The Changing Face of Abortion

Until all the anti-choice activists actually take in foster children, adopt unwanted children, do real work to stop child abuse and domestic violence, all of this is nothing but hot air. Why, why, why are people only concerned about the sanctity of life until the baby is actually born? Why are so many people who are upset about abortion perfectly fine with the death penalty, and cutting social programs that provide nutrition, medical care and educational benefits to children? I hear lots of protesting, but what I really hear is hypocrasy. Personally, I'm anti-abortion. My solution? I never had one.

BTW those that think you should have the choice to decide what happens to your body - Again make the choice before sex. And then if you still need to make a "choice" to murder an unborn child. At least make it at your own expense!!!!!!

This country is way to judgemental and so are a lot of the bloggers on this post. You can't judge someone else's situation by your own experience or lack thereof. I had a friend who had an abortion at 24. She had a 15 month old son, an under-employed husband and worked very part-time. I want a child more than anything in the world, but I understood that in her situation it was not feasible to have another child. Her decision had nothing to do with me. And she has moved on to have a happier and successful life. I would have hated to see her miserable with another shild, trapped in a bad marriage because she couldn't afford to leave, and possibly neglect or abuse both children because of her misery.

And she would have been miserable. There is no use pretending that women stop being individuals in their own right when they have children and that their mental state doesn't affect their ability to parent. It absolutely does. She made a difficult decision that she felt was best for her and her existing child. Others may not have made the same decision.

I think the point of the article is call attention to the fact that while we have been so focused on school aged girls and preventing abortion in that population that for MANY reasons the number of older women having abortions has increased and that increase has been largely due to the fact that they already have children and having more would burden them financially and mentally. How to solve that is to provide better access to birth control (most private insurance companies do not cover the pill unless prescribed for something OTHER than birth control), better education, resources, and jobs. Some of these women would gladly have another child if they could fianancially support it along with their existing children.

What none of them need is an angry politically motivated attack on their very personal lives. They need support and options (not just abortion versus adoption) that are far reaching and complex just like their lives are far reaching and complex.

nemo....

what about the babies choices.................................................................................................who speaks for them..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

The author is definitely biased in her opinion. For me the most disturbing part of this article is the comparison of abortion rates in the early 70's to current rates. The data for abortions in the early 70's is limited and skewed. Many abortions were back room abortions and no one knows for sure how many of those occurred. Often the only abortions recorded where those that went wrong and the women had to seek medical help or in worst case went to the morgue. There was a reason for the legalization of abortion; which many people have now forgotten.

: Hmmm

What about your tax dollars feeding the 600 billion a year military machine! May I ask if you mind about that????
All these billions wasted could do so much good to improve the american people's lives !
The madness and paranoia of this government is an insanity !! and you idiots mind about helping the unfortuate?? As a european point of view, you are not only insane, but dumb!

Oh my GOD!!!!! These comments just enrage me!!! I'm a white single 42 year old woman and am happy to say that I'm Pro-Choice. I'm responsible and no one tells me what I can and can't do with my body. As for you conservatist groups why don't you go to all the foster homes in every state and adopt all those children who are in foster care. And while you are at it gather up all the abused children that are in the country and take care of them. Keep God and Politics separate. Its a womans choice on what she wants to do if she gets pregnant.

I'm really disappointed in some of the language choices in the above article. "It's not all good news", numbers are "troubling", "sobering numbers". This is a medical procedure, and the "unbiased" media should treat it as such. If more women in their 20s had their appendices removed as compared to teenagers, no one would call it troubling, it would just be a statistic. Journalism lesson 101: the author's view shouldn't matter.

It is obvious from this article among other information that women use abortion for birth control. We are scraping, sucking, and chemically poisoning the children we have created for the sake of some misguided social expedience. It is truly sad that is "OK" to pluck children from our wombs, in the numbers of millions per year, yet we bemoan thousands sadly lost in wars. Which life is more valuable. The life of a mother who submits to abortion is forever changed psychologically. I am a physician and mother of 4 Susan Olsenpsycholicall

do you know how many people wished they were never born? why force it on them?

My question is why we think we have failed the 20-something/minority population. Where is individual accountablity. Why do I have to pay more in taxes to support an increase in educational altenatives to women in their 20's and minorities from more impoverished demographics. These women know that sex leads to pregnancy, and I would venture most know what to do to prevent unwanted pregnancy. We don't need an educational plan or additional costs incurred in contraceptive couseling for this demographic. At this point in a womans life her social background and own personal choice will propel her actions more than the advice and counseling of additional state programs and freebies. Medicaid is available in most states if the individual is willing to press through the bureaucracy to attain this help. Not only that, programs like CHIP are in place to help women who fall between the making too much for Medicaid and not having health insurance gap. What it boils down to is personal responsibility and personal choice. These women have an opinion on whether abortion is ethical, they have other options (including adoption just like teens). They may not have a great support network and they may have other disadvantages, but seriously do we need ANOTHER program funded by tax dollars to "educate" women or provide "birth control" when the women from this demographic will pretty much do what they want to do anyway?

The real issue is life. What is the Preborn? It is a human life. No other arguement holds water, it is not ok for anyone to indiscriminately kill another human being. Planned Parenthood and the like have lied to our society, they have taken the noble cause of human rights and turned it into a slogan to make billions of dollars a year by killing innocent Preborn children. By the way, they intentionally build their facilities in low income populated areas. It is part of Margaret Sanger's twisted plan to eliminate minority races. Finally black men and women are realizing the truth about abortion. There is much to do however to educate them in masses so that they will finally stand up to the largest killer of their race, abortion and those who perform them. Abortion will end in America when the good people of this country stand up against it. Until then they are doing the only thing it takes for this evil discusting murder to continue, and that is NOTHING!!! Abortion will not end with a party, or a person, it will end with a nation that says no to Planned Parenthood and anyone else that is in the baby killing business.

I am an Irish Catholic Woman Democrat. I have always believed that a woman should have the choice to do what is right for her. The fact that this is still a policital issue is unbelievable - it is a moral choice each person has to make on their own, not be dictated to. The conservative religious are all screaming "Thou shall not kill" but they are strangely silent on the issues of an illegal war that has killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people - they are also quite mute on the subject of the death penalty. The Catholic religion wants to punish politicans who say they are Pro Choice but says nothing about those who commit adultry, divorce, lie, steal and push for the elimination of social services to help these poor children once they are born. You can't have it both ways. Keep religion and politics separate - help fund education, means of getting birth control, family planning - this way we can keep abortion "rare and safe" like Hilary Clinton so wisely stated.

To KFish1987: "My severe pre-clampsia only arrived in my third trimester and termination at that stage abortion is already illegal." So you would've had an abortion with your last baby if partial birth abortion was legal? Can you look into your child's eyes and explain to him that your life is more important than his?

the reason for this trend is very easy to explain, of course Newsweek will never say it. The reason for the change in demographics is that there is a morality gap between generations. In the eighties most older woman had morals firmly established, while young kids who saw Roe vs. Wade pass were the ones who had the abortion boom and saw abortion as acceptible behavior. These young woman got older and carried their values with them.