David actually the opposite is true, my question about the the dividing line between abortion and murder is exactly reality. It's the reality that no one (including you) wants to face. Just tell me that last moment that abortion is acceptable in your view, then you will be dealing with reality as I am.
Your insistence on installing a dividing line between abortion and murder is invalid; they are not a continum. The only reality to face is that millions of women, around the world, choose to obtain abortions for reasons that affect their lives, not yours or mine. And therefore it is none of your business. Or mine.
Even if I agreed with your analogy (and I don't) your argument fails as the logic is "two wrongs make a right"
There is no logic argument, yours is entirely an emotional position.
So then how many wrongs do make a right? Six, twenty, fifty? What makes you think that wrongful actions and rightful actions are even on the same scale?
Throughout history one fact has always been very clear: "Might makes right." That is, and always will be "reality".
When a society, be it ancient or modern, has enough power to force its values onto its populations, those said values become "right". All other values will be punished, with death if necessary. No culture has ever escaped from that reality, including ours.
Useless moralizing is a complete waste of time and is a departure from reality. Actions that to one religious cult may seem moral are seen as irrelevent to others. Please consider the following statistics to see just how far out of touch with reality your anti-abortion views really are.
WORLDWIDENumber of abortions per year: Approximately 42 Million
Number of abortions per day: Approximately 115,000
Where abortions occur:
83% of all abortions are obtained in developing countries and 17% occur in developed countries.
UNITED STATESNumber of abortions per year: 1.37 Million (1996)
Number of abortions per day: Approximately 3,700
Who's having abortions (age)?
52% of women obtaining abortions in the U.S. are younger than 25: Women aged 20-24 obtain 32% of all abortions; Teenagers obtain 20% and girls under 15 account for 1.2%.
Who's having abortions (race)?
While white women obtain 60% of all abortions, their abortion rate is well below that of minority women. Black women are more than 3 times as likely as white women to have an abortion, and Hispanic women are roughly 2 times as likely.
Who's having abortions (marital status)?
64.4% of all abortions are performed on never-married women; Married women account for 18.4% of all abortions and divorced women obtain 9.4%.
Who's having abortions (religion)?
Women identifying themselves as Protestants obtain 37.4% of all abortions in the U.S.; Catholic women account for 31.3%, Jewish women account for 1.3%, and women with no religious affiliation obtain 23.7% of all abortions. 18% of all abortions are performed on women who identify themselves as "Born-again/Evangelical".
Women with family incomes less than $15,000 obtain 28.7% of all abortions; Women with family incomes between $15,000 and $29,999 obtain 19.5%; Women with family incomes between $30,000 and $59,999 obtain 38.0%; Women with family incomes over $60,000 obtain 13.8%.
Why women have abortions
1% of all abortions occur because of rape or incest; 6% of abortions occur because of potential health problems regarding either the mother or child, and 93% of all abortions occur for social reasons (i.e. the child is unwanted or inconvenient).
At what gestational ages are abortions performed:
52% of all abortions occur before the 9th week of pregnancy, 25% happen between the 9th & 10th week, 12% happen between the 11th and 12th week, 6% happen between the 13th & 15th week, 4% happen between the 16th & 20th week, and 1% of all abortions (16,450/yr.) happen after the 20th week of pregnancy.
Likelihood of abortion:
An estimated 43% of all women will have at least 1 abortion by the time they are 45 years old. 47% of all abortions are performed on women who have had at least one previous abortion.
Abortion coverage:
48% of all abortion facilities provide services after the 12th week of pregnancy. 9 in 10 managed care plans routinely cover abortion or provide limited coverage. About 14% of all abortions in the United States are paid for with public funds, virtually all of which are state funds. 16 states (CA, CT, HI, ED, IL, MA , MD, MD, MN, MT, NJ, NM, NY, OR, VT, WA and WV) pay for abortions for some poor women.
WORLDWIDE• Although abortion rates and ratios (the number of abortions for every 100 births) in Eastern Europe have fallen significantly in recent years, they remain higher than in any other region. In 2003, there were more abortions than births in that region (105 abortions for every 100 births).
• The estimated number of induced abortions in Africa has increased since 1995; however, the region’s abortion rate has declined because of an increase in the number of reproductive-age women.
• Induced abortion rates and numbers in Asia and Latin America show modest declines since 1995.
• The lowest abortion rate in the world is in Western Europe (12 per 1,000 women aged 15–44). The rate is 17 in Northern Europe and 21 in Northern America (Canada and the United States of America).
• Because the world’s population is concentrated in Asia, most abortions occur there (26 million yearly); nine million of these take place in China.
ABORTION LAW• Legal restrictions on abortion do not affect its incidence. For example, the abortion rate is 29 in Africa, where abortion is illegal in many circumstances in most countries, and it is 28 in Europe, where abortion is generally permitted on broad grounds. The lowest rates in the world are in Western and Northern Europe, where abortion is accessible with few restrictions.
• Where abortion is legal and permitted on broad grounds, it is generally safe, and where it is illegal in many circumstances, it is often unsafe. For example, in South Africa, the incidence of infection resulting from abortion decreased by 52% after the abortion law was liberalized in 1996.
• Since 1997, the grounds on which abortion may be legally performed were broadened in 17 countries: Benin, Bhutan, Cambodia, Chad, Colombia, Ethiopia, Guinea, Iran, Mali, Nepal, Niger, Portugal, Saint Lucia, Swaziland, Switzerland, Thailand and Togo. One territory and three states in Australia (Capital Territory, Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia) and one state in Mexico (Mexico Federal District) also liberalized their laws. In contrast, El Salvador and Nicaragua changed their already restrictive laws to prohibit abortion entirely while Poland withdrew socioeconomic reasons as a legal ground.
• Worldwide, medication abortion has gained broad acceptance. At least 39 countries have registered mifepristone, 35 in the last 10 years.
UNSAFE ABORTION• The World Health Organization defines unsafe abortion as a procedure for terminating an unintended pregnancy carried out either by persons lacking the necessary skills or in an environment that does not conform to minimal medical standards, or both.
• Worldwide, 48% of all induced abortions are unsafe. However, in developed regions, nearly all abortions (92%) are safe, whereas in developing countries, more than half (55%) are unsafe.
Samples of Unsafe Abortion Methods Used• Drinking turpentine, bleach or tea made with livestock manure
• Inserting herbal preparations into the vagina or cervix
• Placing foreign bodies, such as a stick, coat hanger or chicken bone, into the uterus
• Jumping from the top of stairs or a roof
• More than 95% of abortions in Africa and Latin America are performed under unsafe circumstances, as are about 60% of abortions in Asia (excluding Eastern Asia).
• The worldwide unsafe abortion rate was essentially unchanged between 1995 and 2003 (15 and 14 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44, respectively). Because the overall abortion rate declined during this period, the proportion of all abortions that are unsafe increased from 44% to 47%.
CONSEQUENCES OF UNSAFE ABORTION• Worldwide, an estimated five million women are hospitalized each year for treatment of abortion-related complications, such as hemorrhage and sepsis.
• Complications due to unsafe abortion procedures account for an estimated 13% of maternal deaths worldwide, or 70,000 per year.
• Almost all abortion-related deaths occur in developing countries. They are highest in Africa, where there were an estimated 650 deaths per 100,000 unsafe abortions in 2003, compared with 10 per 100,000 in developed regions.
• Approximately 220,000 children worldwide lose their mothers every year from abortion-related deaths.
• Additional consequences of unsafe abortion include loss of productivity, economic burden on public health systems, stigma and long-term health problems, such as infertility.
UNINTENDED PREGNANCIES: THE ROOT OF ABORTION• Of the estimated 208 million pregnancies that occurred worldwide in 2008, 33 million (16%) resulted in unintended births and 41 million ended in induced abortions. (20%)
• Of the 23 million pregnancies that occur in developed countries, more than 40% are unintended, and 28% end in induced abortion.
• Of the 185 million pregnancies that occur in developing countries, 40% are unintended, and 19% end in induced abortion.
• The average woman must use some form of effective contraception for at least 20 years if she wants to limit her family size to two children, and 16 years if she wants four children.
• According to a 2009 report, an estimated 215 million women in the developing world have an unmet need for modern contraceptives, meaning they want to avoid a pregnancy but are using a traditional family planning method or no method.
• Some 82% of unintended pregnancies in developing countries occur among women who have an unmet need for modern contraceptives; women using modern contraceptives account for only 18% of unintended pregnancies.
• The reasons why women (married and unmarried) do not use contraceptives most commonly include concerns about possible health and side-effects and the belief that they are not at risk of getting pregnant.
© Copyright 1996-2008, The Alan Guttmacher Institute. (http://www.agi-usa.org)
