Frame the Real Abortion Debate: Prevention vs Punishment

[LisaLL]

The abortion debate isn't about "life" or "choice". It's about how we address unintended pregnancies: Prevention or Punishment. It's time we reveal the true values and goals so we can have an honest debate.

The values, facts, and outcomes are on our side. This is what we need to win over the hearts and minds of the majority.

http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/projects/reprod/littmanabortion

[EVDebs]

1. True. "Plan B" should be driving them up the wall..."Morning After Pill"

information alone should be made common knowledge, but for some reason it isn't. Why not ?

[Warpy]

2. They just scream that Plan B causes abortion

Even though to cause an abortion, the ovum first needs to implant into the wall of the uterus, and that is what Plan B prevents.

Oh, well, I guess telling the truth isn't high on the list of things to do for the average fetus fetishist.

Don't kid yourself, by the way. These freaks scream that everything causes abortion except condoms, and they scream that condoms don't work.

Liars.

[noamnety]

11. Acutally it prevents ovulation and fertilization

"Plan B works through delaying or preventing ovulation, by interfering with fertilization (inhibiting the movement of the egg or the sperm through the fallopian tube), and may inhibit implantation by altering the lining of the uterus. It is not effective if the process of implantation has begun. Plan B will NOT cause a miscarriage or abortion. Plan B does not provide any protection or treatment against sexually transmitted infections."

http://www.mckinley.uiuc.edu/health-info/womenhlt/planb.html

[Warpy]

15. No, it prevents implantation

Ovulation and fertilization may already have occurred. This prevents the fertilized ovum from implanting.

Most fertilized ova don't implant, so it this is what the wingnuts consider abotion, the the biggest abortionist in the universe is god.

[LisaLL]

16. primary vs theoretical

The primary mechs are the inhibition, delay of ovulation, or a dysfunctional ovulatory cycle. These have been proven. The prevention of implantation is theoretical. It could happen on rare occassions but it is not proven. (some studies showed a change in the endometrium but later studies did not). There is about the same amount of evidence that Plan B prevents implantation as there is that postpartum breastfeeding prevents implantation. (Haven't seen any pro-lifers ripping babies from their mothers' breasts to save the potential embryos!)

Yeah, they exaggerate the possibility/theoretical and present it as if that is the proven and primary mechanism. The spread of ignorance has been effective and many people wrongly assume and assert that Plan B is primarily an abortifacient. I read a study recently that analyzed the portrayal in the media and found an alarmingly high percent of articles that were inaccurate and blurred the distinction between Plan B and RU-486.

[ultraist]

3. Excellent article!

excerpts:
"Many countries with the lowest abortion rates have the most liberal abortion laws while countries with the highest rates often have restrictive laws <8,10,19,21>. The Netherlands, which maximizes preventive measures and has liberal abortion laws, has one of the lowest abortion rates of any industrialized nation in the world <19,21>. Extensive international data also confirms that the legal status of abortion is correlated with safety <8,10,11,21>. When women experience unwanted pregnancies, they will turn to abortion whether it is legal or not <8,10,21>. The consequence of the illegality is that far more women die from the procedure and maternal mortality is greatly increased <8,11,20,21>.
If our goals are reducing abortions and reducing the number of women dying from pregnancy related causes, the data clearly show that prevention is effective, punishment is not."

"Frame the debate in terms of our values: Responsibility, Empathy, Honesty. Once we do this, we can cut through the rhetoric and talk about the facts."

RARE, safe, and legal!

[annabanana]

4. When they trot out those foetus in a bottle pictures....

We have to trump them with the botched abortion pictures. I remember clearly one very disturbing one that I can't find right now. Those of you "of a certain age" know which one I mean.

[MountainLaurel]

13. This one?

http://www.sapphireblue.com/25years/

[immoderate]

5. No. It's about sex.

The same folks who are against abortion, are against contraception. They are also against pornography, and singing and dancing. They are not reasonable and they won't give up.

--IMM

[jean]

6. those are the delusional ones who now think SpongeBob is a threat - but

this essay is so excellent because it provides precise tools to work with in setting out a playing field. We should be able to entice them onto the field, at the very least, and start a dialogue.

thanks Lisa for this excellent work!

[immoderate]

14. SpongeBob was moonlighting as a contraceptive. That was unforgivable.

--IMM

[BrklynLiberal]

7. The real core of anti-abortion philosophy is the control of women.

Control of their bodies, their minds, and their lives, as in the middle eastern theocratic countries.
Reframing the arguments may win over the fringes of the anti-abortion voters, but the hard core believers, the old, white men, and the women who follow them, will never, ever give up.
Logic reason and actual science have nothing to with their positions on this.

[cags]

8. You and I have hashed this out before, if your looking for a debate

with conservative thought behind it you won't find it here. The pro-life people(if thats even the proper term for us) here are on a side of our own.

[LisaLL]

12. cags

Cags,

No, I'd include you on the Prevention side, mostly. I'm posting, not for a debate, but as something instructive to help us all articulate the real debate about abortion with people who don't understand the true motives of the Conservative "Pro-Lifers".
LLL

[iverglas]

9. there's just a little something missing, though

Define the Punishment Values

To understand this seeming contradiction, it is helpful to take a closer look at the values underlying the Strict Father model. Their goal is not to decrease abortions, decrease unintended pregnancies, decrease sexually transmitted diseases, or protect the health and safety of women. The goal is to apply severe punishment to teach the lesson that any non-procreative sex is wrong. These measures make the punishment for having sex much more severe. If the punishment is less severe then women can "get away with" having sex. The increase in abortions, unintended pregnancies, and sexually transmitted infections are considered justifiable and acceptable losses in teaching this lesson.

We're not addressing the fact that the law is not a tool for "teaching lessons" to people who do things we don't like, UNLESS we can justify imposing sanctions to get those lessons across.

When it is a violation of fundamental/constitutional rights to impose sanctions on someone -- when what the person has done is an exercise of a right and we are proposing that s/he be prohibited from exercising it, and punished for exercising it -- we MUST justify violating that right.

That point simply has to be made. That the anti-choice brigade proposes to prohibit someone from exercising a right, and punish her from exercising a right, and that it is just plain "unamerican" to do this.

Your constitution sets out the values that the people of the US presumably hold most supreme, including the right of individuals not to be deprived of life or liberty without due process. Why avoid discussion of that value?

How Do We Win the Debate?

1.Frame the debate in terms of our values: Responsibility, Empathy, Honesty.

And individual rights.

The ones who propose to prohibit and punish are the ones who must answer the question of how they justify violating rights, and they should not be allowed to evade this question.

That's not to say that it is not worthwhile pointing to these other values. I just wouldn't be counting too hard on some of the audience feeling particularly responsible for or empathetic toward anyone else and her woes, or being particularly honest about much of anything.

Of course, I'd never count on them giving a shit about anybody else's rights, either ...

[housewolf]

10. I like this frame...

Punishment vs. prevention

It's very, very simple and basic and gets right at the root of the matter. Yep, the more I think about it, the more I like it.

I think it's an argument that people can get their arms around. It eclipses the "it's murder/it's a right" argument.

It just might work!