What Do Pro-Choice Advocates Really Think About Abortion?

Nmysys, if you're going to have issues with the sources that liberals use, like Media Matters and Snopes, then understand that we're going to have issues with you citing Breitbart - the man's a documented liar. In that video alone, for example, the fact is flashed up that "According to Planned Parenthood's 2009 report, abortion accounted for 98% of its services to pregnant women." By flashing up the startling percentage first, and the qualification of "pregnant women" last, the video makes it sound like 98% of its total services are for abortion. Of course, 98% of those pregnant women went to PP for the express reason of obtaining an abortion - their choice, not PP's, and their legal right. But not all women who go to PP are pregnant.

Here's the report: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/files/ ... -10-10.pdf

For the three million patients our doctors and nurses saw, we provided contraception (36 percent of our total services), testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections (31 percent), cancer screening and prevention (17 percent), and abortion services (three percent). In all, we helped prevent roughly 621,000 unintended pregnancies.

Interestingly, in my search for how these numbers were obtained, I found this: http://www.lifenews.com/2011/02/23/new- ... e-in-2009/
New Planned Parenthood Report: Record Abortions Done in 2009
by Steven Ertelt | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 2/23/11

With approximately 1.2 million abortions done annually in the United States via surgical abortions or the mifepristone abortion drug, Planned Parenthood has increased its share of the abortion industry to 27.6 percent of all abortions done annually.

They also list the increase in abortions provided by PP every year since 2006, but without qualifying it with the information that as population increases, so too will the total number of abortions; but the overall percentages are not increasing. http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html

However, the new numbers make it more clear that women who are pregnant who come to Planned Parenthood receive only abortion services rather than help and support. As a result, 97.6 percent of pregnant women going to Planned Parenthood are sold abortions while less than 2.4 percent of pregnant women received non-abortion services including adoption and prenatal care. That’s up from 96.5 percent of pregnant women going to Planned Parenthood getting abortions in 2008.

Again, they are blaming PP for what is likely the womens' choice before they even enter the door of the clinic - you can't "sell" a woman intent on receiving an abortion to carry it and give it up for adoption instead. That's why I've advocated in previous threads to improve the support available for women who become pregnant unintentionally so that they are more likely to decide to carry to term instead. If they don't feel that it will negatively impact their life (cuz face it, if over 90% of abortions are for "convenience" and back-up birth control, then they don't want to face the stigma, financial, or social fall-out of being pregnant), then that might impact the abortion rate a bit.

But PP isn't even performing a third of all abortions in the US annually...then who is? Private clinics and personal doctors, as nearly 2/3 of insurance companies cover abortions, either partially or fully, and with few restrictions by case. So gutting PP's funding won't even stop over 70% of abortions performed in this country each year, and by restricting access to birth control, even more unintended pregnancies will occur with many of them ending in abortions, thus increasing the abortion rate at all the other providers. Completely illogical and short-sighted thinking. If you want to reduce the number of abortions, then you need to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies - and that means increase birth control use, which is PP's most provided service.This will make the biggest impact on reducing the abortion rate!

In the end, obviously those opposed to abortion are going to disagree with the pro-choice advocates in this video and that's completely expected. And not all pro-choice advocates are going to agree with the sentiments displayed in this video - it's picking and choosing to find the most inflammatory stuff and push the emotional issue of abortion. But pushing the emotional stuff isn't going to decrease abortion rates - those who seek out those services aren't swayed by those arguments or they would've worked by now. Time to try more effective means.