Over 99% of all abortions are for convenience, not health reasons....

[Emboldened Chimp]

So said Rick Santorum, (Nutjob-Pennsylvannia), on yesterday's edition of Fresh Air. He talked to Terry Gross about the repuke platform on abortion in general and their desire for a Constitutional amendment banning abortion specifically. Terry asked about giving the same constitutional rights to a fetus that a woman has, and Nutjob kept spouting this 'statistic'. Where did get this number? Did he make it up or is it the new Puke talking point lie to be echo-chambered across the media landscape? Makes me wanna :puke:

http://freshair.npr.org/day_fa.jhtml?display=day&todayDate=08/30/2004

[Medium Baby Jesus]

1. Even if true

So what?

edit: It's not true

[XanaDUer]

3. My thoughts exactly

for instance, here in our fetus-friendly US of A , country, everytime I sign up for health insurance, they make sure that I know that it *does not* cover maternity.

So, fuck Rick Santorum with a stick.

Also, when has he ever had to go to work sicker than a dog over morning sickness, edema of the legs, and have to fight your freaking employer over maternity leave. Huh, Rick?

Pregnancy and childbirth is not a matter of just squatting and dropping a little egg on the ground and moving on. There are quite a few serious health problems associated with it.

[laylah]

32. Our insurance covers

Viagra but not birth control...WTF :silly: That said, while I have known women who used abortion as a form of birth control (in BOULDER, CO, no less!), I highly doubt what Santorum is spouting out his butt!

Jenn

[Fenris]

2. I really, really want to do something awful to that man.

:grr::grr::grr:

There are some people who shouldn't be allowed to breed.

[calico1]

8. Too bad his mother didn't have an

abortion. I think that would have qualified as a health reason.

You know, I believe in less abortions. However, the way to achieve that is through education. People like Santorum belive in keeping kids ignorant. Keep your legs crossed and pray a lot. That is their solution. If education and birth control and more accessible health care for poorer women were more widely available there wouldn't be as many abortions. But regardless of what the reason is, it shouldn't matter. YOu can make abortion illegal. You cannot stop abortions from happening. Santorum and others like him coudn't care less about women or children. Their real goal is control over women--period. Control their bodies. Abortions will always exist. The real choice is between safe, legal abortions coupled with good education and birth control so that we can have less of them, and illegal abortions. Those are really the only two choices.

[Fleshdancer]

4. Over 99% of wars started by Bush are for convenience, not for security

reasons.

Seriously though, Santorum is talking out of his ass. How the hell would he know the reasons why a woman has an abortion?

[Texasgal]

5. I don't give a rats ass

Who cares as to why I had an abortion.... it's MY RIGHT, and MY BODY! He can go FUCK HIMSELF!

[aquart]

12. I think I will second that motion.

for the same reason.

[BlueJazz]

26. Tell it like it is!! What the hell business is it of his...

...what a Woman does with her body? I swear, some men make me
(almost) ashamed to be a man...

I used to be so passive and non-violent but pricks like "San-terror"
have pushed my patience to to limit...

[Malva Zebrina]

6. sure

a woman has control over her own body and her own family--if she has five children at home, and seeks to not bring another into that family, it is her right to seek abortion. If she can only manage five children, or is having difficulty managing her own family, she may seek abortion. It is for the well being of her family as she sees it and, someone should tell these fat bloated men who seek to grab women's uteruses as their own, that every pregnancy is a risk.

[salvorhardin]

Exactly

Discounting abortions sought by women who are financially and psychologically capable of caring for a child or additional child, I would say every other abortion is for (at least) public health purposes. It makes no sense to bring another person into the world that is not going to be loved, or educated, fed well, or have access to health care or all of the above.

It presents a public health problem in that we have another person that will need the state to provide social services for (foodstamps, HEAP, medicaid). Further, I would argue that child is less likely to have access to education and more likely to end up working a low-wage job and to seek those same social services into adulthood. At least until they reach their 5 year life-time limit and become homeless.

Beyond all that though, a woman's body belongs to her. She should have the right to decide what happens to that body, including whether it produces another human. Any other arguements to me are superflous.

Do I like the idea of abortion? No, frankly it makes me queasy. Knowing what I know about fetal and early-childhood development, especially neural development, I really can't see a fetus as a human being. Still... I get upset at squirrels that get squished on the highway! However, I'm not a woman and can not imagine what thoughts and emotions come with being pregant. I'd never presume to tell a woman what she can do with her body.

[drdigi420]

7. i call bullshit

[MARALE]

9. This is not true

He can't get any good figures about this. Not too many doctors will give out that information and Family Planning will have a lot more of those than the doctors. Also, I would like to know what he thinks about fertility doctors and test tube babies that are distroyed. How many of these end up in miscarriage because of the process. Where do you draw the line. Did you also here him say that if the baby is a health hazard, if you distroy it, it would become a self defense excuse so you would not be thrown in jail? If you put a fetus in a lady that has a history of not carrying a baby and it is miscarried, is that murder? This is not a black and white issue and cannot be put into the constitution.

[liberalnurse]

10. If there comes a day that abortion is illegal....

then I guess there will never be another aborted fetus..... :crazy:

[La Lioness Priyanka]

11. so what if it is true?

[murielm99]

13. He has no way of knowing that statistic.

When women go for an abortion, NO ONE keeps statistics on why she chose abortion.

It is no one's business, especially not that asshole's.

[Vickers]

14. Don't you understand???One of those aborted babies MIGHT BE JESUS!!!

:crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy:

[La Lioness Priyanka]

15. tee hee hee

[noiretextatique]

16. it's total bullshit in keeping with their misogynistic view

of abortion as something women decide to on a whim, like getting a manicure. it's not only misogynistic, it's stupid, insulting...and an obvious LIE.
microscopic fetus = adult woman :eyes: "pro-life" my ASS...these people are ANTI-WOMAN.

[liberalhistorian]

21. Not only are they anti-woman, they don't

give a shit about the fetus once it's born and becomes a baby and then a child who needs health care or child care or clean air and water and pollution-free skies or food free from pesticides or a good education or decent housing or parents who need good jobs with benefits, or a good child welfare/social services system whose funding doesn't get constanty cut, or access to the health care and medicines they need without their parents losing what little they have to be able to afford it, etc., etc., etc. Remember the shit Jocelyn Elders caught for saying that fundies and repukes needed to "get over their love affair with the fetus and start actually supporting children?" Well, she was absolutely damned right and they crucified her for it.

[noiretextatique]

27. yep, she was right...and so are you

:hi: they don't give shit about the fetus...except for political purposes, and certainly not ACTUAL children.

[RobertSeattle]

17. 99% of invasions of Iraq are for convenience - not nat'l security reasons

Hey Santorum :puke: , I can go tit-for-tat with you on baseless assertions.

So there!

[Book Lover]

18. My question is why didn't

Terry call him on it?

[saracat]

19. And his point is?

My having a child I can't support will be bad for my health and that of the fetus.I hope one of his "protected' fetuses ,who has been deprived of anything resembling a normal childhood, grows up to sock him in the jaw! GRRRR!

[wryter2000]

20. Get his young, unmarried daughter pregnant

Get his young, unmarried daughter pregnant by some creep he hates and then ask him about "convenience."

[liberalhistorian]

22. ROFLMAO!

Oooo, now that's not very nice! But all too true, unfortunately. Most of these people are against something unless they have to deal with it themselves, then they do a 180 degree turn-around. This is especially true with abortion.

[Vickers]

24. It's funny, but true...remember Little Danny Quayle's pro-choice stance?

Oh you don't???

Well, read about it here!

[Pithlet]

33. Yes. He almost let everyone else on their dirty little "secret"

Choice for themselves, their wives, girlfriends, and daughters, but not for the rest of us, legally.

[Nimrod]

Conveniences like...

Not having enough money to feed the child.
Not having enough money to clothe the child.
Not having enough money to educate the child.
Not having the required mindset/skills to parent for the child.

Yes, these make childbearing extremely inconvenient indeed. Damn those selfish unemployed single moms to hell!

I rarely wish for violence upon someone, but Rick's pushing it.

[Alenne]

23. 100% of all abortions

are none of Rick Santorum's business.

[Mandate My Ass]

25. Well said!

:thumbsup:

[library_max]

28. 84.7 percent of all quoted statistics are made up. /nt

[progressive_voice]

29. Abortion On Wane in US But not among low-income women

More than half of all women who underwent an abortion in 2000 were in their 20s, two-thirds were never married, and nearly 90 percent lived in cities, the new study found. Blacks, Hispanics, and women between the ages of 18 and 29 had higher rates of abortion.

The findings will appear in the November-December issue of Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health .

While the overall abortion rate fell in 2000, it rose 25 percent for low-income women.

Nearly 60 percent of women who had abortions in 2000 had incomes less than twice the poverty level. That was up from 50 percent in 1994. The poverty line in 2000 was $8,350 for a single person, $11,250 for a family of two, and $14,150 for a family of three.

Six in 10 women who underwent an abortion in 2000 had at least one child already and 73 percent had been pregnant before, the study found........

http://www.hon.ch/News/HSN/509549.html

I wonder how Rick Santorum feels about welfare reform law of 96.

[salvorhardin]

34. Just as an aside

The poverty line has not been raised very much since 2000.

In 2003, the poverty line was $8980 for a single person, $12,120 and $15,260 for families of 2 and 3 respectively. This makes a difference of $630, $870, $1,110 for each family size.

http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/03poverty.htm

[rocktop15]

30. NICE ICON!!!!

Trey Anastasio.....one of the two people I'd like to have dinner with next to Jesus himself.

I'm a huge Phishead!!!

BTW Santorum can go fuck off.

[slor]

31. 99% of all "man on dog " sex acts...

involve rick santorum.

[Deja Q]

35. Because the people can't afford the baby like Santorum can?

Give the baby to santorum and be done with it.

[justjones]

36. He's right. Those drive-thru abortion clinics just make it too easy....

for all these promiscuous and irresponsible women. We must all suffer the consequences of our sins, especially women folk....at least that's what the Bible says.

So Santorum, the omnipotent god that he is, would grant us two choices.....1) birth those babies, or, 2) die of infection from a back alley abortion. Divine retribution for our sins. :eyes:

</sarcasm>

[BonjourUSA]

37. This is very insulting for the women !!!!

"convenience", what does it mean ?

I never knew a woman who aborted for convenience !!
But always after a long time of thinking and living a real trauma before and after.

[serendipity]

38. He also said...

...after much prodding from Terry Gross, that he's against infertility procedures that discard "human life," i.e., fertilized eggs.

I'm glad that Gross followed the interview with one with the rep from Planned Parenthood, who pointed out a lot of errors in Santorum's statements.