What does any of that have to do with solving the deadlock over the abortion issue, or the problem that we'll face if Roe v. Wade is overturned?
You want to know how would the Colorado Project, the original Obamacare plan, honest sex-ed, additional women's reproductive clinics, access to cheap morning after pill, and a pro-choice policy help reduce abortion and the hostility surrounding the abortion issue?
Well, let's identify the real problem first. What causes what the pro-life movement calls the loss of life. Abortion, right? Who is getting all these abortions and why so many? 75% of the women getting abortions are poor or are low wage workers facing unplanned and unwanted pregnancies. If 92% of couples are using birth control why so many unwanted pregnancies. Failure of ineffective or high risk birth control is the only possible answer. We know there are women's contraceptives that are almost 100% effective, why aren't they being used. Keeping mind that most of the women getting abortions are struggling financially and the most effective women's contraceptives IUDs and hormone injections or implants are very expensive. They require multiple doctors appointments and the contraceptive itself is expensive.
So the real problem is that highly effective bc is too expensive for poor women to afford. What cures that problem? Money, making effective bc available to all women. The Colorado Project did that, so did the original Obamacare. Obamacare's bc project got sabotaged before it became operative. The Colorado Project actually got implemented for 3 years. In those three years Colorado saved multiple millions of dollars because women asked for and got the birth control that was most effective. The abortion rate was cut in half and the savings to the state were huge many times more than the cost of the project. Had Obamacare's bc support been implemented the abortion rate would also have been cut and the savings in dollars and social costs would also have been significant.
And that's how programs giving women access to effective bc would, maybe, like in Colorado cut the number of abortions in half.
Let's look at the 8% of women that aren't using any birth control. Identify who and why, first. It's mostly the age group 15 to 19 years old living in states that provide Abstinence Only sex-ed programs. The teen unwanted pregnancy rate/sexual encounter is the highest of all age groups and the one thing most pregnant teens have in common is pretty much Abstinence Only sex-ed. Surprisingly, Republicans voted to give government support to states for Abstinence Only programs and no support for honest science based sex-ed. Maybe, this is not a good use of federal funds if your goal is cutting abortions.
This post is getting too, long. We can discuss how expanding clinics, a pro-choice policy, morning after pills and other actions help reduce abortions and might help reduce hostilities on another post if you are interested.
