Less birth control = more abortions

Take note, all you anti-contraception conservatives. Your pathological determination to control the sex lives of women is putting you at cross-purposes with your pathological determination to control the reproductive lives of women.

An analysis by the Guttmacher Institute finds that less birth control = more abortions.

Contraception use has declined strikingly over the last decade, particularly among poor women, making them more likely to get pregnant unintentionally and to have abortions, according to a report released yesterday by the Guttmacher Institute.

The decline appears to have slowed the reduction in the national abortion rate that began in the mid-1980's.

"This is turning back the clock on all the gains women have made in recent decades," Sharon L. Camp, the president of the institute, said.

Among sexually active women who were not trying to get pregnant, the percentage of those not using contraception increased to 11 percent from 7 percent from 1994 to 2001, the latest data available, according to numbers Guttmacher analyzed from the National Survey of Family Growth, a federal study.

Get that, conservatives? LESS birth control = MORE abortions.

Of course, I don't expect this news to cause you to rethink your opposition to contraception. It would never occur to you that the cause of reducing abortions, which I support wholeheartedly, is worth allowing women to reduce the likelihood of pregnancy when they have sex. I know, conservatives, that your response to that statment will be something to the effect of, "if they don't want to get pregnant, they shouldn't have sex."

In a religious right utopia, that behavioral approach might work. It could be a "Just Say 'NO'" campaign for the Millenium. However, in the real world, it is a head-in-the-sand approach that is leading to MORE ABORTIONS.

See, conservatives, you need to understand that sex is not behavior. Sex is not even an urge. Sex is a drive. It is a fundamental motivator of human behavior. The sex drive is as primal and inevitable as hunger and thirst. So, you see, "Just Say 'NO'" to sex is like saying "Just Say 'NO'" to food and water. It can be done, but it works best when it is a personal choice.

This, conservatives, is why denying people access to contraception will not keep them from having sex. It will only make pregnancy more likely when people have sex. And remember, people want to control the number and spacing of the children they have. They consider this a basic human right. So, all those unintended pregnancies, if they are not welcome, will be more likely to end in abortion than in parenthood.

Not that I expect you to take any of this to heart, conservatives. I'm just sayin'.