Understanding the Motivation of the Right Wing Fundamentalists

To Hear People Discuss Abortion You'd Think It Was A Very Rare Procedure...

That could not be further from the truth.  In reality, abortion is one of the most common medical procedures performed in the United States. 

Health Topics: Facts for Women: Termination of Pregnancy

Half of all women in the United States will have an abortion in their lifetime.


Health Topics: Facts for Women: Termination of Pregnancy
Half of all women in the United States will have an abortion in their lifetime. A woman may choose to have an abortion for many different reasons, ...
depts.washington.edu/uwcoe/healthtopics/.../term_facts.html - Cached - Similar




Who chooses an abortion?
Half of all women in the United States will have an abortion in their lifetime.

http://depts.washington.edu/uwcoe/healthtopics/familyplan/term_facts.html

_{^{Half U.S. abortions are repeats for women}}
Most were over 30 and were using contraception at the time, study finds
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15841448/

Unplanned Pregnancy, Abortion Often Happen More Than Once in a Woman's Lifetime

http://www.emaxhealth.com/89/8395.html


In fact, the only notable differences between women obtaining a first abortion and those who had already had one or more abortions are that those obtaining repeat abortions tend to be older and to have more children. This makes sense, as older women have been at risk of unintended pregnancy longer than younger women. Overall, most women obtaining abortions are poor or low-income, and six in 10 are already mothers.
The majority of women having abortions were using contraceptives when they became pregnant, regardless of whether it was their first abortion or they had already had a prior abortion. In fact, women obtaining second and higher-order abortions were slightly more likely to have been using a highly effective hormonal method (such as the pill, the patch or the ring) when they became pregnant. These patterns suggest that most women who have abortions are trying to avoid unintended pregnancies but are having trouble doing so.
http://www.emaxhealth.com/89/8395.html

61% of women obtaining abortions in 2008 already had children, including 34% who had two or more.
Half of the women surveyed reported one or more prior abortions; most of these women (37% of all abortion patients) reported both a prior birth and a prior abortion.
http://blog.archny.org/steppingout/?p=1024

A Planned Parenthood handbook on abortion notes that nearly half of all abortions are for women who describe themselves as born-again Christian, Evangelical Christian, or Catholic. (4)

from
"The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion"
When the Anti-Choice Choose
http://mypage.direct.ca/w/writer/anti-tales.html

Though only 31% of teens believe they would consider an abortion; in fact about 40% of teens have abortions.6

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:6FgX6sejWB0J:www.cedu.niu.edu/~shumow/iit/Teenage%2520Pregnancy.pdf+why+do+teens+feel+it+is+socially+acceptable+to+be+teen+mothers&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjpvDTWMXvs0KU6azjoZkxeaMknc0ymp2wYIwvF4jFBmaczSQ5z3S0VJpgs80x4DeAzpOK91lv4kVU3ihapx7bL2kXUnaY0rzW-QhVeeJGb5p-gCpZBDt9ah05OXPuL_SWBnRms&sig=AHIEtbSlM7Wwbm87uvh-1GpwCK_CHXwwGA


6
SIECUS (Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States). Teen Pregnancy, Birth and Abortion.
SIECUS Report, Volume 30, Number 3: February/March 2002. Available online:
http://www.siecus.org/pubs/fact/fact0010.html

How Can Society Reduce the Numbers Of People Who Rely On Public Assistance? Stop Giving Public Assistance to Single Mothers.

Ideas from Charles Murray:

Excerpts from:

Should the system be abolished? - welfare reformer Charles Murray - Cover Story

The best way to solve America's welfare problem is to close off a large part of the welfare infrastructure--Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) (now known as TANF) and food stamps--to single mothers. His principal exception would be Medicaid, he said, because "all children [should] have medical coverage."

There should be decisive moves to reduce the number of children born out of wedlock. The current welfare system, by paying mothers more for each child and denying benefits to families with two parents*, Murray argues, is a powerful force driving illegitimacy.

Out-of-wedlock births--not crime or drugs or poverty or illiteracy or homelessness--constitute "the single most important social problem of our time," Murray contends. Illegitimacy has produced a huge "underclass" in the black community and is within a whisker of doing the same among whites, he says, and this trend is creating the very dynamics that produce growing numbers of welfare recipients.

    •    Murray argues that if the welfare safety net were at least partly removed, women on welfare would be discouraged from having children, and people around those women--mothers, sisters, brothers, boyfriends--would join in discouraging them from having children.
    •    Welfare women who still choose to give birth, Murray says, could do the old-fashioned thing and marry, seek charity, or put the children up for adoption in orphanages funded and run by government--a chilling thought to many politicians and welfare officials.

    •    source

*Public Assistance Use Among Two-Parent Families: An Analysis of TANF and Food Stamp Program Eligibility and Participation


TANF  
Under the TANF structure, the federal government provides a block grant to the states, which use these funds to operate their own programs.  States can use TANF dollars in ways designed to meet any of the four purposes set out in federal law, which are to: “(1) provide assistance to needy families so that children may be cared for in their own homes or in the homes of relatives; (2) end the dependence of needy parents on government benefits by promoting job preparation, work, and marriage; (3) prevent and reduce the incidence of out-of-wedlock pregnancies and establish annual numerical goals for preventing and reducing the incidence of these pregnancies; and (4) encourage the formation and maintenance of two-parent families.”
source

In General

In writing many times you will see a statement being made about a particular group of people, and then you will see this immediately followed by the phrase:  "in general."  What does that mean and why does the writer add that phrase?

Here are some examples:

Unwed relationships Are Inferior to Marriage In General

There is a DIFFERENCE between the outcomes of the children of teen mothers IN GENERAL, as compared to the children of older mothers.

This means that the writer is NOT talking about every single marriage in existence, or the outcome of every single child of teen mothers.  The last thing you should do in response to this is to write about your own experience that you feel is a counter example to the statement.

For example, if you see a statement that says: Children do better in school, in general, when raised by both parents.  Let's say that your children were raised only by one parent, and they did better in school than some of their peers who were raised by both parents.  Should you write a response countering the statement about children performing better when raised by both parents?  NO.  Why?  Because the author NEVER SAID that ALL children raised by both parents perform better in school than ALL children of single parents.

For example, if a statistic says "children raised by both parents, in general, outperform children raised by single parents in school", the children of single parents who got straight A's ARE INCLUDED in that statistic.   That's what the "in general" refers to.

It means FOR EXAMPLE that you have two groups of children.

group A                                       group B

children of single mothers          children of married parents

their school grades                     their school grades

A                                                A

A                                                A

B                                                D

C                                                B

C                                                B

D                                                C

A                                                A

C                                                A

C                                                A

C                                                B

You can see there are A students on both sides and D students on both sides.  But OVER ALL and IN GENERAL the children of married parents outperformed AS A GROUP the children of single parents AS A GROUP.

generally

by and large, more often than not, mostly, in general, in the main

gen·er·al·ly
   [jen-er-uh-lee]  Show IPA
–adverb
1.
usually; commonly; ordinarily: He generally comes home at noon.
2.
with respect to the larger part; for the most part: a generally accurate interpretation of the facts.
3.
without reference to or disregarding particular persons, things, situations, etc., that may be an exception: generally speaking.



—Synonyms 
1. See often. 

—Antonyms 
1.  seldom.


Main Entry:
generally
Part of Speech:
adverb
Definition:
mainly, in most cases
Synonyms:
about, all in all, almost always, altogether, approximately, as a rule, broadly, by and large, chiefly, commonly, conventionally, customarily, en masse, extensively, for the most part, habitually, largely, mostly, normally, on average, on the whole, ordinarily, overall, popularly, practically, predominantly, primarily, principally, publicly, regularly, roughly, roundly, thereabouts, typically, universally, usually, widely
Antonyms:
exactly, particularly, rarely, seldom, specifically

general

of, pertaining to, or true of such persons or things in the main, with possible exceptions; common to most; prevalent; usual: the general mood of the people.

not limited to one class, field, product, service, etc.; miscellaneous: the general public; general science.

considering or dealing with overall characteristics, universal aspects, or important elements, esp. without considering all details or specific aspects: general instructions; a general description; a general resemblance one to another.

not specific or definite: I could give them only a general idea of what was going on.