NationStates Jolt Archive

Its interesting that I bought up the old story of 'walking the talk' because it seems to me that conservatives, especially the religious right, have a tendency to be willing to talk the talk, but when it comes to actually walking it, its a different story altogether.

Before I reply to the reprevious thread, here is something non-abortion, as an example; GWB has talked about the need for wide sweeping tax reforms; one group has even bounced the idea of scrapping income tax, business and numerous other tax, in favour of a super Goods and Services Tax (GST) - IIRC, for that to be effective, I think IIRC, the last time there was a number crunch, it would have to sit at around 20-27%.

Here is the US, almost 5 years later, since the first GWB term, and still, the US has one of the most convoluted tax systems on earth - payroll tax (NO that is NOT income tax, that is tax based on total employee pay roll, which is paid out of the companies income - hence, it is a punishment to business), state taxes, then there is business tax, capital gains tax on share trading - the list goes on and on.

When, Mr GWB and follows, are the US citizens finally going to see those 'wide ranging reforms'? or is it going to be like Iraq's WMD's, non-existant; anyway, below is my reponse to the last post:

Yes.

So you went up to a person, at an abortion clinic, or elsewhere and said, "Love, you don't need to do that, I'll adopt the baby, I'll pay for the associated costs that you have with your pregnancy" - if you did, the I applaud your values and willingness to put your values into action.

Now, lets see some more out there.

But then again, isnt' it interesting that those states who are liberal and have the best sex education don't seem to have the same level of abortions.

How about instead of having a ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, teens are taught about sex and sexuality so that the don't go out and make irresponsible choices, resulting in pregnancies and STDs.

But then again, isnt' it interesting that those states who are liberal and have the best sex education don't seem to have the same level of abortions.


Do you have some statistics that back this up? Or are you, by using the term "seem to", implying that this is simply a wild guess?

Do you have some statistics that back this up? Or are you, by using the term "seem to", implying that this is simply a wild guess?

Don't remember where, but I have seen evidence to that effect. States that had programs that taught birth control showed lower rates of teen pregnancy, but a correlation wasn't firmly established. It was just assumed. Its a somewhat reasonable assumption because there is good reason to suspect that sex ed would affect teen pregnancy, but it is still an assumption and doesn't take into account cultural differences between the states. And from the stats I looked at they didn't factor in how teen pregnancy in that state had varried over time. Maybe that states always has high teen pregnancy regardless of the program being taught. Plus certain states, like California, that had one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the past didn't report their abortion statistics in some of the more recent years in which I was looking at the stats. So even though less tenagers were giving birth to babies, no one could be certain if this was due to lower pregnancy rates or just more abortions.

I really wish I could remember where it was. I remember it so clearly simply because I thought it was a weak argument.

Anyway, I agree with the original poster. I'm pro-life, but I have been arguing for years that legislation to ban abortion (though I support it) is not the most effective way to stop abortions. It's much more reasonable and good for the nation as a whole to focus one's energies on preventing the causes of abortion. This is done by working to prevent unwanted pregnancy and working to support pregnant women. We need to be harsh on companies that fire women for having to take leave for getting pregnant. We need to have programs that allow women to go to school part time so that they can finish highschool/college if they decide to keep the baby and to allow them to make up lost classes due to the pregnancy itself.

I gave this same rant before. Look at the tread about being contradictory in your abortion stance to read a more expanded rant.

Now I don't think the solution is for me to go up to women and adopt their babies (quite frankly the government wouldn't allow me because I am a single man who is busy with graduate school), but I do think we need the government to help pay for adoption. Either that or pass the associated costs onto the person adopting the baby.

Certainly Britain has a high rate of teen pregnancies and worse sex education than most of the rest of the EU.

Do you have some statistics that back this up? Or are you, by using the term "seem to", implying that this is simply a wild guess?
I don't know about US states, but here in Europe the countries with better sex education (Netherlands, Sweden) have lower teen pregnancy and abortion rates than countries with poorer sex education (like Britain, where they think that if you don't educate teenagers about sex, then they won't do it :rolleyes: ).

Certainly Britain has a high rate of teen pregnancies and worse sex education than most of the rest of the EU. So true. We should test whether teenage girls are virgins or not and if they're not, sterilise them so nothing regrettable happens in the future.