Blogs I Enjoy

There were many blogs that I found very interesting, but I narrowed my list down to three that I consistently followed.

http://wartimeeffects.blogspot.com
I found this blog to be very interesting and informative. In this blog Wartime Communities discusses how the war is negatively affecting military families. Wartime Comminities' opinion can be noted in this blog, however, they back their opinions with factual information. This was good because I agree with the opinion in the blog, but I had never based my opinion off actual facts, just beliefs. I also enjoyed the cartoons that were used in the blog to discuss topics. They made the blog more interesting to read.

http://medicaltech-medtech.blogspot.com
I really enjoyed following this blog because the topic fascinated me, and the blog was very well researched. This Guy discussed in each post a new idea for types of medical technology that could be used in the future. The technology that was researched was unthinkable for this generation. However, if it gets enough funding it would not be impossible for the future. I plan to go to medical school, so these extreme possible types of medical technology fascinated me.

http://supertechblogger.blogspot.com/
Supertechblogger's blog discussed new "super weapons" of mass destruction. Supertechblogger's blog fascinated me greatly because of the technology they discussed and the entertainment that was discussed in relation to the technology. I enjoyed reading the weapon of the week entries. They were about ideas for these great weapons and how they could potentially be used. These entries, sometimes related to science fiction, were ideas that weren't really feasible but fun to think about. This blog was well researched and very informative.

Demographic Statistics Related to Abortion

I recently researched which demographic categories of women were most likely to have abortions. My predictions were that young, single, and low income minorities would be most likely to receive an abortion. For the most part my predictions were true. The low income, single, minorities were most likely to receive abortions because they believed they would be financially unable to care for the child. It was understandable that single, low income women would have more abortions, and usually these women are associated with a minority group. However, instead of young women having more abortions, I discovered that a higher percent of older women tend to have abortions. This finding astounded me. The only reason that could possibly explain this statistic is that in today's society young teens are becoming more well-informed about using contraceptives. This may tend to make them more cautious of having sex without protection. Also, possibly older women that get pregnant may think that they would be too old to have a child, and/or their "partner" does not think it would be appropriate to have a child yet.

As I have discussed before the new Pregnant Women Support Act that is being considered now would provide women that have a lower income with resources so that she would be able to carry the pregnancy full term. If she did not want to keep the child she could give it up for adoption, but all the pre-birth finances would be taken care of. This would lower the rate of single, low income, minorities that receive abortions.

Implications

Abortion is a topic that has always been controversial. The viewpoints of the pro-life and pro-choice supporters are so polarized that it is highly unlikely that this topic will ever be not controversial. Since our nation has become more liberal, it is also unlikely that the abortion issue will ever be solved. The reason for this is that abortion is a topic of morals and ethics. There is no logic or scientific proof to claim that abortion should be illegal. However, in this blog I have discussed how the two sides can compromise about some specific ideas related to abortion. Since I do believe that this issue will remain unresolved, I can only hope that these compromises will help to at least decrease the number of abortions.

The usage of contraception right now is increasing in the whole world. Many claim that abortions are decreasing because of this. If pro-life supporters will support and continue to support the idea of contraception, then I believe the abortion number will decrease. Also, many "crisis pregnancy centers" are being built near abortion clinics which discourages women from having abortions.

Abortion is going to remain a controversial subject related to ethics. This will prevent abortion from ever being illegal. Even though abortion will most likely never become illegal, I think the number of abortions will continue to decrease because the numbers have been steadily decreasing since 1990 (as you can see in this chart).


http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/facts/abortionstats.html
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4151508&page=1&page=1
http://www.mariestopes.org/Press/International/Global_abortion_decrease_%60uneven%60.aspx

Partial Birth Abortion

Many pro-choice advocates believed that if partial-birth abortion became illegal then all abortion procedures would become illegal. Partial birth abortion is a procedure where the intact fetus is removed from the uterus and aborted. This theory however, was disproved in 2003 when the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act was enacted. This meant usually that an abortion that occured by this means in the 2nd trimester would be illegal. The U.S. Supreme Court later upheld this ruling in 2007 by saying that Partial Birth Abortions were unconstitutional because it involved intact dilation and extraction of the fetus from the uterus.

Our current president, Barack Obama, voted against a Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act in 2001, and has said on many occasions that he stands by this vote. Many health care reforms that are trying to be passed now include coverage for abortion, as I have mentioned in previous posts. Many pro-life supporters fear that this much support for abortion by a president will bring back partial birth abortions. This would increase the number of abortions that occur. For the most part, Democratic representatives in Congress are opposed to partial birth abortions. However, the pro-choice supporters that are against this procedure need to work together with the pro-life supporters to ensure that this procedure remains illegal.

Annotated "Links"

http://www.nrlc.org/

This website was founded by the group the National Right to Life Committee. This group was founded in 1973, and they are a group of pro-life supporters. This committee has pro-life representatives from each state, and they work together to get legislation passed on a national level concerning abortion. They provide new information about legislation that was discussed in this blog.

http://www.prochoice.org/

The National Abortion Federation created this website to advocate the pro-choice movement. The National Abortion Federation is an association of abortion providers in North America. They support abortion healthcare specialists. This website was used in the blog to get many arguments from the pro-choice point of view.

http://www.abortionfacts.com/reardon/after_effects_of_abortion.asp

This website was created by the Elliot Institute. The Elliot Institute is a non-profit organization that publishes research, especially for topics of abortion. This website was used throughout the blog to statistically back up opinions and information in the blog about abortion.

http://www.democratsforlife.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=48

The Democrats for Life in America are a group of Democrats who are pro-life in the fight against abortion. They strive to elect more pro-life democrats into office, and they try to promote a pro-life stance in the democratic party platform. This website was used in the blog when the Pregnant Women Support Act was discussed because they advocate this act.

http://www.fertilitydr.com/

This the website of a Fertility Clinic in Utah. They provide assistance to women who are unable to become pregnant. They offer infertility treatment, fertility tests, and some surgical treatments. The Reproductive Care Unit was used in my blog to discuss healthcare related to abortion.

Self-Analysis

Since I have been writing this blog, I have learned more about issues related to abortion, which is the termination of a pregnancy. Because I have been doing research about this topic, I have learned about the arguments on both sides of the issue. Before, I knew mostly about the side of abortion that I support, which is pro-life. Now I know just as much about the pro-choice point of view. Even though I know more about the pro-choice stance, I still kept my same view points. Because I am strongly opinionated about this topic, it was hard for me to not be biased. I made sure that every opinion I stated was backed with factual information.

I knew from the beginning that I wanted my topic to be about abortion. However, I was not sure how I was going to argue that abortion should be illegal without bringing ethics and morals into question. I ended up arguing that there could be a compromise between the pro-life and pro-choice side of the abortion argument. I did not even believe there could be a compromise between the two sides on any topic because their viewpoints are so polarized. However, by researching both sides I found that they can agree on some smaller issues related to abortion. This in turn could help decrease the number of abortions. The first information that I found out was that the number of abortions have already been decreasing in the past few years. I learned that the use of contraceptives is being questioned more and more by the pro-life supporters. The most interesting information that I discovered was that there are some Democratic representatives that are trying to pass legislation to decrease the number of abortions. Also, I learned that more women suffer from Post Abortion Syndrome than I thought.

This blog has also helped me with my writing. I had never been really good at argumentative papers, and now I feel like I would do a better job because I have learned that in order to write a good argumentative paper, you have to understand both sides of the argument. Knowing the other side helps you to formulate your argument around their arguments. Understanding the ethics behind the pro-choice side of the argument helped me to find factual information to back up my pro-life side.

Democrats Taking A Legislative Stand?

Recently I have read about many legislative acts that are being supported by the Democratic party. One act that caught my attention was the Pregnant Women Support Act. This is an act for women considering abortion only because of lack of resources available to them. Mostly single pregnant women who are working, in school, or without a job are the ones who are involved in this situation and need help. This act includes many programs that will help pregnant women carry out their term.

The programs include providing pregnancy counseling, providing grants for medical expenses such as ultrasounds, providing house visits for new mothers by a registered nurse, and providing women with toll-free numbers so they can contact local places that provide support. If a woman only wants an abortion because she needs resources, this act will provide them for her. This way the woman would be able to have information and resources so that she could continue her pregnancy. It is logical for all sides of the political debate to support this act. The pro-life supporters would naturally support this act. The Democrats that support this act need to advocate it so that it can be passed.


www.usccb.org/sdwp/projects/2008PWSA.pdf
http://www.democratsforlife.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=48

Abortion: Medical Issues

In my last post I discussed how abortion could be emotionally and mentally traumatic for a woman that has the procedure done. However, emotional problems are not the only medical problems that could be involved with the abortion procedure. There are many complications that could occur physically after a woman has an abortion. While the complications have not been as bad since partial birth abortion became illegal, there are still risks that women should be more informed about.

The most well known physical complication that could occur because of an abortion is future sterility. About 5% of women that have abortions become sterile after the procedure. This could be caused by many different problems. There could be cervical damage which weakens the cervix. This would cause it to not be able to properly hold the weight of a child. Also, if the fallopian tube gets injured by an infection, it will seal shut and prevent future pregnancies. Induced abortions also raise the risk of sterility.

There are other physical problems associated with abortion. Infections could also lead to women having ectopic pregnancies. An ectopic pregnancy is when the baby develops outside of the uterus. This is what causes 12% of all maternal deaths. Abortions that happen in the first trimester also can cause lacerations. This has caused hemorrhages and lead to other medical problems.

As I said before with PAS, women need to be informed of these medical conditions. It would be ideal if both pro-life and pro-choice supporters could help to inform women. They could make sure that clinics thoroughly inform women of the risks involved with the abortion procedure. This way many women might realize complications that could occur in the future and choose to not go through with the procedure.

http://www.abortionfacts.com/reardon/after_effects_of_abortion.asp
http://www.gargaro.com/healthproblems.html">future sterility
http://ramahinternational.org/abortion_risks.htm

Theory Post

Over the past few weeks I have been discussing how pro-choice and pro-life supporters could compromise on some ideas to help reduce the number of abortions that occur per year. In the past few blogs I came to the conclusion that most pro-choice supporters do not necessarily want women to get abortions. They just advocate that women should have the right to choose.

In theory if everyone (pro-choice and pro-life supporters) all had the same views, morals, ethics, and religious beliefs, then they would either all believe that abortion should either be illegal or that it should be legal. However, legistion is passed based on logical facts not beliefs. My opinion is that abortion can be reduced, but I do not believe it will become illegal.

Out of all the political topics and arguments today, I believe that the abortion argument contains more polarized viewpoints than any other political argument. It is also the political topic that people get more emotionally involved in. While I do not believe these sides will ever come to a complete consensus, I do believe that the sides can work to compromise. This is what my blog has been discussing. Even over the past weeks I have researched new legislation that Democrats are supporting to help reduce the number of abortions, such as the Pregnant Women Support Act. This proves that even thought the two sides are very polarized, they can come to an agreement about abortion needing to be reduced.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1912284,00.html
http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/projects/2008PWSA.pdf

PAS: Myth? Or not?

A condition that many psychologists have researched in relation to abortions has been PAS. PAS stands for Post Abortion Syndrome. Studies have shown that after having an abortion, some women suffer from depression and guilt about having an abortion. PAS has not been medically accepted as a legitimate mental disorder. However, many women who have undergone the abortion procedure claim that it is a real medical issue.

Because this disorder cannot be compared from person to person it's hard to medically prove that abortion causes this mental depression. Some women experience guilt, anxiety, depression, preoccupation with becoming pregnant again, alcohol and drug abuse, and even thoughts of suicide. Studies in some countries have shown that women that have had abortions are 3 times more likely to commit suicides than women that have not.

Pro-choice supporters argue that this syndrome is a myth and that if the woman does experience any guilt or depression after the procedure it is because she did not have proper clinical therapy before and after. Well, if PAS is not a legitimate concern then why would women need clinical therapy before and after the procedure? The women that do not have this therapy before the abortion are the ones who have depression problems post-procedure. Pro-life psychologists need to inform women of these issues before they consider the abortion, and they need to inform them that it is a real concern. Pro-Choice psychologists should research into the issue more so that more women can be informed. If women were informed better about the possible mental disorders that could accompany the abortion procedure with research studies, they might not consider having the procedure.


http://ramahinternational.org/post-abortion-syndrome-symptoms.html
http://www.pregnantpause.org/aborted/pasbig.htm
http://www.prochoice.org/pregnant/after/emotions.html

Healthcare and Abortion

Recently I read an article about how the Obama Administration, along with other Democratic Congressmen are trying to sneak federal government funded abortions into the healthcare reform. This would mean that public funds would be used to pay for women having abortions. Even though President Obama stated many times that federal money would not be used to fund abortions, the bills that are being greatly considered would place the government in the position of paying for elective abortions. The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee approved for the "Affordable Health Choices Act" which would greatly expand the number of abortions because nearly all healthcare and insurance plans would cover abortions. The Obama Administration claims that women that do not have healthcare insurance will be able to get reproductive healthcare access.

Abortion should not be considered in reproductive healthcare coverage. Reproductive healthcare coverage would include visits to an OB/GYN, an in vitro fertilization, contraceptive methods, or receiving drugs related to infertility/pregnancies. If a woman makes the decision to have an abortion then it should be up to her to pay for it or her insurance. It should not be funded by the federal government.

The Republican Congressmen should strongly oppose this and other bills that would allow federal funding for abortion. They should also work actively to get some Democratic Congressmen to oppose this bill. Since the House and Senate are predominantly Democrats, this bill would most likely be approved. If Pro-Life Republicans can compromise to allow healthcare bills involving the reproductive healthcare concerns listed above, then Pro-Choice Democrats should not allow for abortions to be covered. The number of abortions would most definitely rise, and as I have stated previously in other blogs, I do not believe the majority of people neccessarily want that.



http://www.capwiz.com/nrlc/issues/alert/?alertid=13157881&type=CO
http://www.fertilitydr.com/

Analysis-Abortion Behind The Scenes

Every society, that can be dated back thousands of years ago, has had some sort of abortion procedure. Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal of a fetus from a woman's uterus. In the 1800's some states in the U.S. began to pass laws making abortion illegal. Many women still sought illegal abortions in illegal clinics or "back-alleys." In 1973 the Supreme Court case Roe vs. Wade held that a woman could terminate her pregnancy up until the point of viability. Viability was defined in this case as being the point in which a fetus could live outside of its mother's womb. Since this case, abortion has become a huge topic of political controversy. The nation was split into "pro-life" and "pro-choice" supporters. The issues between pro-life and pro-choice supporters include: to what extent abortion should be legal, who should decide if abortion is legal, when does life begin, and what roles, if any, should religion and morals have in this debate.



In the political spectrum, pro-choice supporters can most commonly be associated with the Democratic party. The pro-choice stance is that women should have complete rights over her own body and that she has the choice to terminate her pregnancy or not. Many of the pro-choice supporters really only support abortion if rape, incest, harm to the mother, or other medical issues are involved. They believe that a woman who has been raped will be more traumatized if she keeps the child of her rapist than if she has an abortion. Therefore, their argument is that we will not be able to create a law that would include all of the scenarios involved in these situations. Therefore, we should just let the woman decide if she wants an abortion or not. Extremely liberal pro-choice supporters believe that abortion is another birth control method and that it is a way to control the population. Also, they believe that every child should be a "wanted" child, and they argue that the children might have been born into a bad living environment otherwise.



In contrast to this position, Republicans are associated with being pro-life supporters. These supporters believe that life begins at conception and that the unborn human life should have rights. Since this belief has not been proved medically, most pro-life supporters take this stance based on their religion and morals. They advocate adoption if the child is unwanted. These supporters did gain some support with the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act in 2003, in which partial birth abortion was found to be morally wrong. Pro-life supporters hold many rallys for their cause including the March for Life every year. Many people show up for this march advocating the protection of embryos and opposing embryonic stem cell research. These supporters also try to educate the general public on the "facts" about abortion such as medical issues after abortion, and the procedure itself.



Currently President Obama and many Democratic Congressional Leaders are pushing for health care bills that would allow federal funding for abortion. Even though the number of abortions has been declining, this bill would most likely dramatically increase the number of abortions that are being performed. Personally, I am a pro-life supporter. I was adopted so I advocate the right to life. However, seeing as these healthcare bills are just going to further support the pro-choice stance, I do not believe that abortion will become illegal. I do believe that pro-life and pro-choice supporters can compromise on some issues to ensure that the number of abortions does not incline dramatically. As I have previously suggested, there are many ways that this can happen. Pro-life supporters should support the use of IUDs, birth control pills, and other contraceptives. In my future posts I will be discussing how adoption could be a better choice economically and how post-abortion medical issues could change the minds of women wanting abortions if they were educated in the topic better.

http://www.tourolaw.edu/Patch/Roe/
http://www.allaboutpopularissues.org/pro-choice-abortion.htm
http://www.prochoice.org/
http://www.abortionfacts.com/parsing_the_arguments/parsing_the_arguments.asp
http://www.nrlc.org/
http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/abortion/2003s3.html
http://www.marchforlife.org/
http://www.studentnewsdaily.com/other/conservative-vs-liberal-beliefs/
http://hubpages.com/hub/The-liberal-view-on-abortion
http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/issues/abortion/abortion-bans/fab-update.html
http://www.youngwomenshealth.org/prosandcons.html
http://www.prolifealliance.com/life%20at%20conception%20act.htm
http://www.boundless.org/regulars/kaufman/a0000848.html
http://www.gargaro.com/healthproblems.html
http://www.drhern.com/fulltext/ency/paper.htm
http://www.religioustolerance.org/abortion4.htm
http://women.webmd.com/tc/abortion-reasons-women-choose-abortion
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/06/wtprw_repro.html
http://www.afterabortion.com/
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/abortionuslegal/p/roe_v_wade.htm

Adoption-another choice

Since I am adopted, I figure that it is expected that I have a post on this topic. Of course my opinion is that adoption is the best road to choose. However, this can also be proved logically. There are many benefits to the mother questioning whether she will be able to handle abortion mentally. Many women still may choose abortion, but if positive aspects of adoption were advocated more by pro-life supporters, I believe that women may choose that path.

For women considering adoption there are counselors that are available to help them every step of the way. There are people that will help pregnant teenagers go to the doctor and birth seminars when they have no one to support them. Also, sometimes the family getting the child wlil pay for all medical expenses. The birth mother can also be at ease knowing that their child is living and in a good home if she chooses to know.

The child being born and the people adopting the child also benefit greatly. The child will be in a home where they are wanted and loved. There are also resources and provisions that might not have been available otherwise. The adoptive parents have the chance to take care of a child when they might not have been able to have children of their own.

Many organizations such as the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption advocate adoption as the best choice. If pro-life and pro-choice supporters both supported these organizations then women would realize that there are other options. Also, the woman would not risk mentally questioning whether she made the right choice. Everyone would benefit in the situation.




http://www.davethomasfoundation.org/Adoption-Resources
http://www.americanpregnancy.org/adoption/benefitsofadoption.html

Special Situations-Not Important to Argument

Over the past two weeks I have gotten a few comments from people with arguments about how it would be horrible if the government did not allow abortion to be legal in situations such as rape, incest, etc. As I have said in my comments before, I do not intend for this blog to be about which type of abortions should be legal. It would be too difficult to discuss on what grounds that abortion should be legal because there are too many scenarios to be covered. Also, how would we really know if the pregnancy case was really rape? These are arguments and questions that are too complex to ponder, and they aren't important to the focus of this blog.

Technically, accepting only abortion cases in which something like rape is involved would be a compromise that the pro-life supporters could make. However, this would still be a compromise that questioned morals. We would still have the question of "does life begin at conception?" which couldn't be scientifically answered. This is why we should try to compromise ways to reduce abortion that are not directly connected to the process itself.

Contraceptives: They aren't a bad thing

The abortion rates in the United States since Roe vs. Wade peaked in 1990 with 1.6 million abortions. In 2005 the numbers dropped to 1.2 million which was the lowest since 1990. During the 21st century the number of new contraceptives that have been created has also increased. Contraceptives such as condoms, birth control pills, and devices such as IUDs have all been proven as effective birth control methods. However, recently many pharmacists have been refusing refilling prescriptions for contraceptives. This refusal isn't because of medical or professional concerns, but it is because of personal beliefs. Many times these pharmacists do not allow contraceptives to be sold because they believe that contraceptives promote promiscuity, the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, and other moral problems in society.


This view about contraceptives also parallels the views held by most pro-life supporters. Because of religious and moral views, the pro-life community believes that contraceptives promote the idea of teenagers being sexually active and the prevention of natural reproduction. On the other side of the spectrum, the average pro-choice supporter accepts contraceptives. These supporters are not happy with the pharmacies that are refusing to sell contraceptives. They believe that personal beliefs should not be mixed with professional duties.

Anti-contraceptive supporters, that are also pro-life, should step-back and think about what contraceptives are made for. They prevent unwanted pregnancies. If pro-life supporters want to keep the rate of abortions lower, they need to compromise with the pro-choice supporters and accept contraceptives. Even though they believe it promotes promiscuity, people will have sex anyways. This way at least those people will not have unwanted pregnancies that will lead to abortions. It does not make sense that the pro-life supporters do not promote birth control methods that are available to women that do not want to become pregnant. Promoting safe sexual activity should be a fair compromise for "saving a life."



Sources:

<http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/15>
<http://guttmacher.org/media/nr/2008/01/17/index.html>
<http://www.nwlc.org/details.cfm?id=2185&section=health>

Compromise? Between Pro-life and Pro-choice?

My stance on the abortion topic is pro-life. I myself am a Christian that believes that life begins at conception. Also, I was adopted at birth, and I happen to know that my biological mother was an un-wed teenager when I was born. In an ideal world created by me, every type of abortion would be illegal. However, in reality today, abortion becoming illegal is highly improbable. This is because the pro-life stance is not based on logic or facts, it is based on faith. The idea that life does begin at conception is not scientifically proven, and therefore it is merely a belief/opinion that pro-life supporters hold. Ideally there is only one thing a pro-life supporter can hope for. This is a reduction of the number of abortions per year. Currently pro-life and pro-choice supporters have polar opposite viewpoints and arguments about abortion. My blog is going to discuss how supporters from both groups can come to a common ground about abortion or pregnancy related policies to try and reduce the number of abortions that occur. By looking at policies related to contraceptives, and the different types of abortions that are allowed to occur, these two groups can possibly compromise. Also, if we research the economic background of an average woman receiving an abortion, we may find that we can help pinpoint the motive behind taking such action. If we do this we can try to address the individual's situation so that abortion may not be as strongly considered.