beth

I think the true problem is the fact that people are conceiving them, to begin with...as what Helen basically said.

Roland98

Totally in agreement. On every Christian forum I post on, there are 3 topics that always get immediate responses: homosexuality, Catholics, and abortion. Sick of all the bickering about abortion, I started a thread to discuss alternatives to both unintended pregnancies (better sex ed, condom distribution, abstinence, the whole works) and abortion (easier adoptions, making life easier for pregnant women and new mothers, places like HelenM suggested, etc.) My question was, how to implement them, and what other ideas did people have?

You can imagine how quickly that thread died... Unfortunately, the experience I've had with many Christians (yes, broad generalization here that I know is not universally applicable) is that they want to make it illegal, but they don't have any ideas (nor do many even want to help) about what to do with the mothers who don't want to be pregnant, and the babies they don't want to keep or take care of.

fatherphil

how in the world could you ever stop unwanted pregnancy aside from sterilization?

beth

Perhaps there should be more free sterilization. I know I would get it done if I didn't have to shell out five grand to. Also, if people would be more responsibly sexually, the preganancy rates would drop.

fatherphil

then there is a political platform to start, free sterilization.

btw, is there free abortion? or perhaps there can be an abortion tax to fund the free sterilization program.

beth

The only free abortion I've heard of is when groups pay for really poor or young girls to get it. Some insurance will cover it with only copays.

I don't forsee there being any platforms for free sterilization anytime soon. Most things to do with sex doesn't fly by too well with voters. Also, there is the fear that the government will begin to mandate sterilization.

Roland98

Did that come from my post? Note, I never suggested that every unwanted pregnancy would be prevented--AFAIK, even sterilization doesn't do that (aside from full hysterectomy). But surely there are many ways to reduce their numbers, and thus the number of abortions performed. Sadly though, most of these alternatives are either unacceptable to many Christians, or they're too busy decrying abortion to even discuss them.

fatherphil

roland, aside from no intercourse i think any contraception is doomed to failure because of our relentless testing of the system. in otherwords, sooner or later a baby will result in our constant sexual activity and that baby will be unwanted or unplanned. the challenge it seems is to change the parents perception of appropriate reactions to such an occurance. there was a time when aborting that child was thought to be reprehensible and there was a time when aborting that child was thoght to be routine (did you ever see fast times at ridgemont high"?). i think we need to shift the perception.

beth

Right Phil, but what if those parents will either have to decide on the mom's life or the baby's and if they don't, both mother and unborn child dies?

I don't think it is doomed, I think that people need to have more responsible attitudes toward sex, but that isn't likely to happen since sex is still a taboo.

fatherphil

life of mother wins out over life of baby. if only that were the only reason abortions were being done.

doomed to failure i think because i don't think a foolproof form of cotraception has come up and apparently even standard sterilization is not 100% fool proof.