538: Better Birth Control Hasn't Made Abortion Obsolete

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Has modern birth control made abortion a thing of the past? That’s what lawyers for the state of Mississippi want the U.S. Supreme Court to think. In a brief in the the pending case that could overturn abortion rights nationwide, Mississippi’s lawyers wrote, “[E]ven if abortion may once have been thought critical as an alternative to contraception, changed circumstances undermine that view.” Access to birth control has improved, they noted, and some methods’ failure rates are “now approaching zero.” According to Mississippi’s lawyers, effective birth control means people don’t need abortions anymore.

But Sarah, a professional living in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., did.1 She had always wanted four children, but four was it. So after her fourth child was born, she and her husband researched birth-control options and landed on the one that seemed foolproof: a vasectomy. “We’re very thorough people, very by the book,” she said. “We wanted to make very, very sure we didn’t have an accident.”

Then, on Mother’s Day, Sarah found herself in her bathroom looking at two lines on a pregnancy test. She knew almost immediately that she was going to have an abortion.

Statistically, Sarah’s experience was very unlikely. There’s a reason why vasectomies are touted as one of the most reliable forms of birth control: They have a failure rate of less than 1 percent,2 as opposed to something like condoms, which has a failure rate closer to 13 percent. But because a 1 percent chance isn’t zero, some vasectomies fail every year, just like every other form of birth control. As a result, thousands of Americans who took steps to avoid getting pregnant will seek an abortion anyway. A report from the Guttmacher Institute found that about half of abortion patients used contraception in the month they became pregnant. Framing abortion as a procedure that can be avoided through personal responsibility doesn’t prevent abortions from happening, experts told us. Instead, it just places more blame on women.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/better-birth-control-hasnt-made-abortion-obsolete/

[arlyellowdog]

1. Why is the example always so painless

There is nothing, no pain in the world as horrifying as our reality. 14 weeks, a desperately wanted child. The tests came back perfect. He was named. But, suddenly the amniotic sac broke. His heart beats but he will no longer develop, no lungs, no kidneys. Praying an infection will not kill his mother. Maybe I only still believe in God because we don’t live in Texas. It hurts so bad. It’s healthcare not politics.

[Rebl2]

2. Vasectomy fail

happened to an older cousin of mine many, many years ago. Never really knew her, but know of it because my mother told me about it after she got pregnant again. This was probably back in the late 1970’s. Sure way of having no children is take out the ovaries, but that’s not going to happen unless you have ovarian cancer.

[childfreebychoice]

3. Back in '71, got preg using diaphragm. Hubby and I both never wanted kids

The panic I felt was unbelievable. Had to go out of country for abortion, tubal. Then hubby went out of country for vasectomy. Friend had five kids, used pills. Went for pretesting to get tubal, was preg with 6th child. She was so upset, and angry, but had baby anyway, at husb insistence, only to find hubby had another baby on way with mistress.

[The Jungle 1]

4. Free birth control would reduce abortion

A new study by investigators at Washington University reports that providing birth control to women at no cost substantially reduces unplanned pregnancies and cuts abortion rates by a range of 62 to 78 percent compared to the national rate.
The study is not new 2012.
https://medicine.wustl.edu/news/access-to-free-birth-control-reduces-abortion-rates/
Problem is the right is going after birth control next.

[DENVERPOPS]

5. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you

for including that last sentence. If they get the Roe reversed, they are already talking about going after ANY form of Birth Control next...........