Hillary Clinton Answer On Abortion Leaves 'Pro-Life' Senator Speechless

[nashville_brook]

189. holy cow, ya'll -- times have changed with regard to "rare"

the use of the word "rare" has always bothered me and i thought i was the only one. i'm sure they use it b/c it polls well to turn heads of a demographic we want on board.

back when they started using the "rare" theme i thought we'd never get to the place where it's questioned. and here we are. bravo.

what has always bothered me about the word is that it's ambiguous as to what it modifies. are we talking about the procedure being rare for one person -- or rare for society as a whole.

1 in 3 women have abortions. IT'S NOT RARE on the social level. it's quite common. on the personal level, it's none of our business how many times a woman accesses the procedure...but in practice, b/c of expense and disruption etc, you want it to be rare. and yet, no one should be able to limit how many times a woman accesses the procedure, which is a notion that's embedded int he language. so, "rare" in the personal context is really annoying. and dangerous.

seems to me we've evolved beyond needing to use the word entirely. we should be able to talk about having full access to family planning AND childcare AND healthcare AND equal pay so that having a family doesn't relegate women to poverty and abuse.