Life after Roe v. Wade

Layla Strong (4/9, Letters) says that at age 57 Roe v. Wade came “too late” for many of her friends who are pro-choice because they know what it’s like to not have a choice. In their younger days they indeed did not have the legal choices of abortion or birth control.

Birth control was all but illegal in the U.S. until the 1950s and ’60s, when widely-held opinions changed. Congress removed the century-old Comstock Act’s prohibition on birth control in 1971. Abortion was legalized in 1973.

Since then birth control and sex education have become ubiquitous. Birth control was long sought by woman and hailed to give them reproductive control. Those who still favor abortion chose to ignore the significance of that historic achievement. They also ignore what modern medical science reveals about a fetus.

Most women today have the knowledge and choices to avoid abortion altogether. I would hope Layla Strong would be more thankful for birth control than abortion.

Brian Merrell
Lee’s Summit

Layla Strong is already in mourning for the not-yet-deceased Roe v. Wade.

I can see needing to have an organ removed because it’s eaten up with cancer. I can see having an arm or a leg removed because it’s too injured to save. I just can’t see butchering your own unborn child because taking responsibility for your sexual freedom is inconvenient.

Ms. Strong, isn’t there enough death and killing in this world? Is this the right that you hold so precious?

Our Founding Fathers wrote a document that includes the words “All men are created equal.” Ms. Strong believes that a man is not created until after he is born. How sad.

Will Forster
Lee’s Summit

Comments

[Christine V]

To Layla Strong, if you still read this blog, I would love to hear from you. It's been way too many years. Am still in California. Please email me at my full name, it's one word together at aol. I understand your letter so well. Hope to hear from you. Christine

[GCYL]

"Contraception actually increases abortion"
~Mark
this is about the dumbest comment I have ever read “ - stone

“In fact, increased use of contraception increases abortion, which is why Planned Parenthood so strongly pushes contraception. It's about the bottom line.
Dr. Malcom Potts, past medical director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, said that, "As people turn to contraception, there will be a rise, not a fall, in the abortion rate." (Cited in Dr. Richard Wetzel, Sexual Wisdom, Procter Publications, Ann Arbor, 1998, p. 90)
As Dr. Judith Bury of the Brook Advisory Center has pointed out, " There is overwhelming evidence that, contrary to what you might expect, the provision of contraception leads to an increase in the abortion rate." (Population Research Institute Review, Nov. Dec. 2005, p. 2)
Emergency contraception researcher, Anna Glasier, in a British Medical Journal editorial(9-16-2006)said, "despite the clear increase in the use of emergency contraception, abortion rates have not fallen in the U.K. They have risen from 11 per 1,000 women... in 1984... to 17.8 per 1,000 in 2004." - Posted by: Mark Robertson | Jan 7, 2007 9:57:33 PM

So far stone I haven’t read a very successful rebuttal to this post. Care to give it a try?

[Dan Beyer]

Jack, nobody is trying to outlaw contraceptives and no one here is implying it either. It has been very clear what has been said.
As far as condemnation and shame, they are not evil things. If someone does something that is not right, that could lead to serious consequences, condemnation and shame can be used for good. For example, if a child steals something, condemning the act of stealing and teaching the child that it is shameful can have positive results.

[Engineer]

A. J.
Sorry to upset you. I was just kidding solomon who had advised you about things I think that I did not know till then that I thought. I figured that his selected means of communication was through you. Didn't mean to imply that you were involved except as a transmitter.

[jack]

So, condemnation and shame are the only possible way to teach a child? Sounds kinda like "beating the devil out of them" doesn't it? Oh, sorry, that's right, "beating the devil out" of children used to be the religious way of child rearing. Are you wishing for a return?

BTW: Now that you have held what I said about the real issue being a desire to outlaw all contraception in contempt, why don't you try to refute my logic?

[Joe Six-Pack]

Engineer, why are referring to me like that? I was not speculating about what you or anyone thinks. I just stated my own thoughts.

Actually adultery is already illegal, but it’s not enforced....or it’s just selectively enforced.

I am pretty sure it’s Texas that holds the prize for the most teen pregnancies....and coincidentally its one of the few states that does not teach sex education in high school.

"On the other hand, I think the pro-choice movement sees men and women as partners" Kate

I wish I could agree but unfortunately I cannot. 1. I don’t think men today have any legal choice in the abortion decision. 2. Pro-choice women want support for their rights to sexual freedom from men, but simultaneously they totally condemn, demonize, and criminalize a man's right to the same thing. That's doesn't sound like much a partnership.

[Dan Beyer]

The Secret Issue! Oooh! Is that like the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy?
What we really desire is to eradicate ignorance of the underlying roots of the problems we're facing in our world.
But that makes me some kind of saturday morning cartoon monster with a sinister diabolical scheme to do what? Take over the world?
Yeah, ok.

[Dan Beyer]

If you catch your child stealing or doing any other wrong thing, do you let them know your disgust and explain to them why it's wrong or do you give the child a high five and show him how to be a better thief?

[jack]

Anyone else see the secret issue here?

Contraception causes abortion and abortion equals murder. Therefor, contraception is murder.

They really want all forms of contraception made illegal. This will be followed shortly by making sex outside of a religiously approved marriage illegal.

Common Mark. I've bet you've got the "sex permits" already designed.

[jack]

Condemning and shaming people is an extremely successful way of making the person holding them in contempt feel big, powerful and better than.

AS if all sexual behaviour should require an approval statemtn signed by say.......

Mark Robertson

[Dan Beyer]

Let's see, people use contraceptives to prevent pregnancies. Contraceptives are not 100% effective preventing pregnancies. Pregnancies accidently occur because of this fact. Over 93% of all abortions are because of unwanted or inconvenient pregnancies. Abortions terminate pregnancies.
I'm sorry what didn't you understand about that?!

[stone]

"Contraception actually increases abortion"
~Mark

this is about the dumbest comment I have ever read (and I did read his entire posts, all of them, no matter how far from reality they are).
An equivalent comment to this would be: thoroughly washing dishes that were holding raw chicken increases the likelihood of someone contracting Salmonella

[Dan Beyer]

Well if you take the mindset you have why not go completely off the deep end and say "Murder is going to happen, so let's just give in! Rape is going to happen even if we try to stop it, why try? Crime is going to happen even if we have Police, why not get rid of them? That makes sense?!
Thanks, but no thanks Mr. mind reader.

[T. Hanson]

Abortions will happen either legal or illegally. Just like sex will happen with or without education. Just because a topic makes you uncomfortable it does not mean it won't/will happen if there is a law against/for it.

[Dan Beyer]

Take for example drug use. Should we give in and say "Well they're going to do it anyway, so we should show them the proper, safe way to take drugs!"???
Kids will always test limits, but they want to know they're there to know they're safe and loved.
Adults are supposed to teach the young the difference between right and wrong. To be strong and not give up and come up with stupid excuses for correctable weaknesses.

[Mark Robertson]

Right, we can't tell young people to just say no. And young people should have a choice in every activity. Right. They are just going to do it anyway.
What sexually promiscuous young people actually need is to be condemned and shamed.
Yes, we are all sinners, but that doesn't mean young people can't harshly hear from adults the difference between right and wrong. And it seems that shame, which in appropriate amounts is necessary, has gone out the window.
It is a point though that if a child isn't taught from a young age how to behave, it is difficult to start doing so in the teen years. Thankyou.

Mark Robertson
Independence

[Mark Robertson]

The Guttmacher Institute reports that 9 out of 10 sexually active women of reproductive age already use contraception. Nearly half(46%) of women with unintended pregnancies and more than half(54%) of women seeking abortions were using contraception in the month they became pregnant.
Furthermore, in 2006, Guttmacher issued a report ranking the 50 states by how aggressively they promote contraceptives. It showed that the states that were most aggressive in promoting contraceptives, such as Calif. and New York, had some of the highest teen pregnancy and abortion rates.
The least aggressive states in promoting contraception, such as Nebraska and the Dakotas, had the lowest teen pregnancy and aboriton rates.
Contraception actually increases abortion. A major reason is that it gives false security and thus increases sexual activity. Thankyou.

Mark Robertson
Independence

[Engineer]

solomon
I am ambivalent on the matter of abortion. There is much to be said on either side. On the other hand, I do think Roe vs. Wade was a shockingly bad decision on Constitutional Law. To my mind it was one of the three worst decisions made by the Court in my lifetime. But as you seem to know I think things that I don't think I do, maybe you can drop a post to A.J. so he can let me know what I actually think on the matter.

[Mark Robertson]

Layla tells us that her friends had to get illegal abortions or go to states where abortion was legal or to Mexico to get abortions before Roe. Once again, abortion did not become legal in Mexico until last year and then only in Mexico City. Typical pro-abort propaganda. Thankyou.

Mark Robertson
Independence

[Kate]

T Hanson, I think that, in a strange way, it kind of makes sense. By law, the decision whether or not to have an abortion belongs entirely to the mother. Over the years, the teaching power of the law and the direct message of pro-choice women, caused men who are pro-choice to believe that they have no say in the matter and not even a place in the discussion.

On the other hand, I think the pro-choice movement sees men and women as partners, working together to save the lives of babies. Because of that, men who are pro-choice believe they can make a difference, and would be more inclined to write a letter to the editor.

[jack]

Much as I hate too, I agree with Dan. Women have much to say about what men should do. In addition, for there to be a mother requires there to be a father.

And the father doesn't count because...?

[Dan Beyer]

Well considering men are part of the human race, I don't see why they can't have a say about issues that concern the human race.

[T. Hanson]

Do find it interesting most letters on this topic does come from men.. Not all, but most seem anti-abortion.

[jack]

What amazes me is how many are 1) Anti-abortion; 2) Anti-birth control and; 3) Anti-sex education simultaneously. Seems really counter productive to me.

Especially those that claim teaching birth-control to teenagers is giving them a choice. How stupid. They already have a choice. That choice is always there. Telling them, "There is no choice. Just say no," is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.

This wish to turn back the clock is, in reality, a wish to return to "the good old days" of marrying a girl off as soon as she hit puberty.

[solomon]

AJ,

Don't tell our friend the Engineer that. According to him, if you are not treated equally its your own fault.