Survey Shows Unwanted Births Up

[deadparrot]

ATLANTA - More American women are having babies they didn't want, a survey indicates, but federal researchers say they don't know if that means attitudes about abortion are changing.

U.S. women of childbearing age who were surveyed in 2002 revealed that 14 percent of their recent births were unwanted at the time of conception, federal researchers said Monday.

In a similar 1995 survey, only 9 percent were unwanted at the time of conception.

At least one anti-abortion group said the numbers reflect a national "pro-life shift," while others who research reproductive health issues suggested it might mean less access to abortion.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051219/ap_on_he_me/unwanted_pregnancies

[Brundle_Fly]

1. abstinence

as a preventative tool teaching

[Fridays Child]

2. Bringing a child into Bushworld™ has to be a tough decision.

eom

[MisterP]

3. so THAT'S how they're going to make up military shortcomings:

no abortion or contraception allowed? promise the kid to our army!

[POAS]

4. I'd look for a relationship between

abstinence only education and pregnancy rates.

[lolly]

5. So, this is a good thing?

These people seem to think that it's good that more women are giving birth to unwanted babies:

At least one anti-abortion group said the numbers reflect a national "pro-life shift"
Yup, we're moving forward. Was it Romania under Coucescou where women were examined once a year, and if they went too long without getting pregnant, they were investigated for illegal contraceptive use?

[daleo]

12. Crazy reasoning isn't it? n/t

[Straight Shooter]

6. In 2002 bush was in the Oval Office.

Perhaps the researchers should have pinpointed the reason for the child being unwanted.

IMHO, limited access is the reason, plus the pro-birth groups harass and intimidate women who try to go to clinics to terminate pregnancy. You might say that thuggery is a reason more of these children are being born. Let's see what happens to the emotional dispositions of children who are borne by women under extreme emotional stress, and who pass those chemicals such as cortisol to the fetus.

http://health.discovery.com/centers/stress/interviews/glover.html

Q: How and why do you think that the stress experienced by mothers during pregnancy can affect the unborn child?

A: We found two possible mechanisms by which maternal stress during pregnancy could affect the development of the baby. One is if the mother is very anxious or stressed while she's pregnant, there's reduced blood flow to the baby through the uterine arteries, the main source of blood and nutrition for the baby, and this could explain why the baby doesn't grow as well and also set up a secondary stress response in the fetus. Second, we have shown that if the mother has high levels of cortisol, the main stress hormone, so does the fetus. It seems that enough cortisol crosses the placenta from the mother to the fetus to actually affect fetal levels. So if the mother is stressed, her cortisol goes up, so does the cortisol level in the fetus. This in turn could well affect the development of the brain and the future stress responses of the baby.

[DBoon]

7. pro-life must mean "we want more abused neglected children"

How can anyone take pleasure in an increase in unwanted births?

[MountainLaurel]

8. More cannon fodder and more Mall-Wart clerks

The corporate interests in this country are indeed very happy today.

[saigon68]

11. Keeps wages low

good for the Corporate ruling class

[Gloria]

9. Access to abortion in some place is difficult--and I wonder what

parental notification hurdles are doing to these numbers....

[JudyM]

10. "Unwanted births" = Fundies procreating n/t

[GoddessOfGuinness]

13. Attitudes aren't changing...

Assholes are making it more and more difficult for women who choose abortion.

[salin]

14. before reading this, but after reading the medicaid cuts in congress

it occurred to me that a disturbing outcome of public policy pushes by the far right could very well be that poor pregnant women are turned away from care altogether - that the burden of costs pushed out of for-profit hospitals to not-for-profit institutions becomes so high that even the nonprofits start turning folks away... so where will these babies be born? The trends in health care combined with the GOP's shredding of safety nets (while giving HUGE tax "relief" to the grossly wealthy) have frightening implications. How many years away are we from having next to no health services for the poor? How far away are we from - at least on the h/c front - looking like a third world country?

[pecwae]

15. Unwanted at conception

What makes the forced birth crowd think these children will be any more wanted after birth? I agree with the previous poster who believes intimidation and threats of violence at abortion clinics is a major factor. FBC doesn't care one whit about these mothers, fetuses or resulting babies; it's all about forcing their 'morals' on everyone else, control.

[Cerridwen]

16. Please don't forget the decades of indoctrinating so many that

abortion is murder. A woman finds herself pregnant and she has internalized this message. So now what, "I'm pro-choice but I believe abortion to be a sin/murder." And now we have an unwanted pregnancy with a moral dilemma she may not have faced prior to the indoctrination. This is why I worry about the "I'm pro-choice, but..." people.

This is what years of media framing have done to our collective conscious. Abortion clinics were once called women's health clinics or family planning clinics. We tried to get "pro-life" groups called anti-choice, very little success. OB/GYNs were called women's doctors or women's health care providers. Now, if they provide abortion they are called abortion doctors.

The framing has been successful. Here is one result of it.

[bleedingheart]

17. But wait...how can this be....babies are gifts from God...

why wouldn't people want a gift from God?....Oh wait...cuz God doesn't get up with you at 2am feedings and doesn't have to worry about paying for daycare or having enough food and shelter...