The lowest abortion rates are found where it is legal:: The world-wide link between contraception & fewer abortions

http://www.laconiadailysun.com/story/james-veverka-3-9


The world-wide link between contraception & fewer abortions  


To the Editor,


The Pro-Life position, while lofty sounding, is harmful, anti-family and costs us a great deal. Its time for some hard facts to prove how dangerous and counter productive the conservative position is. These questions must be answered: Does outlawing abortion make it rarer? Is making contraception difficult to obtain good for families or society? 


In both cases the answer is an emphatic no. Like prohibition and the drug war, the conservative position causes more problems than it solves.  As a whole, the policies of the right do not work while progressive harm-reduction policies do. The proof is in the numbers. The highest abortion rates are found where abortion is illegal. The lowest rates are found where abortion is legal. 


Here are the latest numbers from a global study (Guttmacher/WHO) covering 2003 to 2008 which was recently published in the journal Lancet. The world rate for abortion is 28 per 1000 women. The lowest rates are found in western European nations where abortion is legal and family planning is easily accessed.  Here is a sampling from the study. Belgium is 7 per 1000 women; Germany 8; Netherlands and Switzerland 9; New Zealand 18; USA 21. As you can see, we could do much better.


Now let's look at the fruits of the so-called pro-life agenda. Next are places where abortion is criminalized. Peru 56 per 1000; Uganda 54; Dominican Republic 47; Philippines 27.  Most of the 47,000 deaths and 8.5 million women who had serious medical problems from unsafe abortions were in "pro-life" nations in Latin America, Africa, or eastern Europe. Pro-life becomes pro-death and pro-sickness in these places

Do you want fewer abortions in America? Do you want less poverty and welfare? Happier families? If your answers are yes than you must vote for those who support progressive harm-reduction policies. All family services must be legal and easily accessible. Healthcare must be a part of our national "commons".


James Veverka
Tilton