The pro-life position is not actually pro-LIFE

For clarification, the pro-life position is defined. prō-līf') adj. Advocating the legal protection of human embyos and fetuses, especially by favoring the outlawing of abortion on the ground that it is the taking of a human life. Read more: http://www.answers.com... The pro-life agenda suggests that the way to save lives (at least the lives of the fetus) is to out-law abortion. I disagree. To outlaw abortion would not only NOT decrease the numbers of abortions, it would put the mothers at risk AS WELL because women would be procuring illegal and largely unsafe abortions, resulting in the deaths of all of the fetuses AND some mothers as well. EVIDENCE: There is an abortion ban in Nicaragua where doctors are put in a dilemma. "Accurate statistics of the impact of the ban in terms of avoidable deaths are hard to come by. One doctor said that of 95 women who died last year as a result of medical complications with their pregnancies, 13 could have been saved if they had been able to have therapeutic abortions. " "It is indeed clear that, despite the ban, there are still some abortions taking place. A 22-year-old woman told us what happened when she recently wanted an abortion." "Amnesty argues in its report that the effects of the new law are most marked among women and girls living in poverty." http://news.bbc.co.uk... And the report that the article is based off of done by Amnesty: http://www.amnesty.org... In the article entitled: "Bans 'do not cut abortion rate'" is says: "Most safe abortions are carried out using vacuum aspiration Restricting the availability of legal abortion does not appear to reduce the number of women trying to end unwanted pregnancies, a major report suggests. The costs of unsafe abortions, which can include inserting pouches containing arsenic to back street surgery, can be high: the healthcare bill to deal with conditions from sepsis to organ failure can be four times what it costs to provide family planning services. In the developed world, legal restrictions did not stop abortion but just meant it was "exported", with Irish women for instance simply travelling to other parts of Europe, according to Guttmacher's director, Dr Sharon Camp. In the developing world, it meant lives were put at risk. "Too many women are maimed or killed each year because they lack legal abortion access," she said." http://news.bbc.co.uk... And another article: "Dr Shah said rates of abortion did not differ according to whether access was good or highly restricted by law, and reducing the number of unsafe abortions was "imperative". In Bangladesh, a massive decrease in maternal deaths has occurred because women now have access to safe abortion services and emergency obstetric care, another study by Dr Carine Ronsmans from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine showed. " http://news.bbc.co.uk... Another: After the recent vote by the Argentine Congress to legalise same-sex marriage, the legalisation of abortion does indeed seem set to be the next big debate in the country. Calls in favour of legalisation have been fuelled in part by international criticism of the country's high maternal mortality rates. A recent study by the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, found that over the past 15 years complications from abortion were the main cause of maternal deaths in Argentina. For every 100,000 live births there are 44 deaths - more than twice as high as in neighbouring Chile and Uruguay. Abortion is permitted only in cases of rape, if the mother's life is at risk or if the woman is deemed "of feeble mind". There are an estimated 500,000 to 700,000 illegal abortions each year. http://www.bbc.co.uk... And Another: "Unsafe abortions in the developing world kill 68,000 women a year, research suggests. They also lead to at least five million other people going to hospital for infection and other complications, the Lancet study estimates. A team from New York's Guttmacher Institute made their estimate after analysing data from 13 countries. They suggested around 19 million unsafe abortions take place around the world each year. Lead researcher Dr Susheela Singh said: "The evidence shows that the health burden of unsafe abortion is large. "The most effective way of eliminating this highly preventable cause of maternal illness and death, would be to make safe and legal abortion services available and accessible. "A second, more immediately achievable, goal is to prevent unintended pregnancies in the first place through improved contraception use." " http://news.bbc.co.uk... I could find MANY more. The burden of evidence is in my favor, you just have to look at the world reports of abortion stats. I personally use BBC because it is not biased towards American politics/policies like any American news station would be on this issue. It is generally considered to actually be a simple reporting of the facts, unlike our news stations here as well, but that is another issue. In conclusion: Women who are poor, single, or otherwise disadvantaged are not going to stop getting abortions whether or not they are legal. Pregnancy is clearly a traumatizing enough experience that women are desperate enough to risk their lives to terminate a pregnancy. Given this information, a policy to outlaw abortion would only make their plight more desperate and put their lives at risk resulting in a decrease in proper medical care and an increase in fetus and mother death overall. I suggest that pro-lifers actually live up to their name of promoting life by easing the burden of our most desperate mothers before ever trying to institute a law that would not give "pro-lifers" the results they so desire anyway. If pro-lifers REALLY want to promote life, they should all be advocates for family planning, free contraception, and programs that support especially poor women (especially minority) and women in general. THIS is the only real way to reduce abortions. They could be putting their money towards the cause rather than forcing women to abort illegally and unsafely. My opponent would have to somehow prove that outlawing abortion would decrease the number of abortions with actual PROOF. Also, they would have to explain how the stance of the pro-life movement somehow enhances the life of all parties involved as opposed to other methods I suggest. Pro-life is NOT promoting the overall life and well-being of both the fetuses and mothers in question by their stance that abortion must be outlawed. To suggest that outlawing abortion would preserve lies overal is a ludicrous idea that is not supported by credible evidence. Pro-lifers who believe that outlawing abortion will work are too blinded by their so called "morality" that they have forgotten the realities of this world and have forgotten to have any compassion on the mothers involved in abortion.