General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMike Pence says making abortion illegal saves lives. History proves the opposite.
Speaking at an event hosted by an anti-abortion group in Nashville on Feb. 27, Vice President Mike Pence delivered a speech highlighting the numerous anti-choice initiatives the Trump administration has launched and suggesting (hoping?) that legal abortion will end in our time.
...
Theres only one problem: Making abortion illegal will not in fact end abortion in America. Doing so will merely drive it underground, making it unsafe and unregulated, and will result in the needless deaths of women. Hows that for restoring the sanctity of life?
...
Because we know what will happen if we make abortion illegal. Before the Supreme Court legalized abortion in its historic Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, scores of women died from illegal abortion care. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization that focuses on reproductive health, the death toll associated with illegal abortions was significant: In 1930, abortion was listed as the official cause of death for almost 2,700 women, or 18% of maternal deaths recorded in that year. In 1965, death-by-illegal-abortion accounted for 17% of all deaths attributed to pregnancy and childbirth that year. And those are just the reported cases.
...
Desperation drove up to 1.2 million women per year to terminate their pregnancies in the 1950s and 1960s, even though it meant putting their lives and health at risk. Where there is a will, theres a way. And this pattern will surely repeat if Pence gets his way.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/mike-pence-says-making-abortion-illegal-saves-lives-history-proves-ncna853031
RKP5637
(67,032 posts)SunSeeker
(51,377 posts)The problem is, he doesn't care.
MiniMe
(21,677 posts)I am 60, and I sure remember when it was illegal.
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)Abortion was well-known and argued about in ancient Greece and Rome, with most considering it acceptable. Early Christians and Jews considered it at worst an offense, not a dread sin, looking to Exodus as one of the few place the Bible mentions it. The general attitude was Aristotle's-- that the fetus does not come alive until it breathes on its own.
The concept that a fetus has a soul bounced around for a while, but was never really accepted, except by some religious groups. Nowadays we wonder if the concept of a soul itself should be accepted, but I digress...
While I disagree with it, I do understand their point about killing a being for convenience. However, while they have the absolute right to act on their beliefs themselves, they do not have the right to impose them on others. This is where the argument should be.
Further, while they insist all pregnancies must end in birth, they provide no ideas for how to deal with the the children that result from these births. Or to address contraception or any of the situations where an abortion is seen as the best answer.
SunSeeker
(51,377 posts)I don't think most people know that figure.
Nor do most people know 2,700 desperate women died each year from "back alley" abortions.
People need to understand that the only thing that reduces abortion is readily available birth control. I don't know how we can convince people of that without giving them these numbers.
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)they have to become emotionally involved for the numbers to mean anything.
cagefreesoylentgreen
(838 posts)Its her just punishment for being a slut and having sex in the first place.
spanone
(135,636 posts)Freethinker65
(9,934 posts)MagickMuffin
(15,892 posts)How will help provide healthcare, hmmmmm???
How are you going to make sure they have a roof over their heads, hmmmm???
I don't really care for your ideas on education, so I'll just leave that out of the equation!
How will you make sure they have food to eat, hmmmmmm???
You see Mike Pence, I already know your solutions to these questions. You could care less about these children once they are out of the womb.
Why don't you worry about your own personal issues, and leave us women alone!!!
mythology
(9,527 posts)If he's so on board with saving lives, why is he against healthcare and education?
MagickMuffin
(15,892 posts)Mike Pence and his ilk would want to make public schools ALL xtian schools. Hell, they are already trying their best to make it that way now.
But. . . .
Healthcare √
Food √
Housing √
These are the fundamental needs of very human being and cannot be ignored.