preborn children. The child of a woman in Nashville was even saved by the event, thanks to a cell phone and some pro-life graphics.
- Big Blue Wave says this Facebook meme (pictured below) posted by Secular Pro-Life exposes the weakness of the “miscarriages happen, so abortion is fine” argument.
Of course, abortion is also on the decline due to demographic factors. There are a decreasing number of fertile women and a decreasing number of people engaging in the reproductive act on a regular basis.
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Do you mean that our population is shrinking, Rachel? That wouldn’t really change the rates-per-thousand of unplanned pregnancies and abortions.
And do we really know that fewer people are having sex?
The study that has attracted so much attention lately has two very important facts:
1) The rate of unplanned pregnancies (around 20 per thousand women per year) increased slightly over the period of study — by about 2%.
2) The rate of women seeking abortion (again, # per thousand women per year) decreased 13% over the period.
More and better contraception should drop the unplanned pregnancy rate, but that increased. So we have to rule that out.
The three biggest changes that affect rates seem to be:
– New regulations that make abortion safer and help women to be better informed.
– Clinics that close because they are unsafe, or the abortionist is unqualified, or compliance with the safety regs make them unprofitable. It’s just not as easy or cheap to get the abortion.
– And just maybe, women are wanting less abortions.
Reasons why women want less abortion:
– Women have better education about the dangers of abortion,
– and accumulated cultural knowledge about the aftermath of abortion,
– and growing knowledge about the humanity of the child,
– and Gosnell & Karpen & Carhart have shown us the gritty reality of conditions in the abortion industry,
– and several women died last year from high-profile botched abortions,
– and the word is spreading about free help from pro-life Crisis Pregnancy Centers.
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The Secular Prolife graphic really hit the nail on the head. I have to congratulate them on a job well done.
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“Choose Life” license plates struck down in North Carolina:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/11/choose-life-license-plate_n_4768502.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000037
They would have been OK had the state not turned down opposing viewpoints.
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“They would have been OK had the state not turned down opposing viewpoints. ”
I do agree with you there. Both sides should be able to have their license plates or neither of them should. Censorship isn’t okay. You guys can have a “choose death” plate and we can have the “choose life”. :)
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identifed themselves as “pro-life”
Survey question –
“Do you think that we, as a society, consume too much alcohol?”
“Why yes, I do.”
“How much do you intend to cut your weekly consumption of alcohol by?”
“Um……”
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More alcohol, less sugar.
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Del:
You’re right that population changes would not have a particularly large affect on rates per thousand–except that if you are comparing a group of women ranging from 15-44 where the average age is, say 30, to a group of women with the same age range where the average age is 35 or so. It is very definite that the population is aging, and that aging is going to change fertility rates, even when apparently looking at “apples and apples.”
As for sexual activity. In terms of anecdotal evidence, I have seen pop culture increasingly move away from an interest in reproductive behavior in favor of “substitutes.” Whether pop culture drives behavior or vice versa is irrelevant, the two are related one way or the other.
In terms of statistical evidence, various universities conduct surveys of sexual activity every ten years. Such surveys were recently published out of both Japan and the UK showing a significant drop in reported sexual activity over the last 30 years. The drop was significant enough in Japan (already suffering from population decline and aging), that their government considers the survey results to reflect a serious problem. I would hardly be surprised if Americans statistics on the subject were in line with those of the UK, especially considering the increasing popularity of sexual abstinence among teens reported in American statistics and the increasing age of first marriage. Single people generally have less intercourse than married people (stereotypes aside), simply because they have less access to willing partners. And American cultural norms have a habit of following Europe a couple years behind.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/nov/26/britons-having-less-sex-recession-link-survey
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/30/japan-population-decline-youth-no-sex_n_1242014.html
http://kff.org/womens-health-policy/fact-sheet/sexual-health-of-adolescents-and-young-adults-in-the-united-states/
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I do not disagree with any of the data you give, Rachel (except for the HuffPo links, which I will not waste my time on for obvious reasons).
What we really want is data about the sexual habits of teens and college-agers, who buy most of the abortions. On one hand, the hook-up culture is still raging and seducing our kids into trouble. On the other hand, young people support pro-life more than middle-agers do (according to some polls, anyway).
Basic data: Abortions are down significantly. Unwed pregnancies are not.
This is good news, but we still have a lot of work to do.
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True Rachel, it’s important to note though that the best measure to see if Dr. New is right is the abortion ratio (the ratio of abortions to live-births), which has been down as well. You can see this clearly in the CDC numbers which have largely mirrored the drop in Guttmacher’s numbers, though a few states consistently refuse to provide any data. So, a larger proportion of women are choosing life.
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and several women died last year from high-profile botched abortions, – did they? I’d like to see the evidence.
teens and college-agers, who buy most of the abortions – that’s not what the data I’ve seen says. 18% up to the age of 20. 33% for 20-24 and 24% for 25-29. Also interesting to note that 61% already have one or more children.
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The real reason the abortion rate is down:
http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/editorial-access-to-sex-education-and-birth-control-yield-/article_ba446f15-bba3-519b-a190-2d0de5ab8cf7.html
And, the thing about 2009 when most people considered themselves “prolife”? Is that the reason less than 25% of people in this country want abortion outlawed in ALL cases? Can someone be “prolife” if they favor rape and incest exceptions?
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Does this mean all of you will now boycott Facebook?
http://samuel-warde.com/2014/02/zuckerberg-donates-992-million-charity-funds-planned-parenthood/
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And, the thing about 2009 when most people considered themselves “prolife”? Is that the reason less than 25% of people in this country want abortion outlawed in ALL cases? Can someone be “prolife” if they favor rape and incest exceptions?
Of course not, Merit. You’re not pro-life until you go through our investiture ceremony where we hand you your plaque and baby feet pins. After you pledge to hand out plastic fetuses instead of candy every Halloween. Being against 99% of the abortions that take place isn’t nearly enough.
Does this mean all of you will now boycott Facebook?
I never use Facebook anyway. Too creepy and time-consuming.
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The point, Navi, is that when the polls show most people claim to be “prolife” and half of them allow for exceptions, they truly aren’t “prolife”, are they?
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Merit: when the polls show most people claim to be “prolife” and half of them allow for exceptions, they truly aren’t “prolife”, are they?
There is more commonality between pro-lifers and pro-choicers than is usually noted. Yes, the exceptions are a meaningful point, but there is still the mainstream “pro-life” element, regardless if any exceptions (and how many) are made by the individual.
Even more meaningful, I think, are the pro-lifers who, when confronted with an unwanted pregnancy, choose to have an abortion. Anybody can say anything, or answer a poll in a given way, but a significant number of pro-lifers find that in their situation, an abortion may be for the best. The rate is less than for the population as a whole, to be sure – I think it’s about half – it ends up being 14 to 20%.
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Big Blue Wave says this Facebook meme posted by Secular Pro-Life exposes the weakness of the “miscarriages happen, so abortion is fine” argument.
I think what is exposed is a tendency to be illogical and generalize from the particular, as well as to put forth a straw man argument.
“Natural deaths don’t justify purposeful killing.”
Well, maybe, maybe not, but I don’t see that it necessarily matters. There would not have to be any associated “natural deaths” in the first place. The purposeful deaths would still remain, to be judged on their own merits; hence the straw man.
Furthermore, I don’t see anybody saying that the presence of “natural deaths” means that a purposeful killing in the same manner/of the same individuals is justified. For the most part, you don’t see people making that argument, because it’s far too general. With respect to specific situations, more are going to have people saying “no” than saying “yes,” and hence it’s a logical fallacy to lump the abortion debate in with any and all areas where it could be true.
As far as the situation of willful abortion, I don’t think the comparison to miscarriages is necessarily saying, “Thus abortion is justified.” There is more to it than that.
First and foremost, it’s asking a question – “how bad, really, is it?” An abortion has a life ending, certainly, and so does a failure-to-implant. Implantation failures occur all around us, all the time, in great numbers. Life is starting and ending all the time. For a woman or couple who wants to have kids, we can view such a failure as sad, but we are talking theoretically – they may not even know of it. It’s not unimaginably horrible. It’s a given, it happens all the time, it’s part and parcel of the human condition. None or almost none of the rest of us are even aware of it. It’s the fact that the same can be said for abortion that leads to discussion along such lines.
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