Afterschool Special Installment
Facts that the Family Research Council, et al., will conveniently ignore, in the Times today. Apparently forcing young women to tell their parents they want an abortion does not reduce abortion rates.
Some excerpts:
Abortion rates have been dropping nationwide since the mid-1980's, most precipitously for teenagers. But in three states — Arizona, Idaho and Tennessee — the percentage of pregnant minors who had abortions rose slightly after the consent laws went into effect....
Of the remaining decline in teenage abortion rates in the Times study, Dr. Joyce said that some of it might be attributed to minors going out of state for abortions. The health departments in these states do not track data on such abortions, but in three previous studies of states where such data were available, completed before 1991, two found that any drop in minors' abortions was matched by an increase in minors getting abortions out of state....
But providers interviewed in 10 states with parental involvement laws all said that of the minors who came into their clinics, parents were more often the ones pushing for an abortion, even against the wishes of their daughters.
The point being, abortions will be had no matter how the pro-life movement tries to prevent it. Perhaps those in the pro-life movement are--wildly?--out of touch with the hearts and minds, as they might put it, of those who choose abortion. But those in the pro-life movement would probably describe the above as "facts," the better to keep selling their sex-panicked hysteria as "arguments".
Some excerpts:
Abortion rates have been dropping nationwide since the mid-1980's, most precipitously for teenagers. But in three states — Arizona, Idaho and Tennessee — the percentage of pregnant minors who had abortions rose slightly after the consent laws went into effect....
Of the remaining decline in teenage abortion rates in the Times study, Dr. Joyce said that some of it might be attributed to minors going out of state for abortions. The health departments in these states do not track data on such abortions, but in three previous studies of states where such data were available, completed before 1991, two found that any drop in minors' abortions was matched by an increase in minors getting abortions out of state....
But providers interviewed in 10 states with parental involvement laws all said that of the minors who came into their clinics, parents were more often the ones pushing for an abortion, even against the wishes of their daughters.
The point being, abortions will be had no matter how the pro-life movement tries to prevent it. Perhaps those in the pro-life movement are--wildly?--out of touch with the hearts and minds, as they might put it, of those who choose abortion. But those in the pro-life movement would probably describe the above as "facts," the better to keep selling their sex-panicked hysteria as "arguments".
posted by Humorless Feminist at 14:25
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