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Week of August 24, 2008 - August 30, 2008

Bonus Round for Mike7Woodson on Abortion and Civil Liberty


Yes I can name a nation state in which the disrespect for life has led to the erosion of civil freedoms less fundamental than life. Russia:

Mike, my response to this is below, but first I need to clear up a couple of issues leftover from previous posts of yours.

When you write that eviscerating or dismembering or stabbing in the neck an unborn human life is just patently wrong ... and We have no right to kill someone merely for coming onto our property, especially if we engaged in conduct that amounts to an invitation ...  and compare mercenary wars to elective abortions, the we that are responsible for such 'atrocities' are women. So as one of the accused in the vigilante court of Mike, the Judge and Jury, allow me to have a few last words.

As you have heard in post in after post, if you really wanted to stop or at least limit abortions, you would be the head cheerleader for the contraceptive route, making them safe, affordable and available. Post after post, you ignore the one really good option for achieving your goal. I don't know why.

Instead, you insist on the legal route of banning abortions totally. Again, why you want to go down that path is unknown.  But I can guarantee, and provide the studies if you so insist and I still care to show you, that the number of abortions will only decline marginally, and only in the number of poor women having an abortion.

I have had an abortion (post Roe), my mother has had one  (pre Roe) and her mother had one. One third of the women in this nation have had an abortion. And if abortion is made illegal, one third of the women in this nation will still obtain one.

Why? Because when a woman becomes pregnant she makes a choice that is not based on the law or politics. Nor is it based on thoughts of life or death, either her own or the seed's that is implanted in her womb. The decision is usually based on a mix of practicalities and instincts that lead her to either accept the sacred chance she has been given or to delay or forever deny it, whichever is right for her.

Neither you, the law or politicians can change that.

Back to Russia.

I don't think anyone has denied the high abortion rates of the former USSR or Russia. However,  the cause for the high abortion rates you gave was your opinion, not Rand's. Rand has an entirely different take on the causes:

WHY ABORTION BECAME THE PREFERRED METHOD OF FERTILITY REGULATION IN RUSSIA

Two influences have worked to keep Russian abortion rates high. First, Soviet ideology hindered the development and spread of effective contraception. Soviet ideology held that declining fertility rates were not typical of socialism and that socialist economic improvement would yield higher birth rates and lower abortion rates. Such views resulted in little effort to develop or distribute modern contraceptives. They also led the Stalin government, which equated power with population size, to prohibit abortion and to restrict contraception for nearly 20 years in an effort to fuel population growth.

Abortion became legal in the 1950's but when health planners recognized the problem and tried to distribute contraceptives widely, the poor quality and erratic supplies meant abortion remained the preferred method of family planning.

The good news is that expanded family planning (contraceptives) has helped reduce abortion rates in Post-Soviet Russia.

It really is as simple as that.
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seashell

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