A new abortion thread

Started by Kanzler June 18th, 2015 11:43 AM
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  • 1 replies

Kanzler

naughty biscotti

Male
Toronto
Seen April 22nd, 2022
Posted March 11th, 2022
5,957 posts
14.8 Years
Let's have a discussion on the status of abortion. Unlike previous debates, I want to highlight several issues that I feel deserve more attention or are not so black and white. With that being said, if you've got anything relevant to bring to the table, go on right ahead.

Public funding of abortion

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, or Obamacare) in its current form does not fund abortions publicly.1 Moreover, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill permanently barring federal funding of abortions in January of this year.2 What do you think of the status quo? Should abortion be funded by taxpayer dollars? How do we weigh taxpayers' conscience with the accessibility of abortion? What would be a fair and equitable solution?

The decline of America's abortion rate

Spoiler:

According to the Guttmacher Institute, the abortion rate in America (per 1000 women) have been decreasing to the lowest levels since Roe v. Wade - 1973. What do you think is the cause of this? Why would the rate of abortion decrease even as public awareness and interest in the abortion issue increases? Does it have anything to do with a reduction in the availability of abortion? Should we increase the availability of abortion in response?

Later-term abortions

Most (or many) people would agree that abortion should be possible. With that in mind, the issue of later term abortions is a lot more controversial. Does a woman's right over her body continue to trump opposing opinions as the pregnancy progresses? At what point should abortions become illegal?

Restrictions and the availability of abortion

While 95 measures to expand the availability of abortion have been enacted since 2010, 231 measures have been enacted to restrict the availability of abortion in the United States. While in 2000 only 5 states were considered by the Guttmacher Institute to be hostile to abortion rights, in 2014 there are 27 states considered to be hostile and 18 of them are considered to be extremely hostile.3 In light of this, are we still right to assume that Americans are becoming more comfortable with abortion? Should abortion become more available? Do you think that the recent wave of abortion legislation reflects public opinion on abortion?

Discuss.

Sources:
1: http://www.vox.com/cards/abortion-policy-in-america/does-obamacare-fund-abortions
2: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/22/us-usa-abortion-congress-idUSKBN0KV21Z20150122
3: http://www.guttmacher.org/media/inthenews/2015/01/05/

Her

Age 29
Seen 3 Hours Ago
Posted 1 Week Ago
It's better for me to speak from an NZ perspective, as I'm more aware of the climate here and a non-American perspective amongst the mainly American posters on this forum is needed.

In NZ, our abortion rate is lower than the American rate - ~14.4 abortions per 1000 women to the ~16.9 over there. These aren't exact due to the likelihood of different statistic gathering methods, but we're still considerably high compared to many other Western countries (Germany has a 7.1 abortion rate, Scotland even higher with a rate of 11.2). Obtaining statistics for abortion rates in our neighbour Australia is nigh on impossible, but this suggests that it could be as much as 19.1 for every 1000 women there. A quick little browse of Guttmacher indicates that NZ is actually considerably low on the scale worldwide, which I found interesting. I would have thought that having the highest levels of sexual violence in the OECD would have increased the rate, but that apparently is not true.

I think the key difference between abortion processes in New Zealand and America is that the process is heavily, if not entirely, subsidised by various forms of healthcare outside of one's own insurance. So the financial cost is more or less a non-factor here, which is very good. The actual process to getting an abortion is intentionally very drawn out, though. IIRC, you have to go to no less than three separate meetings in order to obtain an abortion - something that only hinders the system. You have to be referred by your doctor to a clinic or a Women's Health centre, who will then refer you to two 'creative consultants' to judge your health and decide whether your abortion can be 'certified'. The woman then has another meeting with either a previous consultant or an entirely new one later on, before they are finally booked with a hospital who is able to perform the procedure. While the doctors and patients regularly subvert the system and more often that not treat it merely as a formality, the lengthy process definitely weighs heavily on the mental health of a woman who just wants the pregnancy to be terminated.

Despite how drawn out the process is here, the availability of abortion care is only increasing, unlike in America and the general accessibility of contraceptives is nothing to worry about. There are a few groups that wish to restrict abortion even further, but they have none of the ferocity and unity that seems to be present in American anti-abortion groups. I don't think the subject of abortion is the best way to gauge NZ's cultural relationship with sex. It's most certainly a relevant way, but I think focusing on the sexual assault rates is a more valid path.

Over all, NZ seems to be steadily declining in abortion rates and abortion as a whole seems to be at a healthy level. Obviously there are things that need to be changed or sped up, but we're at a healthy rate. It's actually quite disturbing just how different our statistics are when it comes to rape - one would think that a stable abortion rate due to accessibility, subsidised cost and safe-sex education would translate to a lower rape rate, but it's still absolutely shocking.