Birth Control vs. Abortion

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Lost_Sheep

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Many people on the Left have made the argument that if the government were to cut off funding for “free” birth control, the number of unwanted pregnancies would go up which in turn would result in more abortions.

Is this a sound argument? And if not, what are some viable arguments to counter this claim?
 
To me, this is a sound argument. It would make sense that one would follow the other.

HOWEVER,

Counter arguments could include:
  1. Use of birth control gives people a sense of security, which leads to more sex, which leads to more pregnancies, which leads to more abortions.
  2. The use of ABC and abortions are both mortal sins. Despite what effect ABC has on the abortion rate, we cannot accept one mortal sin to avoid another.
 
Probably not a sound argument since, historically, wider spread availability of birth control led to more rather than less abortions.
 
Corki said:
Probably not a sound argument since, historically, wider spread availability of birth control led to more rather than less abortions.
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Not to mention higher rate of stds.
😦
 
I shudder to think about how many of my at-risk students would have had pregnancies beginning at age 13 or 14 without the availability of contraception. Many of my students were foster kids themselves. :eek:
 
Lost_Sheep said:
Many people on the Left have made the argument that if the government were to cut off funding for “free” birth control, the number of unwanted pregnancies would go up which in turn would result in more abortions.

Is this a sound argument? And if not, what are some viable arguments to counter this claim?
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The only way that this could be a valid argument is if birth control could prevent pregnancy 100% of the time. It can’t.
 
on_the_hill said:
  1. The use of ABC and abortions are both mortal sins. Despite what effect ABC has on the abortion rate, we cannot accept one mortal sin to avoid another.
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Those who support ABC and abortions are probably not going to be persuaded by a moral argument. I need to prove to someone that if the government takes away free birth control that the abortion rate will not necessarily go up.
 
While I’m not sure on the data’s accuracy, I remember a poster saying something to the effect of the following.

More birth control = more sex = more chances for contraceptive failure = more unplanned babies = more abortions as those parents were avoiding pregnancy in the first place and are less likely to continue the term.

I’m not sure on the data to back it up, but it sounds plausible.
 
Lost_Sheep said:
I need to prove to someone that if the government takes away free birth control that the abortion rate will not necessarily go up.
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I think that will be very hard to prove.

The abortion rate continues to drop, does it not?
operationrescue.org/about-abortion/abortions-in-america/

ABC is not any less available than it had been, and people are certainly not having less sex than they had been.

If it’s not birth control that’s causing the decline, what is it?

I wonder how the birth rate compares to the abortion rate over time. I’d love to start digging through CDC data, but it’s bedtime for me.
 
Not really being that helpful here but I would recommend watching Helen Alvare’s talks on Youtube. She usually talks about birth control and abortions. She raised excellent points that you may need. A very intelligent lady.

My opinion: birth control cheapened sex, it made it more available. Birth control fail. Abortions spike up. However it is not black and white.

Both are mortal sins but I would be daring enough to say that abortions are worse than ABC, because it involves the termination of one’s life. ABC is a sin between two consenting people. Which is why pro lifers are against legal abortion but they hardly advocate making birth control illegal.
 
Lost_Sheep said:
Those who support ABC and abortions are probably not going to be persuaded by a moral argument. I need to prove to someone that if the government takes away free birth control that the abortion rate will not necessarily go up.
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I agree with Corki that historically speaking, more access to birth-control has led to more abortions. That said, I also agree that simply cutting free birth control in our cultural context may well make the abortion rate go up, at least for a while. No, what needs to accompany cutbacks in birth-control is a seismic shift in attitudes about sex and sex-ed. I don’t see that happening anytime soon, especially from folks on the left. That’s a direct challenge to their worldview.

However, it’s also fair to say that if birth-control everywhere vanished right now, there may indeed be a lot of people who suddenly changed their plans. It’s an interesting thought experiment. I suppose it depends on the demographic using the free birth-control.
 
Closing the stable door after the horse has bolted never works.

Need to realise that sex is the real problem, ie that kids and adults see sex as almost mandatory and certainly no big moral issue. Just something they do.

Then start to think re the most responsible and effective way to deal with the almost inevitable results of unprotected sex. ABC or abortion?

And to realise there is need for what can be seen as the lesser of two evils.

And to try to teach that we all need to take full responsibility for our actions. Which includes sex.
 
on_the_hill said:
I think that will be very hard to prove.

The abortion rate continues to drop, does it not?
operationrescue.org/about-abortion/abortions-in-america/

ABC is not any less available than it had been, and people are certainly not having less sex than they had been.

If it’s not birth control that’s causing the decline, what is it? .
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Part of it may be an increase in chemical abortions, which are not counted since they take place at home.

I highly recommend Dr Janet Smith’s talk Contraception Why Not?
She explains the link between contraception and abortion very clearly.

.
 
Here’s a radical new idea for free birth control.

Not having sex.
 
Lost_Sheep said:
Many people on the Left have made the argument that if the government were to cut off funding for “free” birth control, the number of unwanted pregnancies would go up which in turn would result in more abortions.

Is this a sound argument? And if not, what are some viable arguments to counter this claim?
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Being a teacher of teens, yeah, I think it’s a sound argument. The frontal lobes that think through consequences don’t fully develop until you’re about 25…add in raging hormones and a troubled homelife…not good.
 
ShadowBoxer said:
The only way that this could be a valid argument is if birth control could prevent pregnancy 100% of the time. It can’t.
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There is fallacy in your argument. Studies of teens who don’t use contraception puts their risk of pregnancy at 90% likelihood within a year. Just using condoms, drops that risk to 12%…add in a second method with that and your risk is only at 2-3%. To argue abortion wouldn’t go up is very false, even if no method is 100%.
 
WingsOfEagles said:
There is fallacy in your argument. Studies of teens who don’t use contraception puts their risk of pregnancy at 90% likelihood within a year. Just using condoms, drops that risk to 12%…add in a second method with that and your risk is only at 2-3%. To argue abortion wouldn’t go up is very false, even if no method is 100%.
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👍

As others have said, the only real way to avoid pregnancy is no sex.
 
Unfortunately, the issue presented in the first post is at least partially true. Simply reducing contraceptive use won’t solve any problems. Sex is pushed on us, particularly our youth, from all directions. It’ll take a cultural shift away from seeing premarital sex as good and routine before any progress is made. And that’ll take more than simply changing laws and requiring people to deal with the consequences, which would be perceived as an imposed injustice, not a consequence of moral bad decisions on the couple’s part. We need a broader cultural shift.
 
Rosebud77 said:
👍

As others have said, the only real way to avoid pregnancy is no sex.
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True, but in a practical sense reducing the likelihood of unwanted pregnancies among those who will not abstain is important too.
 
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