Common Ground on Abortion
By Religious Institute, Section Flasher Diaries
Posted on Wed Oct 31, 2007 at 10:06:43 AM EST
Tags: abortion, unplanned pregnancy, adoption, choice, contraception
I'm out in Los Angeles for a series of meetings on LGBT issues, and came across this editorial in the LA Times that I wanted to recommend to you.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-richards29oct29,0,5202785.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail
The editorial, written by my long term colleage Cory Richards from the Guttmacher Institute, examines what he calls the "adoption vs abortion myth." We often hear from politicians as well as evangelical leaders that efforts to increase adoptions is part of the common ground strategy to reduce the numbers of abortions in the U.S.
Richard presents compelling U.S. and international data on why increasing adoptions is not a realistic strategy for decreasing abortions. He reminds us that the best way to decrease abortions is to decrease the number of unintended pregnancies, through contraception and through sexuality education that encourages young people to delay and to use protection.
That's not only good public health, that's good moral sense. Although I firmly believe that a woman faced with an unwanted pregnancy should be supported no matter what her decision (becoming a parent, relinquishing a child for adoption, having an abortion), what I feel even more strongly about is that I wish that all pregnancies were created deliberately, with love, in loving families. It is both a public health and moral disgrace that half of all pregnancies in the US are unintentional, even in the 21st century.
Surely real common ground is assuring through contraception and sex education that all pregnancies are planned, wanted, and indeed, cherished.
-Rev. Debra Haffner
