After Roe v. Wade was overturned, a common argument was to describe pro-life Republicans as "the dog that caught the car". There's some indication that this is true, as Republican political candidates are slowly walking away from strict abortion bans
And support those children and their children. Will anti-abortion states open daycares inside public elementary schools? Provide formula and nursing mothers rooms? The dystopian possibilities are endless because the whole slut-shaming angle doesn’t work for elementary and middle schoolers.
RE: "My ideal is a world where abortion is far less prevalent because birth control is far more prevalent."
A big part of the pro-life movement (or anti-abortion if you prefer) is that sex needs to be re-centered on reproduction and re-contextualized to be the basis of creating a family. I would like to use Japan as an alternative to the way we talk about these things in America. I'll be quick.
So in Japan, the subject of abortion is basically settled along the lines of when the people think babies are developed enough to be delivered, or at which point it should be considered an atrocity to abort them, and that limit is 20 weeks. Japan goes further than that and requires pregnant mothers to register babies at city hall after a certain period of pregnancy (14 weeks, I think) in order to receive benefits under Japan's national health insurance program. For mothers who cannot pay the fees for delivery under the health insurance program, which are typically about $4600 USD, there are government grants that pay about 2/3 of that. There is also a strong culture there of expecting men to "take responsibility" for pregnancy and to both marry and support the mother and child as a nuclear family. I'm not Japanese, but I think America was generally a lot more like them before the US government started directly incentivizing single-mother families through welfare during the LBJ administration.
Where does birth control and abortion enter in? Major obstacles for minors receiving these items are that they must offer their insurance card, which guarantees that their parents will know what they are up to. This means that major life choices among minors will be tempered against the older generation's values and experience. I base a lot of these conclusions and positions from sex-ed manga, but they generally cite their sources among Japanese government surveys and research of relevant populations. Two things that stood out to me here are that 1: the Japanese government actually tracks how would-be mothers feel after having elective abortions and that 2: they really pay attention to how much money it takes to raise a child and to have one delivered. I guess a country with a baby crisis would do that, but the US also has a baby crisis that is being temporarily put off by our massive waves of immigration. We should be acting more like Japan and fixing national disputes democratically. We must stop straw-manning our opponents and really look at how people feel and what their experiences are.
Another big part of this is how do individuals feel before and after having sex, whether romantically attached or otherwise. These are real questions that need to be asked and understood before we necessarily just declare that sex is a universally good thing for everyone whenever they want it. No one ever actually proved that inconsequential sex is good for society. I do not see a universal path forward on this front because the conservative position will always be something along the lines of "sex is for reproduction but more importantly it should be within the context of a traditionally monogamous marriage." The opposite position seems to be "if it feels good, do it." Both sides produce unwanted or unexpected pregnancies, but I think the correct approach here is defining humanity first and then deciding based on when life begins how to proceed in understanding all the related issues.
In short, I don't think birth control treatments are the panacea to reducing abortions. If what really matters to you is sex unmoored from responsibility for pregnancy, I can understand why you might hope for such an easy solution, but I don't think this is good policy or good for society, because there's way more going on here.
And support those children and their children. Will anti-abortion states open daycares inside public elementary schools? Provide formula and nursing mothers rooms? The dystopian possibilities are endless because the whole slut-shaming angle doesn’t work for elementary and middle schoolers.
RE: "My ideal is a world where abortion is far less prevalent because birth control is far more prevalent."
A big part of the pro-life movement (or anti-abortion if you prefer) is that sex needs to be re-centered on reproduction and re-contextualized to be the basis of creating a family. I would like to use Japan as an alternative to the way we talk about these things in America. I'll be quick.
So in Japan, the subject of abortion is basically settled along the lines of when the people think babies are developed enough to be delivered, or at which point it should be considered an atrocity to abort them, and that limit is 20 weeks. Japan goes further than that and requires pregnant mothers to register babies at city hall after a certain period of pregnancy (14 weeks, I think) in order to receive benefits under Japan's national health insurance program. For mothers who cannot pay the fees for delivery under the health insurance program, which are typically about $4600 USD, there are government grants that pay about 2/3 of that. There is also a strong culture there of expecting men to "take responsibility" for pregnancy and to both marry and support the mother and child as a nuclear family. I'm not Japanese, but I think America was generally a lot more like them before the US government started directly incentivizing single-mother families through welfare during the LBJ administration.
Where does birth control and abortion enter in? Major obstacles for minors receiving these items are that they must offer their insurance card, which guarantees that their parents will know what they are up to. This means that major life choices among minors will be tempered against the older generation's values and experience. I base a lot of these conclusions and positions from sex-ed manga, but they generally cite their sources among Japanese government surveys and research of relevant populations. Two things that stood out to me here are that 1: the Japanese government actually tracks how would-be mothers feel after having elective abortions and that 2: they really pay attention to how much money it takes to raise a child and to have one delivered. I guess a country with a baby crisis would do that, but the US also has a baby crisis that is being temporarily put off by our massive waves of immigration. We should be acting more like Japan and fixing national disputes democratically. We must stop straw-manning our opponents and really look at how people feel and what their experiences are.
Another big part of this is how do individuals feel before and after having sex, whether romantically attached or otherwise. These are real questions that need to be asked and understood before we necessarily just declare that sex is a universally good thing for everyone whenever they want it. No one ever actually proved that inconsequential sex is good for society. I do not see a universal path forward on this front because the conservative position will always be something along the lines of "sex is for reproduction but more importantly it should be within the context of a traditionally monogamous marriage." The opposite position seems to be "if it feels good, do it." Both sides produce unwanted or unexpected pregnancies, but I think the correct approach here is defining humanity first and then deciding based on when life begins how to proceed in understanding all the related issues.
In short, I don't think birth control treatments are the panacea to reducing abortions. If what really matters to you is sex unmoored from responsibility for pregnancy, I can understand why you might hope for such an easy solution, but I don't think this is good policy or good for society, because there's way more going on here.