[clue-talk] How do CLUEbies vote?

[Brian Gibson]

Yes, abortions will happen whether it's criminalized
or not.  From the perspective of the woman seeking the
abortion, if the (economic, social, personal, etc.)
benefit of getting one is greater than the (economic,
social, personal, etc.) risk/cost, and an opportunity
is available, the abortion will take place.  

It's why people buy lottery tickets.  It's why some
people parachute.  It's why some people speed.  It's
why some people skim from the office supply closet. 
It's why some people smoke marijuana.  It's why meth
is one of the fastest growing drug of choice.  Though
people may not think deeply about all the choices they
make, but at some level, their choices are governed by
how much benefit they'll receive versus how much it'll
cost them.  Some people are less risk averse than
others.  Laws will not prevent people from choosing
one action over the other.  What laws do is inform a
person that should they choose a certain course of
action that they may face certain consequences should
they be charged and successfully prosecuted.  

So as I said before criminalizing abortions will do
little to prevent them from occurring.  It'll
certainly increase the risk and cost to the person
seeking the abortion, arguably needlessly so.  For
those, where the benefit is greater than this now
higher risk/cost they'll get the abortion if it's
available.  Sean's example of the elite politician and
parent, comes to mind.

Social conservatives tend to attack what they perceive
as a problem the wrong way.  Trying to overturn Roe v.
Wade is the wrong tactic.  Should it ever get
overturned, it just means that the choice of
legalization will be handled at the state level, and
so rather than going to one's family doctor to address
the issue, you'll have people crossing state lines
going to public clinics or, heaven forbid, out of your
HMO's network.  Seriously, if you want to curb
abortion, help educate the populous on the importance
of contraception and family planning.  And none of
this abstinence-only til marriage programs.  Not
everyone wants to get married.  Not everyone _can_ get
married.  And realistically, not everyone will wait
til they're married.  Sex was around long before
marriage ever entered the scene.  

It's really disheartening to have a teen give birth to
a child, that dies due to negligence, indifference, or
malice, and tossed out in the garbage.  This could
have been prevented if the teen had comprehensive sex
education, access to contraception, and encouraged to
use it.  An open dialogue with her parents and/or her
physician would have helped in listing all her
available options, and perhaps even convinced her to
not engage in sex at all in the first place because
her subsequent actions clearly showed she lacked the
maturity to engage in it.  Lastly, even knowledge of
safe haven laws may have helped.  

And that's the key.  One can't have too much
information.  The more information one has available
the more likely the choice one makes will be the right
one for them.




--- "David L. Willson" <DLWillson at TheGeek.NU> wrote:

> Brian,
> 
> Your post is far too long, so I need to paraphrase,
> to be sure I get your meaning.
> 
> Do I understand your argument in favor of legal,
> safe, convenient abortion to be that
> abortion will happen whether it is legal, safe, and
> convenient or not, so it may as well
> be legal, safe, and convenient?
> 
> David
> _______________________________________________
> clue-talk mailing list
> clue-talk at cluedenver.org
> http://www.cluedenver.org/mailman/listinfo/clue-talk
> 



       
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