Wouldn't universal access to "The-morning-after-pill" end the vast majority of abortions? From what I've seen (and heard) it seems to - at least for most people.
I know that won't totally satisfy those who believe that a zygote is a baby - but I'd guess that most people who are against abortion - are more concerned about the termination of life on fetuses that have developed bones, a spine, a brain, a heart, skin etc. Correct?
I mean, that in the world of compromise that we live in - and in a world where we don't necessarily get everything we want, legally speaking, if a fetus is going to be terminated - wouldn't it be preferable to terminate the fetus's life while it was still a tiny collection of individual cells, smaller than the period under the question mark that ends this sentence? While it had no bones, no brain, no heart, no skin, - just a collection of identical cells? That is - IF it is going to be terminated?
I say this, knowing that there is a small minority of hard-core woman's rightists, want to be able to terminate pregnancies right up until birth - whenever a woman so chooses - a position the vast amount of other people in society find untenable. I also know that there are hard-core anti-abortionists want every pregnancy carried to term, regardless of woman's physical or mental health, regardless of whether she was raped etc. I think that these people are also in a small minority.
Since those two ideas are totally mutually incompatible - and knowing that those two ideas will always be two total solitudes - wouldn't most people in society be better served by going after laws that actually have a chance of passing in the society that we live in today? Perfection is nice - but real politics is concerned not with the achievement of ideals - but rather, the achievement of the possible.
Up here, in the community that I live in, girls can get free birth control at the family planning clinic, located a block from the school. If a girl has a reason to think that that may have failed, they can get a free pregnancy test (with total confidentiality guaranteed), then she can get the so-called "morning-after-pill" if she should so choose - and only if that route also fails - do they even consider abortion - and if that is the route they choose - at least here that will happen at a much earlier stage of fetal development.
As a high school teacher, and as a parent of three young daughters (two of which attend the school, I teach at) - I'd like to think I'm "in the loop" as to what is happening with lots of the kids I teach. I tend to know which of my daughters friends are having sex, what protection they are using, and the consequences of any lapses in judgement. Around here, the "mistakes" are almost inevitably "dealt-with" - within days of the of "the original act". Even if that doesn't happen - other options usually are looked at, within weeks after the act, as the norm. In this town it is very very rare for a young girl to be visibly pregnant. Things are decided at a very early stage - thanks to so many options being on the table.
To those who resent paying for others mistakes - I hear you. I understand - but, to my mind, the societal cost of unwanted children greatly exceeds the cost of supplying young girls with options - at the first sign of pregnancy. You will all end up paying for unwanted children being brought into the world. You will pay for them being born, you will pay for the havoc they will wreck within the school system, you will pay for their own abortions - and for many, sadly, you will pay for the crimes they commit in your cities and towns and eventually - you will pay for their incarceration in prisons - and their own spawn's inprisonment.
I might also add we spend a lot of money in our school system by hiring professional nurses, who do all of the teaching of the school sex-ed classes, in grades 5, 7, 9, and 11 - with the emphasis on celibacy as being the only truly safe choice, but with all methods of birth-control studied - in age-appropriate detail. No questions go unanswered.
This method isn't perfect - and totally pleases no one. But, to my mind - what we do up here - seems to be the best option - in an area where no option is totally satisfying to all of the interested parties.
It's a long way from perfect - but it's the best method I've ever come across.
It's an area I won't debate - as I know I can never change anyone else's mind in matters that go to the very core of the things we all, as individuals, believe in.
I just presented this information - as another point of view - for what that's worth.
