"the only reason why fewer abortions are performed is that young people these days are smarter and/or more religious" - - - - Agree.
"the writer's attitude to women then was as controlling, unsympathetic and judgmental as it appears to be today" - - - not true and not even sure how you arrived at that.
"women most always turn to female friends" - - - true and it is called water-cooler conversation and general gossip that occurs in companies.
You can't make abortion obsolete or illegal or even legislate it only for specific purposes. All that can be done is educate and, as you said, make widely available all kinds of birth control for women and for men. I agree that the combination of those two (as well as the scare of HIV+/AIDS) has been responsible for the general decline in abortions over the last 15+ years.
Regarding the tactics of the radical right religious groups in bombing and protesting abortion clinics I don't think it was generally effective and have not read of any recently. I know that my wife's gynecologist had to close his abortion clinic but it was because of major increases in already high malpractice insurance he was experiencing as a result of just keeping it opened.
" . . . and arguing about whether women should or should not be forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term." - - - - and this is where we have a very fundamental disagreement. You categorize it as "unwanted pregnancies" as if it were a material thing that had no use. In this day and age do you regard women as being helpless and unable to make their own decisions regarding their sexual activity? The statistics I provided as to reasons why women aborted children in 1987, while the actual numbers have declined the percents associated with the reasons have been about the same. In the past NARAL and Planned Parenthood have treated the right to an abortion as "the rule" and I believe it should be "the exception to the rule." I am a very strong believer in personal responsibility and the arguments of NARAL and Planned Parenthood in the past do not encourage that.
I am a very strong believer in personal responsibility and the arguments of NARAL and Planned Parenthood in the past do not encourage that.
I've always found this argument to be a bit simplistic. that the person who just sits and says I'm in this situation so I have to let this happen is the one that is being responsible, whereas the one who has sat down and considered all of the possible options and made a rational decision, often at the cost of social exclusion from a section of society if they come to know about it. is the one who is being frivolous. Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
I'm sure we can all agree that abortions should be safe, legal, and rare. But damn! Don't you think women who are faced with making that decision aren't under enough pressure as it already without being branded as evil and perpetrators of infanticide. "The basis of optimism is sheer terror" - Oscar Wilde
