I support a woman’s right to choose, but I do not endorse abortion as a form of birth control. I believe that sex education should be taught in schools and that the curriculum should include both a promotion of abstinence and an education of contraception.
Most Democrats believe in a woman’s right to choose. Most Republicans do not. In fact, Sarah Palin wants to take away abortion as an option under any circumstance, including rape and incest. Some Republicans have also made attempts to take away birth control proclaiming contraception to be abortion.* Imagine life without birth control.
Republicans claim that they believe in less government when it comes to public assistance like welfare and yet they believe in more government when it comes to personal freedoms like a woman’s right to choose. Very few Republicans want to support the fetus that they fought so hard for once it’s actually born.
Therefore, an unwanted fetus that is not permitted to be aborted often becomes an unwanted child, who typically ends up being raised in foster care. While the common perception is that there are long waiting lists to adopt a child, this isn’t the case for ethnic minorities who land in foster care, the vast majority of whom are statistically, unfortunately, far less likely to be adopted than Caucasian babies and children. I have personal experience with the foster care system in America, both as a volunteer who has cared for the children and as a child in that system. I feel that I can say with authority that no child wants to be born unwanted.
When these children go unadopted, they often end up on the streets or in prison. The book, Freak Economics, found evidence that crime drops when abortions are legal. In 1990, the number of unwanted children in America was a little over 190,000. By 2007, after too many years of Republican reign, that number rose over half a million to roughly, 700,000.
I once did a study in which I asked 500 women the same question: “Should abortion be legal?” 50 percent said, “Yes” and 50 percent said, “No.” I then asked them “Have you ever had an abortion?” 80 percent said, “Yes.” So you see, it’s just as important to keep abortion legal for those who believe in it as it is for those who don’t.
- davethomasfoundation.org
- adoptioninstitute.org
- adoptuskids.org
