From: dgp@atlas.wustl.edu (Don Porter)
Subject: Re: Abortions should be rare
Organization: Washington University, St. Louis MO
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 03:04:31 GMT

<1993Jan25.115252.2129@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu> hasselbring@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu writes:
>> How can Clinton say that he 
>> thinks aboritons should be rare when his actions will make abortions 
>> more common?

<1993Jan25.195007.11399@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> (Mark A. Cochran) writes:
> Perhaps because (being a rational man) he realizes tha tthe way to
> reduce the number of abortions is to address the causes of abortion.
> By education, ensuring the availability of effective, affordable
> contraceptives, and by education.

You sure have a lot of faith in education, don't you?  When I used
to read this newsgroup more regularly, I could count on an
occasional article from Galen Hekhuis asking a simple question
of pro-lifers:  What evidence do you have that your proposed
legislation will do any good?  It was a good question which rarely,
if ever, got a good answer.

I pose a similar question to you.  What evidence do you have
that the policies you mention will significantly influence
the abortion rate?  In particular, I'd like to know what makes
you think education will be a big help.  It seems to me that
education (imparting of knowledge) can only help solve a
problem if the root cause of that problem is ignorance (lack
of knowledge).  I am far from convinced that the source of
the high abortion rate in America is ignorance about sex,
pregnancy, and childbirth.  Foolish behavior in spite of
knowledge explains the situation far better for me.

You might also investigate how helpful increased access to
contraceptives is in reducing the abortion rate.  For example,
isn't it true that California provides free contraceptives
under its MediCal program (source: columnist Debra Saunders)?
At the same time doesn't California have one of the highest 
abortion ratios in the country? (According to Stokes McMillan's
article posted Jan 11, in t.a., an Abortion Surveillance
Report of the Centers for Disease Control reported that
40% of all pregnancies end in abortion in California.)

> Once upon a time, a few people managed to make the consumption of
> alcholic beverages for purposes of recreation outlawed. Did it reduce
> the number of people imbibing these beverages? Nope, not at all. It
> was a total failure.

This is simply not true.  Alcohol consumption dropped dramatically
during Prohibition.  The failure of Prohibition was the high
social cost of its enforcement, not a total lack of effectiveness.

> If you want to reduce the number of abortions, banning abortions is
> not the way to go about it. Address the causes.  Teach kids the truth
> about sex, and how to protect themselves. Encourage them to wait, and
> discourage promiscuous behavior (just don't delude yourself into
> thinking you're going to stop teenage sexual experimentation).

Absolutely (so long as we don't resign ourselves to accepting
teen sex as so inevitable that we send a message of expectation).  
I think we also should not delude ourselves into thinking we can 
significantly reduce the abortion rate through education.

> If no girl ever got pregnant because of birth control failure, or
> because no effective birth control was available, or because she
> didn't know that 'you can't get pregnant if we do it standing up, with
> our left arms tied behind this tree while singing _Amazing Grace_' is
> a lie, how many abortions would be unecessary?

Not as many as you think, I expect.

First of all, you talk about a "girl", so I assume you are focusing 
on teenage pregnancy.  Keep in mind that teen pregnancies account 
for only about 27% of the abortions each year.  Even if you
got them all, there would still be a lot left for pro-lifers
to protest.

Second, can you name even one person over the age of nine with 
an IQ greater than 70 who is so ludicrously ignorant of the nature 
of sex, pregnancy, and childbirth to believe your "Amazing Grace" 
story?  This is typical of the sort of sex myths we are told are 
widespread among teenagers, but the only reaction I've ever seen 
from a teenager hearing these myths is rolled eyes and laughter.

Third, birth control is available.  Granted, there are barriers to
teens getting the most effective kinds (prescriptions and expense),
but birth control is certainly more available now than it ever
has been.  Furthermore, concern about "access" is misdirected.
I don't know of anyone too destitute to afford condoms, nor
too stupid to know where to find them.  On the other hand, I know
of several people foolish enough to go ahead and have sex without
birth control anyway.

And that is the key.  Knowledge doesn't solve a damn thing by itself.
Putting knowedge to use; changing behavior.  That is the key.
And doing that requires more than knowledge.  It requires wisdom.
If you have any proposals on how to impart wisdom to the mass of
American teenagers, I'm all ears.  Foolishness is a formidable
enemy.  And I should not close this paragraph without noting
that a propensity to foolishness does not leave a human being
on his/her 20th birthday.

Please don't get me wrong.  I think education is great.  But I get
tired of hearing again and again how it will single-handedly solve
all of our most troubling social ills.  Perhaps if humanity were
composed of perfectly rational creatures this might be true.  But
then it wouldn't be humanity, would it?

-- 
|   Don Porter | dgp@saturn.wustl.edu | Washington University in St Louis   |
|  "The effect of liberty to individuals is, that they may do what they     |
|   please; we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we       |
|___risk congratulations." -- Edmund Burke._________________________________|
Newsgroups: talk.abortion