They also kill mountain lions with their bare hands wrote:
Agree.
Despite what Fat Hurts will say about this topic many on the Right hold anti-abortion and anti-contraception positions simultaneously while also advocating for decreased social programs that benefit infants as you mention above.
Here are the facts...
1. abortion, birth rate, and general healthcare data from the United States is fragmented and incomplete prior to ~ 1950-60s. Thus, anyone claiming knowledge about data from the time period prior to this is highly questionable without links to OBJECTIVE sources.
2. What is well known is that in the Western world it was very common for people to get married (and, thus, f$&k) as teenagers until ~1920s. This practice actually occurred for thousands of years and continues in many parts of the world still. After thousands of years of this behavior the result is that humans are biologically programmed to f$&k starting as teens. Just because social norms changed in the US in the early 20th century—meaning we no longer advocate for teenagers to get married—does not mean biology will change over night or even in a relatively short time span (~80 years). Most people, I would imagine, agree that it’s best for teenagers NOT to marry....I suppose there are some fans of teenage marriages / brides out there...like ISIS
3. Based on #2, which is FACT, it is unreasonable to think that simply saying “don’t have sex until you’re married” will work at all since there is now a disconnect between someone’s age when the drive to f&$k starts and when the average person gets married. Thus, we need a system to prevent unintended pregnancies other than abstinence education which will not work (see Bristol Palin as the poster child for failed abstinence only-type education).
4. I would think people opposed to abortion, who actually want to have abortions decrease would support reality based solutions like easy access to contraception which decreased abortion rates in the example provided below.
Education and access to contraception dropped the abortion rate by ~50% in Colorado—which also saved the state $70 milllion dollars in expenses for social services, etc. for low income moms/families. I’ve linked a story and the primary data here:
http://www.5280.com/2017/09/end-free-birth-control/https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/PSD_TitleX3_CFPI-Report.pdfHere are links to a story and the primary data showing that even people born in the 1930s and 1940s were having pre-martial sex—which debunks the “society has lost it’s moral compass”-type arguments. The 1960s sexual revolution is a myth, people were already f$&king before marriage and as teens way before the 1960s.
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=2740714&page=1https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1802108/Behavior and attitudes towards sex have changed but only in the sense that after ~1920 AD it became less common for people to marry at young ages (14,15,16, etc) in the USA. For 1000s of years prior to the early 1900s teenagers had sex all the time. It was normal. So how do you expect hormonal / biological drive to f$&k as a teen to go away in the span of ~80 years when people had been f$&king as what we now consider to be kids since the begging of time? That’s totally illogical and not based on reality.... people have been having sex as teenagers since the beginning of time.
Based on the Colorado experience it is clear policies can be implemented to decease the number of abortions. But that’s not what the majority in the GOP actually want. What they appear to want based on their actions and words is to be able to act morally superior, preach to people, and chastise people for making mistakes. They don’t want to actually solve problems they just want to lecture women. They don’t want to deal with reality.
You forgot to explain that the Colorado free contraception program was vehemently opposed and nearly stopped by anti-abortion Republicans despite the data showing decreased abortion rates and cost saving for the state. Their position on these issues are not logical at all—I agree.
Fortunately, Colorado seems to be moving in the right direction. I hope this will also come to pass here too...
But it will be a battle.
Personally, I want to see fewer abortions. I would even support banning abortions after ~ 22-24 weeks gestation (only exceptions being threat to the life of the mother or a fetus with medical issues that are incompatible with life) since that is the point after which a fetus could survive outside the womb.
The problem with this issue is the extremists on both sides. I think an all out ban is a bad idea and no regulation of abortion is also bad.