Take this overcoat of shame, it never did belong to me

[fellmama]

Alaskan teens may abort without parental consent.

What interests me about this is the opposite side of the coin, which I don't think many pro-choicers are aware of and many anti-abortionists would like to pretend doesn't happen. I read somewhere on Feministing the other day an interview with an abortion clinic worker. She noted sadly that she's

Comments

[superquail]

There are a lot of ugly sides to the abortion issue. I looked on Feministing to try to find the article you talked about and I was not successful. Do you remember what it was called?

[fellmama]

http://feministing.com/archives/007048.html#more
Heaven knows how I found it!

[superquail]

Thank you!

I am glad that you did find it. It was a good read and it gave a much-needed perspective on the reproductive rights issue.

[superquail]

Mary sent me an interesting article about international adoption the other day, and it talked about how American adoptions have dropped off. One of the things that apparently happened in the pre-legal-abortion era was that women who were inconveniently pregnant would be sent to convents or other discreet locations to give birth and then the children would be given for adoption. Later, a lot of these women talked about how they were strong-armed into surrendering their children and that this experience was quite traumatic.

Today, most American women who give up their children for adoption choose the "open adoption" system in which they can have contact with their child later on.

It seems that when it comes to reproductive decisions, everyone wants to have a say, but at the end, it really has to be the mother's choice no matter what happens.

[superquail]

I hope you do not think I was attacking you, as that wasn't what I meant.

To be honest, I really don't like the way the whole abortion debate in the U.S. is couched. It feels to me that everyone ends up focusing on the wrong things. In my opinion the real problem isn't whether abortion is legal or not, the question is "Why are there women who are becoming pregnant when they don't want to be?" If there were no unwanted pregnancies, there would be no abortions.

How to prevent unwanted pregnancies is a much different question from how to prevent abortions, and I think it is a far harder one to answer. Empowering both men and women to only have sex when they:

a. want to
b. are mature enough to handle any and all possible consequences
c. sober

would be a good start.

But empowering people to have control over their own destinies has far-reaching effects that may not be what people want.