Over the past several months I have been becoming more and more conservative in my views. Of course I have never truly abandoned many of my conservative values, but over the years on YouTube I adopted many new points of view. One of those views my my position on Abortion.
Coming from a fundamentalist Christian background I was against abortion ever since I knew what it was. I then modified my views starting in 2008 until recently. I for the most part have always been against the idea of Abortion as a form of birth control. We are talking about taking the life of a child to prevent an inconvenience to the parents. Still I recognized that Abortion is sometimes needed to save the life of a mother who would die if she carried the baby to term. One such example is ectopic pregnancies which according to WebMD happens 1/50th of the time. According to the US Centers for Disease Control 650 women die each year from pregnancy or child birth complications. The CDC does not state that terminating the pregnancy would save the life of the mother. In fact they even list high blood pressure as a complication.
The solution in those such cases would be a healthy diet before getting and during pregnancy. Even ectopic pregnancies techically are not solved by an abortion, rather the tube, cervex or other part the egg attached to is removed. The termination of the pregnancy is simply result of that procedure. In any case, the times that an abortion is needed to save the life of the mother are very rare, but a quick Google search does turn up results so it does happen.
As far as Abortion used to terminate pregnancies as the result of rape or incest the best numbers I could find was 1% of the time. Even with this I am uncomfortable in killing a child because of how it was conceived. I know, I will get letters. So be it.
So what turned me back to the pro-life camp? The recent Planned Parenthood videos exposing them for selling body parts. Is it illegal? Yes. Will they get away with it? Yes. I first heard about these videos on the radio. I went to YouTube and found them. Shocking. It made me re-evaluate my position.
How to reduce abortion?
You will never make abortion illegal. America never got the chance to vote on this. Rather a simple majority of Judges just declared a right to privacy. In recent years our elected representatives have begun to impose common sense restrictions. Such as that a doctor should have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. Other common sense regulations would be personhood laws aimed at protecting the unborn.
In recent years we have had two very Pro-Life Presidents. Reagan who also had control of the Senate for most of his two terms and W Bush who had control of the House and Senate for most of his years. Other than Reagan insisting on a pro-life statement being added to the party platform, pretty much nothing of substance happened. Regan appointed 3 Justices to the Supreme Court. W appointed two. Other than the "Global Gag rule" (which only applied to clinics in other countries not much was done to curb abortion at home. Although Reagan did campaign on a pledge to push through a constitutional amendment banning abortion, once elected it was not a priority.
So with two of the most Pro-Life presidents you could ask for, a conservative congress, and a stacked Supreme Court are not enough to over turn Roe-v-Wade not much else can be done. Abortion is here to stay, all we can do is what President Clinton once said, make it "Safe, Legal, and Rare."
We can impose reasonable restrictions on Abortion providers to ensure they are fully licensed and have admitting privileges to a local hospital, but what about making it rare? Birth control. While teenage pregancy is thankfully on the decline, it is still far too frequent. According to this survey I found 46 percent were not using birth control. Condoms are still locked at the pharmacy or are behind the register. Birth control pills require a doctor and a prescription. To reduce abortions birth control and condoms need to be more accessible. Put condom vending machines in all the school bathrooms. Yep I said school bathrooms, sadly not every one waits until high school. Parents need to have the sex talk with the kids early on. You just can't leave it up to the schools.
So now that I am pro-life does this mean I will be holding signs and protesting the clinics? No, I don't find that productive. I can do my part by voting for pro-life candidates especially at the state level, that is where the work is being done now. For those who remain unconvinced I encourage you to watch the Planned Parenthood videos. It changed my mind and I can't think of a sane person actually defending their actions.
Are they the only abortion provider? No, but they are one of the biggest if not the biggest. Certainly a trendsetter in the industry for sure. Abortion seems to have this magical cloak of holy sacrament upon it where anyone who dares speak against it is labeled anti-woman. I've been called worse. Furthermore, I personally don't give a smurf as I am not defined by what others say about me. So watch the videos, if you can get through them without breaking down. It took me a few attempts.
