According to the Guttmacher Institute the U.S. abortion rate has declined to its lowest level since 1974, the year after Roe v. Wade was decided. In 2005, the rate was 19.4 abortions per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44. The absolute number has gone down as well, to 1.2 million abortions in 2005, which is 25 percent fewer than the high of 1.6 million abortions in 1990.
The Guttmacher Institute notes, however, that more than one in five pregnancies still ended in abortion in 2005. The main reason for the decline is that so many clinics and so many doctors have been frightened into closing down. One might hope that the decline has something to do with the sensible spread of birth control. Unfortunately, I fear it presages a return to the back streets, the rusty razor blade and septicemia. May their god help those responsible if this is so.
Nobody, absolutely nobody, likes the idea of abortion. On that we can all agree. On the one hand, to insist on a raped young woman being forced to take a child to term is obscene. The anti-abortion people are often quite content to sit back in safety and watch while innocent children are killed by American bombs from the sky and to support the death penalty. On the other hand, some treat abortion as a normal means of family planning, and this is equally unacceptable when there are better means of achieving the same result.. Can someone suggest some form of compromise between the two extreme positions of Chioce vs. Pro-Life. Somehow we need to have an ethical answer that some will grumble about but accept, so that we can move on from the vitriol. to be sure, the most important thing is to bring a child into the world in an atmosphere of security and love.
I wonder if RU-482 has been available long enough to have its impact measured. Too, perhaps someday a better vocabulary will replace the false dichotomy of “life” vs. “choice.” One fact is beyond dispute: there will be unwanted pregnancies and the heavier burden will borne by the woman but society as a whole has an interest in the outcome.
Am I imagining it, or is it mainly men, who don’t have to bear and rear the babies, who are most vociferous about abortion? Maybe that’s unfair, but it is certainly men who have turned to terrorism – – one life for another, they claim.
I think everyone should be very careful about RU-482 for the foreseeable future. I understand that it might have some unpleasant and unforeseen affects on women. Since we no longer have an effective government department protecting our health, all drugs should be used with care. We are at the mercy of corner-cutters who can no longer be trusted. This government, for ideological reasons, has cut funding for drug research and oversight. I think it should be indicted in Court for it and the people responsible should serve 20 years, but then the welfare of the population is the last thing this government cares about.
Thanks, SuzyR, I agree completely with your assessment about a government unmoored from its most basic responsibilities towards the citizenry, the most vulnerable people, of course, always suffer the most.
I agree, too, that the legal system must hold offenders accountable otherwise there’s no rational government possible which means, inevitably, that force and extremism dominate public life.
What the US should be doing is to put a massive amount on money into research into ways of avoiding the worst of climate change and become world leaders, not followers. There’s a new industry out there waiting to be developed! Money to be made. Other countries are ahead of us. Instead of whining and driving our SUVs we need a higher gas tax to discourage unnecessary driving, incentives to buy cars with decent gas mileage and incentives to install solar panels and similar technology. Instyead we have Charlie, who’s like a 19th Century machine wrecker!