US Abortion Rate Lowest Since Legalization; Racial Disparities Persist

US Abortion Rate Lowest Since Legalization; Racial Disparities Persist

www.rhrealitycheck.org< br />

The 2004 abortion rate in the United States is the lowest it has been since national legalization, but the overall rate masks stark disparities in the abortion rate among different racial and ethnic groups, a study released today by the Guttmacher Institute found.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Whether you condone abortion as an aceptable means of birth control or not I find it refreshing that many women are practicing alternative means of birth control. I think education and contraceptive programs have definitely made an impact in the overall rate.

There is however much more that can be done as evidenced by the extremely high abortion rates among minorities. While continuation of programs such as Title X will help assuage this situation I feel it ultimately falls to family to endeavor to instill certain values among their children which will hopefully cause them to be more responsible in their actions.




www.rhrealitycheck.org< br /> (visit the link for the full news article)

This is good news although I would like to see it lower across the board. The interesting fact is that I think many liberals don't even realize that they are in away aborting themselves out of existence. Conservative values, when properly applied, do tend to produce results such as this.

Let the arguments over whether or not this indicates that abstinence only education is working commence...

A little known secret in the abortion industry was that Margaret Sanger, who started "Planned Parenthood", wanted to use abortion to control the minorities. Sadly, she seems to have had her intended effect.

reply to post by asmeone2


My sentiment is that abstinence played a small part in the numbers returned but education and contraceptive programs had a much larger effeect on the reduction of the abortion rate.

reply to post by PaxAmericanvs




...Aborting ourselves out of existence. Possibly a top ten dumb comments of all time.

I apologize for rudeness, but really?

reply to post by Sublime620


Obviously not in the personal sense but more along the lines in a group sense. There are many reports that show persons of a conservative nature tend to have more children then those of a liberal one, and I think one of the reasons is abortion.

Originally posted by asmeone2
Let the arguments over whether or not this indicates that abstinence only education is working commence...

I'm a bit curious. What is your position on abstinence?

Not aborting a child, to me, is better then having unprotected sex which leads to an unwanted pregnancy and subsequently to an abortion. If it works, why disparage it?

Originally posted by sir_chancealot
A little known secret in the abortion industry was that Margaret Sanger, who started "Planned Parenthood", wanted to use abortion to control the minorities. Sadly, she seems to have had her intended effect.

This is a horrible thing to say. I don't believe that Margaret was trying to GENOCIDE the minorities.

In all reality, abortion goes along with poverty. A young girl of any colour who cannot provide for a little one must make a very serious decision.
It's a mature decision to admit that one cannot afford to bring a child into this world.

And in some cases, adoption is not an option because I think many minority families are very strict. A young girl who finds herself in such a predicament usually has NO way to support herself and a kid, and might fear her family finding out.

To be honest, I think that abortion being high among minorities, really is a poverty thing.

Originally posted by PaxAmericanvs

Originally posted by asmeone2
Let the arguments over whether or not this indicates that abstinence only education is working commence...

I'm a bit curious. What is your position on abstinence?

Not aborting a child, to me, is better then having unprotected sex which leads to an unwanted pregnancy and subsequently to an abortion. If it works, why disparage it?

My position is that abstinence is not birth control, it is a state of not having sex.

It is a personal choice, which I don't knock people for, AB shouldn't be represented as a panacea to prevent unwanted pregnancies.

Those who are having sex should use birth control. They should absolutely take pains to prevent getting pregnant before engaging in intercourse to prevent the pregnancy in the first place.

Originally posted by AugustusMasonicus
reply to post by asmeone2

 

My sentiment is that abstinence played a small part in the numbers returned but education and contraceptive programs had a much larger effeect on the reduction of the abortion rate.

I wish the ariticle had delved into the cause of the decline.

It would be interesting to see whether they think it is "wait until married" abstinence programs, the use of birth control itself, or perhaps a forced abstinence from the lack of availible birth control.

Edit: Or even a growing lack of sex period, if you listen to those who say that we are losing our testosterone and being destracted by internet P*rn.

[edit on 23-9-2008 by asmeone2]

EDIT because I did some deep breathing and have calmed down.

OP -- that is a blog, not a news article. And it would be nice to keep inflammatory remarks suggesting that people who believe women should continue to have the legal right to a legal medical procedure consider abortion to be "another form of birth control", which is one of the stupidest characterizations of the pro-choice position that I've ever seen.

That said, yes, it is excellent that overall the rates are down. And it is sad that underprivileged women still have to resort to abortion at high rates. I hope that birth control education and abstinence encouragement both make further inroads among these women.

[edit on 9/23/08 by americandingbat]

Originally posted by americandingbat
OP -- that is a blog, not a news article.

I am well aware of that fact. The link includes facts that are not subjective and are also being reported on by other outlets such as Time.

And it would be nice to keep inflammatory remarks suggesting that people who believe women should continue to have the legal right to a legal medical procedure consider abortion to be "another form of birth control",

I could not find the quoted statement in the article I linked nor is it in my post so I am not sure to who you are refering and if you are paraphrasing. If you are indeed refering to me, abortion is a form of birth control, although I do not advocate it as such. I think there are better means to control pregnancy then by having an abortion, although in many circumstances this may be the only acceptable means (rape, incest, serious health concerns, etc.).

That said, yes, it is excellent that overall the rates are down. And it is sad that underprivileged women still have to resort to abortion at high rates. I hope that birth control education and abstinence encouragement both make further inroads among these women.

I agree, I wonder how many of these women/girls would have hoped for a means to mitigate what they might have felt was their only option.

Originally posted by LostNemesis

Originally posted by sir_chancealot
A little known secret in the abortion industry was that Margaret Sanger, who started "Planned Parenthood", wanted to use abortion to control the minorities. Sadly, she seems to have had her intended effect.

This is a horrible thing to say. I don't believe that Margaret was trying to GENOCIDE the minorities.
...

Truth is often "horrible".

Read all about it here: blackgenocide.org...

or here groups.csail.mit.edu...

or here www.cwfa.org...

or here www.conservapedia.com...

Are you starting to get the idea?


[edit on 24-9-2008 by sir_chancealot]

Originally posted by asmeone2
It is a personal choice, which I don't knock people for, AB shouldn't be represented as a panacea to prevent unwanted pregnancies.

It is however the only garaunteed way to prevent this.

Those who are having sex should use birth control. They should absolutely take pains to prevent getting pregnant before engaging in intercourse to prevent the pregnancy in the first place.

They most assuredly should be using something. I think it is outright laziness and a complete lack of proper parenting that leads to unwanted pregnancies and I get tired of hearing it blamed on income level (not that you were implying this).

Originally posted by AugustusMasonicus

Originally posted by americandingbat
OP -- that is a blog, not a news article.

I am well aware of that fact. The link includes facts that are not subjective and are also being reported on by other outlets such as Time.

The guidelines for this section ask that you not use blogs as a source: perhaps you could have used one of those other outlets instead.

Originally said by americandingbat:

And it would be nice to keep [away from] inflammatory remarks suggesting that people who believe women should continue to have the legal right to a legal medical procedure consider abortion to be "another form of birth control",

I could not find the quoted statement in the article I linked nor is it in my post so I am not sure to who you are refering and if you are paraphrasing. If you are indeed refering to me, abortion is a form of birth control, although I do not advocate it as such.

[snip]

I agree, I wonder how many of these women/girls would have hoped for a means to mitigate what they might have felt was their only option.

You begin your opening post by saying "Whether you condone abortion as an aceptable means of birth control or not." So you are correct that you did not say pro-choicers consider it an "alternative means" as I said. But you did imply that they consider it, and even approve of its use as, an "acceptable means".

Since to the best of my knowledge no one actually thinks that abortion can be equated with condom usage or birth control pills (except perhaps those who would deny the right to either birth control or abortion), I found this offensive. Abortion is an option of last resort for the vast majority of women who undergo it.

You could argue that technically, what I am calling "birth control" is actually "pregnancy control" and abortion (but not condom usage or the "birth control" pill) is really "birth control". But I'm confident you know that that is not how the words are used in the English language, even if such usage would be logical. The only place I've come across the idea that abortion is used as a form of birth control exchangeable with abstinence, condoms, birth control pills, etc. is in anti-abortion activist rhetoric.

I'm not sure what you mean by "a means to mitigate" it, either. Once you're pregnant, you have two choices: abortion or birth. There is no "mitigation" of pregnancy.

None of this is really important, but I wanted to clarify what had offended me, if that was genuinely a source of puzzlement.

[edit on 9/25/08 by americandingbat]

Originally posted by americandingbat
The guidelines for this section ask that you not use blogs as a source: perhaps you could have used one of those other outlets instead.

I was unaware of the blog stipulation. I only sourced this becasue the time-stamp was more recent.

You begin your opening post by saying "Whether you condone abortion as an aceptable means of birth control or not." So you are correct that you did not say pro-choicers consider it an "alternative means" as I said. But you did imply that they consider it, and even approve of its use as, an "acceptable means".

I have been party to several conversations where abortion was refered to a means of birth control. I personally know people who have had multiple abortions-in one case a classmate from high school had four.

Abortion is an option of last resort for the vast majority of women who undergo it.

See the indivdual cited above. Sad, but she displayed a total lack of responsibilty and it was certaily not her last resort.....because she made no effort at a first resort, or second or third......

You could argue that technically, what I am calling "birth control" is actually "pregnancy control" and abortion (but not condom usage or the "birth control" pill) is really "birth control".

I could argue that point but you have already done that for me. I do not want to play a sematic game with you, I think you understand my position and there is no need to micro-analize or parse my posts.

I'm not sure what you mean by "a means to mitigate" it, either. Once you're pregnant, you have two choices: abortion or birth. There is no "mitigation" of pregnancy.

Perhaps you would prefer "I agree, I wonder how many of these women/girls would have hoped for a means to prevent the initial pregnancy and avoid what they might have felt was their only option.