Hang this on your coat hangers, pro-"lifers": Universal health care tends to cut the abortion rate

[Bluebear]

From the data presented it is crystal clear that the radical right wing should be supporting, no, embracing UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE. Since they don't care so much about children who are already born, won't they think of the zygotes?

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Countless arguments have been advanced for and against the pending bills to increase health-care coverage. Both sides have valid concerns, which makes the battle tight. But one prominent argument is illogical. The contention that opponents of abortion should oppose the current proposals to expand coverage simply doesn't make sense.

Increasing health-care coverage is one of the most powerful tools for reducing the number of abortions -- a fact proved by years of experience in other industrialized nations. All the other advanced, free-market democracies provide health-care coverage for everybody. And all of them have lower rates of abortion than does the United States.

This is not a coincidence. There's a direct connection between greater health coverage and lower abortion rates. To oppose expanded coverage in the name of restricting abortion gets things exactly backward. It's like saying you won't fix the broken furnace in a schoolhouse because you're against pneumonia. Nonsense! Fixing the furnace will reduce the rate of pneumonia. In the same way, expanding health-care coverage will reduce the rate of abortion.

At least, that's the lesson from every other rich democracy.

The latest United Nations comparative statistics, available at http://data.un.org, demonstrate the point clearly. The U.N. data measure the number of abortions for women ages 15 to 44. They show that Canada, for example, has 15.2 abortions per 1,000 women; Denmark, 14.3; Germany, 7.8; Japan, 12.3; Britain, 17.0; and the United States, 20.8. When it comes to abortion rates in the developed world, we're No. 1. MORE....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/12/AR2010031202287.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

[Last_Stand]

1. I imagine that reducing poverty and increasing education helps as well...

but you'll never get the fake christians in this country to understand it or cough up the cash for it.

[Bolo Boffin]

2. I understand that abortion also doesn't affect the birth rate, either

Women simply wait until they're in a better position to raise children before having them, when they have that choice.

Anybody that is truly against abortion should be FOR universal health care. And a woman is the best judge of when she's able to have a child.

[Bluebear]

3. Indeed.