<div>Nick, Melynda et. al.</div>
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<div>I agree with Melynda's critique of your article on abortion, which echoed with some different arguments some of the points I made in my post:</div>
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<div><u><font color="#0000ff">Vision2020] A Woman's Right to Choose, Personal Choice & Social Harm </font></u></div>
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<div>Just in case you might want to respond to my points, thought I am just a lowly male!</div>
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<div>Ted Moffett</div>
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<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 1/25/06, <b class="gmail_sendername"><a href="mailto:nickgier@adelphia.net">nickgier@adelphia.net</a></b> <<a href="mailto:nickgier@adelphia.net">nickgier@adelphia.net</a>> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">Greetings:<br><br>Before I discuss responses to my abortion column, I just want to catch up on a few things. First, I look forward to meeting some of you for the first time at the potluck on Feb. 4.
<br><br>Second, some readers may think that Keely and I have established a mutual admiration society, and that is true, but I don't want any of the articulate women posting on this list to think that I don't also admire your contributions as well.
<br><br>With regard to the abortion column, let me take Donovon's swipe at me first. For the record I do not deny a woman's right to shop at Walmart. If she lives in Moscow, she can just drive over to the existing store. If she does not have a car, I will drive her there, but I will not go in to shop. If she needs to get a good buy on groceris, we will then drive over to Winco. Constrast this with the fact that in some states women have to drive hundreds of miles to exercise a crucial aspect of their constitutionally protected reproductive freedom.
<br><br>More serious critics were worried that my proposal would lead to eugenics. I did a lot of research about brain development in order to avoid that criticism. The results are in the full article on abortion at <a href="http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/abortion.htm">
http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/abortion.htm</a>, and I've added this paragraph to the column as it will appear in The Sandpoint Reader tomorrow.<br><br>"A critic might say that this focus on brain power would make those with mental deficiencies non-persons. Even though the average IQ for microcephalics is 10, they still have a mental life greater than the late term fetus. Down Syndrome people have an average IQ of 50, but their problems are due to brain metabolism not the amount of neo-cortex they have." While most of the mentally deficient will always be beginning persons (=children) with a serious moral right to life, they will not be adults with both rights and duties. Many with Down Syndrome can become adults, hold down jobs, and even marry.
<br><br>With regard to the health problems of abortion, I mistakenly conflated the horrors of no reproductive freedom with those problems with too much reproductive freedom. Therefore, for the Sandpoint version I've edited the end of the column to read as follows:
<br><br>"Many claim that abortions cause health problems for women who submit to them. A 2003 study done by the National Cancer Institute found that there was no connection between abortion and the incidence of breast cancer. In 1989 the American Psychological Association published a study that concluded that there was no such thing as "post-abortion syndrome." Nada Stotland, former president of the Association of Women Psychiatrists, states that "the incidence of diagnosed psychiatric illness and hospitalization is considerably lower following abortion than following childbirth."
<br><br>Abortion opponents do very little to support the social services and accurate information that would make abortions safer, earlier, and rarer, as is the case in most other industrialized countries. For example, in Belgium and the Netherlands there are 7 abortions per 1,000 women in 1995 as opposed to 23 per 1,000 in the
U.S. Our legislators also do very little to improve the socio-economic conditions that would allow single mothers to raise their babies successfully.<br><br>The most horrendous effects on female health are found in countries that do not allow reproductive freedom, and the Bush administration's restrictions on family planning in foreign aid are making this problem worse. With a little over half the population, Brazilian women have more abortions than American women do. In those countries where abortion is illegal there were an average 35 abortions per 1,000 women in 1995.
<br><br>There are also examples of irresponsible reproductive freedom. Current and former Communist states encouraged abortion rather than contraception and effective sex education. In the 1995 there were 78 abortions per 1,000 in Cuba and 90 per 1,000 in Eastern Europe. Except for these countries, the rate of abortion appears to be directly proportional to the restrictions placed on sex education and reproductive freedom."
<br><br>If I have missed any points that were made on or off list, please let me know.<br><br>Nick Gier<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>_____________________________________________________<br>List services made available by First Step Internet,
<br>serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.<br> <a href="http://www.fsr.net">http://www.fsr.net</a><br> mailto:<a href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">Vision2020@moscow.com</a><br>?????????????????????????????????????????????????????
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