Good discussion on abortion framing

[mrgorth]

from NPR's Morning Edition:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5261265

[SaveElmer]

1. Watch out...

You are about to get the "treatment"

:popcorn:

[mrgorth]

2. Don't worry

They already hate my Casey voting arse.

[SaveElmer]

3. It's a good article btw...

Alot of Democrats have been saying we need a better approach on this issue...the current dialogue is not working for us!

[BrklynLiberal]

4. I always thought that the those of us who were pro-choice...

(and therefore the true "Pro-lifers", since we seem to be the ones who are opposed to war, the death penalty, and support pre- and post-natal health care, education etc)

were already supporting the idea that abortion should be legal, safe and RARE...which is exactly where it was heading under Clinton.

If people have good sex education combined with good jobs, there is less reason for abortions.

Why do we need to add the "good" or "bad" connotation to it? I do not believe anyone would say an abortion is "good", but there are circumstances when it might be a necessary choice.

There is never a reason to use a word like "good" or "bad" to describe the reasons one has an abortion. I would think it is always difficult, but the main point is that the choice must always be available.

[mrgorth]

6. Did you listen to the piece?

[BrklynLiberal]

7. Sorry, just read the article.

Saletan, who describes himself as pro-choice, wrote a 2004 book about how conservatives won the abortion wars. He says abortion-rights supporters shouldn't be afraid to say that, although abortion should remain legal, it's fundamentally a bad thing and its numbers should be reduced -- to zero if possible.

[CTyankee]

5. When I read that quote about counseling I wonder where

the woman had her abortion. Planned Parenthood has always had counseling prior to the abortion, to make sure the woman is certain in her decision. This idea of post abortion counseling is mostly a creation of antichoicers, to give the idea of "needing" a kind of crisis counseling after something bad happened to you.

If you go to the Alan Guttmacher Institute (www.agi.org) you can find studies that have been done on this. Most women report being relieved after the abortion. I have known many women who have had an abortion and only one that I know of regrets it. But we all know that sometimes you can regret what you have done. It is called Moral Choice. Women are moral agents. If they need counseling down the line, they can get it for this just as easily as they can get it for other issues in their lives. Singling out abortion among all decision all women make is a tactic designed to make abortion look harmful.

Do you recall Surgeon General Koop? He wa SG under Reagan and was prolife. He was also a medical doctor. When the admin. pressed him to come out with a report that backed their view that abortion was emotionally harmful to women, Koop wouldn't do it. He said that the studies he had seen NEVER proved that. He stood his ground and the Reagan Admin. backed down.