Abortion Doesn't Affect the Majority of Americans
Since the Stupak Amendment thing came up, I keep hearing this statement. I'm not going to address the political stuff, but I want to address the statement itself.
At the time of writing, the US population stands at 307,905,212.(1)
Women are just slightly more than 50% of the population of the United States.(2)
So, let's call that 153,952,606 women.
Approximately 1/3 of women will have an abortion at some point in their lifetime. Many more will be pregnant at some point (nearly half of all pregnancies being unintended), but let's just use the number of actual abortions, shall we? So call it 33% of women have abortions.(3)
So let's call that 50,804,360 (technically 359.98, but let's not be absurd).
That's WAY less than half the population!
But let's consider that abortion doesn't exist in a vacuum. Women who have abortions were, without exception impregnated by someone (4). I don't have a handy reference for how many of those pregnancies resulted from sexual contact with strangers, or in the case of rape. I also don't have a handy reference for how many women who get abortions are sexually involved with more than one partner at the time of conception. So I'm not going to account for any of that, and I'll just assume that for every abortion there is one man involved who is affected. God knows the Father's Rights activists think this is the case.
So that's 101,608,720 right there. Still less than a third of the population.
But one of the biggest factors cited when women seek abortion is that there are family considerations (5). And whether it's your family of origin, your spouse, your children, or your chosen family, pretty much everyone has one. Average family size is 3.20.(6) Now, having a kid impacts a lot more than your immediate family, and if abortion isn't available women end up either having kids, or dying- both of which impact the people who live with you and the people who care about you. Most women also have connections outside the home- to friends, to a church, volunteer obligation, school, work, or whatever.(7)
Let's aim low and say that for every woman who has an abortion there are two family members, one friend, and one employer or employee or colleague or classmate who would be affected. Affected how? Well, they might not be affected if a woman has safe, legal access to abortion. They might not ever even know it happened. But if the woman carries the pregnancy to term (leaving aside the question of whether or not she raises the resultant child), there's maternity leave, possible pregnancy complications which could result in long term damage or disability, standard pregnancy fare like morning sickness and urinary urgency and trouble sleeping, potentially the cost of prenatal care and delivery... And if the woman dies due to the risks associated with pregnancy and childbirth (abortion being considerably safer than pregnancy and childbirth(8)), then these people are affected to a much larger degree. So let's say four more people are affected, per woman.
That brings us up to 406,434,880. Yeah, that's more than the total population of the country, and that's me underestimating. Unsurprisingly, people are affected by abortion all the time, without even knowing it. They don't know it because ABORTION DOES THE JOB IT'S SUPPOSED TO.
Not only does Abortion affect the majority of Americans, it affects ALL Americans. They just don't know it.
(1)http://www.census.gov/
(2)I don't have a citation for this, actually, but it stands to reason.
(3)http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html
(4)Again, it just stands to reason.
(5)http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html
(6)http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ACSSAFFFacts?_event=&geo_id=01000US&_geoContext=01000US&_street=&_county=&_cityTown=&_state=&_zip=&_lang=en&_sse=on&ActiveGeoDiv=&_useEV=&pctxt=fph&pgsl=010&_submenuId=factsheet_1&ds_name=DEC_2000_SAFF&_ci_nbr=null&qr_name=null®=null%3Anull&_keyword=&_industry=
(7)Stands to reason.
(8)http://www.guttmacher.org/in-the-know/safety.html
PS- Please don't link to this or paste it elsewhere until I can get someone to check my math. I'd be a little embarrassed if I made a really glaring mistake on this one.
(ETA- Math Officially Checked, link or copy away)
At the time of writing, the US population stands at 307,905,212.(1)
Women are just slightly more than 50% of the population of the United States.(2)
So, let's call that 153,952,606 women.
Approximately 1/3 of women will have an abortion at some point in their lifetime. Many more will be pregnant at some point (nearly half of all pregnancies being unintended), but let's just use the number of actual abortions, shall we? So call it 33% of women have abortions.(3)
So let's call that 50,804,360 (technically 359.98, but let's not be absurd).
That's WAY less than half the population!
But let's consider that abortion doesn't exist in a vacuum. Women who have abortions were, without exception impregnated by someone (4). I don't have a handy reference for how many of those pregnancies resulted from sexual contact with strangers, or in the case of rape. I also don't have a handy reference for how many women who get abortions are sexually involved with more than one partner at the time of conception. So I'm not going to account for any of that, and I'll just assume that for every abortion there is one man involved who is affected. God knows the Father's Rights activists think this is the case.
So that's 101,608,720 right there. Still less than a third of the population.
But one of the biggest factors cited when women seek abortion is that there are family considerations (5). And whether it's your family of origin, your spouse, your children, or your chosen family, pretty much everyone has one. Average family size is 3.20.(6) Now, having a kid impacts a lot more than your immediate family, and if abortion isn't available women end up either having kids, or dying- both of which impact the people who live with you and the people who care about you. Most women also have connections outside the home- to friends, to a church, volunteer obligation, school, work, or whatever.(7)
Let's aim low and say that for every woman who has an abortion there are two family members, one friend, and one employer or employee or colleague or classmate who would be affected. Affected how? Well, they might not be affected if a woman has safe, legal access to abortion. They might not ever even know it happened. But if the woman carries the pregnancy to term (leaving aside the question of whether or not she raises the resultant child), there's maternity leave, possible pregnancy complications which could result in long term damage or disability, standard pregnancy fare like morning sickness and urinary urgency and trouble sleeping, potentially the cost of prenatal care and delivery... And if the woman dies due to the risks associated with pregnancy and childbirth (abortion being considerably safer than pregnancy and childbirth(8)), then these people are affected to a much larger degree. So let's say four more people are affected, per woman.
That brings us up to 406,434,880. Yeah, that's more than the total population of the country, and that's me underestimating. Unsurprisingly, people are affected by abortion all the time, without even knowing it. They don't know it because ABORTION DOES THE JOB IT'S SUPPOSED TO.
Not only does Abortion affect the majority of Americans, it affects ALL Americans. They just don't know it.
(1)http://www.census.gov/
(2)I don't have a citation for this, actually, but it stands to reason.
(3)http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html
(4)Again, it just stands to reason.
(5)http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html
(6)http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ACSSAFFFacts?_event=&geo_id=01000US&_geoContext=01000US&_street=&_county=&_cityTown=&_state=&_zip=&_lang=en&_sse=on&ActiveGeoDiv=&_useEV=&pctxt=fph&pgsl=010&_submenuId=factsheet_1&ds_name=DEC_2000_SAFF&_ci_nbr=null&qr_name=null®=null%3Anull&_keyword=&_industry=
(7)Stands to reason.
(8)http://www.guttmacher.org/in-the-know/safety.html
PS- Please don't link to this or paste it elsewhere until I can get someone to check my math. I'd be a little embarrassed if I made a really glaring mistake on this one.
(ETA- Math Officially Checked, link or copy away)