>Tamar,
>
>Any more than any of the other outcomes of an unwanted pregnancy? That's the piece of the equation that tends to be missing in most of the discussions.
>
>That's True if discussion can only start at the point when an unwanted conception has already occurred. ;-) I'd prefer to extend the consideration to whether individuals or society can do better than an abortion clinic at the bottom of the cliff. For a start, we might look at first world countries like Holland and Japan whose abortion rates are 1/8 of those in the US. Unless we truly believe that the examples you provided earlier are 8 times as common in the US, those communities are doing something different from which we might learn.


Let's start with the common belief in Japan that contraception is not solely the woman's responsibility. Condoms count for 80% of birth control methods in Japan. Japan is actually concerned about wide-spread acceptance of the pill for birth control. They fear increased incidents of aids and other sexually transmitted diseases because if the pill becomes a common method of birth-control, there will be fewer using condoms.