Just hazarding a guess but given that the Guttmacher Institute cites that 75% of all women who have abortions do so because they cannot afford the cost of having a child don't you think that universal health care and medical leave would alleviate some of that problem?
I don't see medical leave being much of a help there, they would have a job to go back to....if they are working that is...*shrugs*
And I think if you heck you'll find that the overwhelming majority of folks with children who didn't sign up for State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) , were low income....there are low income neonatal facilities at clinics and inner city Hospitals, yet, many don't avail themselves of the use of such.
I just don't see this as an issue ion this context. Example; contraceptives in low income areas are free or $9 at say a wal-mart ( I checked they have been offering at that price since 2007 and at $14 previously).
Do you see whats missing here?
From the Guttmacher link there are these statistics;
INCIDENCE OF ABORTION
Nearly half of pregnancies among American women are unintended, and about four in 10 of these are terminated by abortion.[1] Twenty-two percent of all pregnancies (excluding miscarriages) end in abortion.[2]
Forty percent of pregnancies among white women, 67% among blacks and 53% among Hispanics are unintended.[1] In 2008, 1.21 million abortions were performed, down from 1.31 million in 2000. However, between 2005 and 2008, the long-term decline in abortions stalled. From 1973 through 2008, nearly 50 million legal abortions occurred.[2]
Each year, two percent of women aged 1544 have an abortion. Half have had at least one previous abortion.[2,3]
At least half of American women will experience an unintended pregnancy by age 45, and, at current rates, one in 10 women will have an abortion by age 20, one in four by age 30 and three in 10 by age 45.[4,5]
If only 40% of unintended pregnancies are aborted then that means that there are 1.5 times as many that result in child birth. It is also means that contraception is failing 2.5 million times each year. Now is that because it is unavailable, it wasn't used properly, it wasn't used at all or that it simply failed to work?
For those 2.5 million women faced with an unintended pregnancy each year they have to make a difficult choice. 60% of them go ahead and have the child. How many of those children end up on SCHIP is something that I haven't researched but obviously a certain percentage will do so. This is a cost to society that taxpayers must bear.
So if abortions are no longer as readily available in those 5 states how many more of these children are going to end up needing coverage under SCHIP in those states? 75% of all abortions were for women below twice the poverty level. This indicates that 3 out of every 4 additional children that are not aborted in these states will need SCHIP support. Have the taxpayers in those states been told of the consequences of these laws? Are they in agreement that they are willing to assume this increased burden?
