From: acolman@nyx.cs.du.edu (Alison Colman)
Subject: Re: Estimates of the incidence of illegal abortions
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Date: Sat, 23 Jan 93 01:35:56 GMT

In article <C186G7.1Kr@news.cso.uiuc.edu> vengeanc@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu () wr
tes:
>
>Has anyone considered the following hypothesis:
>
>Could it be possible that the availability of abortion may influence
>partners to be less careful with contraception?  Could it not then
>ALSO be possible that were abortion proscribed, these same partners woul

>begin being MORE careful than they were previously?  Could this not
>then reduce the 1.5 million unwanted pregnancies per year that WOULD
>have resulted in an abortion?
>
>With respect to at least my first question, Sandra Day O'Connor seems
>to think so.
>
>
>Have a nice day,
>
>
>
>Edward Simmonds- standard disclaimers  
>


(I am new to nyx and I am new to rn, so therefore I haven't quite gotten
the hang of everything yet. Please excuse any blatant errors -- thanks!)

This is in response to Edward Simmon's article, which should be above.

As to whether the availability of abortion will have an influence on the
sexual behavior of other people in this country, that would be hard to
predict. I can only really speak for myself. I know that if abortion was
made illegal in Pennsylvania, it wouldn't be much of a problem for me to
go to Maryland or DC to get an abortion. It wouldn't make a whole lot of
difference wrt my sexual habits -- I would be extremely careful with my
use of birth control, regardless of the availability of abortion. sorry if
this disappoints you, Edward. Making abortion unavalible probably would not
change my sexual habits to any great extent. Probably because I am fairly
confident that I would be able to obtain an abortion no matter what. I
If there was absolutely no way I could have an abortion, that might be a
different story, but it probably isn't going to happen.

This is assuming, of course, that my sexual habits are any of your
business. Which they aren't.

Going   by what you said, can I reasonably assume that you are greatly in
favor of birth control being inexpensive and easily obtained? As it stands
now, some of the most effective forms of birth control, Norplant for
example, are not available to me. Because I am employed, and I generate a
certain level of income, I don't qualify for any sort of medical or public
assistance so I can have an exam and Norplant. And because of the nature
of my employment, my employers don't provide me with medical coverage and
it is too expensive for me to purchase on my own right now. I also can't
drop $800-900 for a complete exam and a Norplant device implanted. 

Frankly, I would like this to change. I would like to see birth control
like Norplant, the Pill, and Depo-Provera become much less expensive, and
I would like Health Insurance to be availible at a reasonable cost. Is
this something you would like as well, Edward?

In the meanwhile, though, what would you say to someone like me? Would you
have the gall to say to someone like me that I shouldn't have sex because
I can't afford the best birth control out there? If I want to have
intercourse, it is within my right to do so, and it is not within anyone
else's right to tell me I can't. Not to mention that I think that is a
really snotty motive for making abortion illegal -- to try to control the
sex lives of others.

Alison

acolman@nyx.cs.du.edu, alison colman@launchpad.oit.unc.edu
Newsgroups: talk.abortion