Fel, I agree with the vast majority of you say. Politically, you stated my position almost verbatim.
I will say that I somewhat disagree with you on abortion in perspective, if not in law. While I dislike the idea of abortion, I think it is A) not the place of men (of which I of course am one), who make up the vast majority of lawmakers, to dictate what happens to a woman's body or life, B) not the place of the law to intervene, and C) hypocritical to pursue given the level of sex education (abstinence only) given to children and particularly to teens.
The basic problem is that pregnancy, particularly early (teen) pregnancy is a life-changing event for everyone involved, not just for the woman. Our children (both boys and girls) are taught that they should avoid sex before marriage, which is akin to the guy with the fire extinguisher trying to put out an entire house on fire. Very few teenagers are going to make it through their teenage years without sex and, between ignorance and the outright falsities that are known amongst the teenage population, are going to do so completely unprepared to mitigate the risks that are associated with the sex. When common knowledge says that girls "can't get pregnant the first time," or many other such nuggets of wisdom, we are going to face a great number of problems.
As a result of this, girls predictably get pregnant. They are then ostracized by their peers, usually by the father of the child, and sometimes by their own parents. So they get shuffled out of the way where the good girls (or more likely, more lucky girls) can't see them. After this, their chances of getting into college are essentially nil, their chances of getting good job not much better than that, and very few men (particularly young men) are interested in a woman with her own built in family. Face it, at this point, their lives are pretty much ruined; most will try and make do as a single parent, find a job (or two) to try and subsist, and live paycheck to paycheck with the slightest disruption ready to tumble whatever dominoes they've built up of their life. It isn't a fairytale life.
There is adoption, but from my understanding there are a limited number of people looking to adopt, which is further reduced by the weeding out of unsuitable potential adopters. Not to mention that it does nothing for the girls that have to go through the entire pregnancy being ostracized by friends (and very possibly family).
There was an interesting opinion article on CNN not too long ago (I hunted it down here
http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/29/opinion/f ... index.html ). I don't agree with everything in the article, but I remember being interested in a part of the article speaking of the Netherlands. The Netherlands has one of the most liberal abortion laws in the world, but has one of the lowest abortion rates in the world. In the 90's, their abortion rates started to rise precipitously, and so they investigated. What they found was that the abortion rate among native (born in the country) countrymen was as low as ever, and the spike was being caused by immigrants with subcultures that didn't have the education and the birth control availability. This led to a 31% increase, over 7 years, for the entire population despite the fact that those born in the country (the vast majority) had no significant increase. I find that interesting and true to human nature; the more you try and clamp down on something the more resistant and problematic it comes.
How do we fix abortion? Well, that requires a multiple part answer, and the various parts aren't palatable to most, especially the religious.
A) We need to fix sex education. Abstinence only education has proven itself to be futile and actually harmful (as in, it causes things to be worse than if there was no sex education). We need actual education that can dispel the innumerable myths and inaccuracies that are rampantly spread through the teen population, and there needs to be direction that teens can follow to minimize risk (both of disease and pregnancy), including birth control methods. Abstinence is unrealistic, and it just simply does not work.
B) We need to give support to those that do become pregnant. We need to educate people so that they aren't so isolated and ostracized. We need to get family to support the pregnant teens, or at least move them out of harmful environments to where they can get support. We need to get them counseling so that they can make decisions and cope with their future. The fathers should shoulder as much of the burden as well. The days of fathers walking away, and maybe paying some child support (and even many of those trying to avoid it or ducking payments) needs to end.
C) We need to improve outlets for adoption. Obviously, we need to protect the safety of those adoptees, and god knows that we need to prevent (further) abuse, but we also need to vastly expand the pool of people willing to adopt. Personally, I think that it might not be the worst thing for adoption law to get a long hard look for improvement, but that is a soapbox for another time.
D) We need to get them opportunities for schooling, for help with job placement, and the other things that can help mitigate the harm to the mother's future if she should decide to keep the child. That's not to say we should place them on permanent welfare, but we have to get them a chance to make something of their lives even while they are supporting their child.
I think that ultimately, if you put into place education, birth control availability, and support mechanisms, then there will be enough relief mechanisms that abortion will be a last resort instead of a first resort that it is in too many places. As long as abortion
is the only relief mechanism, it shouldn't come as any surprise that it is, depending on your definition, abused.
And that soapbox came out of no where. I'm going to quietly step away, now.