Abortion

When does a human life begin?
At what stage does a baby fetus to have awareness and feel pain?
Is is ok to take one human life for the sake of another human life?
Is it ok to "play God?"
Is the child better off never living at all, or living a life of abuse and desperation?
Do we have the right to tell someone what to do with their body?

Everyone will have a different answer to these questions, so the best way to settle it is to look at results.

If we outlaw abortion, what happens? Easy. Let's go back to a time when abortion wasn't legal...
(cue music)

Here we are in the late 1800s when abortion first became outlawed. Did it decrease the amount of abortions? No. All it did was make women take matters into their own hands. I'll let you read about it here: http://healthresearchfunding.org/15-dramatic-back-alley-abortion-statistics/

If you don't feel like clicking, here's the meat and potatoes of it: "Despite the fact that abortion was made illegal from this time until 1973, the same number of women each year (over 1 million in some years) continued to seek abortions out, illegally.
 Illegal abortions (or back alley abortions) include methods performed at home (using coat hangers or sharp feathers, etc. to pierce the uterus or blunt force to the stomach), by medical professionals, albeit illegally, or through attempted herbal methods."

So studies show, if you tell women they can't, they will do it anyway. And they will endanger their own lives in the meantime. Ruthless, those nasty women.

Ok, so since we can't outlaw it, what CAN we do?

Two things: Put reasonable restrictions on it, and shower women (and men!) with prevention resources.

Proposal:

I say we talk to scientists. Develop a team of the country's most respected OB/GYNs and ask them at what stage they can agree a fetus will feel pain and be aware that something terrible is happening. Let's, just for sh**s and giggles, pretend that's at week 24. Well then in order to get one, you've got to do it by the end of your 24th week, unless you have extenuating circumstances (newly uncovered medical issues, lack of mental stability, etc.).

Now, anyone who has watched "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant," (yes there's an entire show) knows that we have some ground to cover when it comes to educating women about pregnancy symptoms.  We need to hand out pregnancy tests as frequently as we do condoms to ensure that no one is put in a position where they waited too long simply because they didn't know. I know when I was growing up I was given resources all about the different methods of "safe sex," but no one ever told me how to recognize pregnancy symptoms and I was never encouraged to test regularly.  Pregnancy tests should be a dime-a-dozen, and they should have family planning and adoption resources inside every box.

If we want to prevent abortion, the answer is always EDUCATION and RESOURCES.  As much as the Republicans hate to hear it, Planned Parenthood has actually one of the best organizations for this. Anyone can get confidential contraception in addition to health exams and STD screenings.

If you're against contraception because of religious reasons, well then the only thing I can advise is to not use it yourself. You are in the extreme minority, and this country relies on the separation between church and state.  You still have Freedom of Speech, which allows you to advocate for your cause.

Personally, I am as liberal as they come, and yes this is a little more conservative of a proposal than I would like to see.  HOWEVER, I recognize that if our society wants to work effectively together, there have to be constant compromises. I'm willing to put some reasonable restrictions on abortion if it means less pro-lifers trying to overturn Roe vs. Wade every three minutes.