500th post: Law of Unintended Consequences, Abortion Edition

Discussion in 'West Mall' started by NJlonghorn, May 18, 2015.

  1. NJlonghorn

    NJlonghorn 2,500+ Posts

    I am pro-choice, but not rabidly so. I think there should be reasonable limitations on the practice, for a variety of reasons. However, with all legislation, I am always concerned about the law of unintended consequences. A recent article got me thinking about this in the context of the late-term abortion ban.

    I can't find the article I read, but in searching for it, I found this article which makes essentially the same point. There is no reliable data on late-term abortions, but anecdotal evidence shows that many (most?) occur because severe fetal abnormalities are typically diagnosed around the 20th week. Earlier tests are available, but they are less reliable.

    Right now, at around 16 weeks, women learn that their fetus has an elevated risk of an abnormal birth. If they are inclined to abort, they wait until 20 weeks and take the more reliable test. If the results are positive, they abort in the 21st or 22nd week. If not, they breath a sigh of relief and the pregnancy continues.

    So what happens if the woman learns about the elevated risk at 16 weeks, and is told that her last chance to have an abortion is now? Does she roll the dice, or does she terminate? I'm sure some would go each way, but my best guess is that the overall number of abortions would increase. Plus, the number of births with severe abnormalities would increase.
     
  2. Mr. Deez

    Mr. Deez Beer Prophet

    There's no question that, as with most laws, there will be unintended consequences on the 20-week abortion ban. One can certainly come with scenarios in which it might encourage earlier-term abortions if a woman has made up her mind that she will abort if there's a chance of the baby having abnormalities. I think the hope is that most will err on the side of letting the baby live and won't do that. Instead, they'll want to wait to be absolutely sure before giving the child a death sentence, and by then it will sometimes be too late. Also, as the article acknowledges, the law does contain exceptions for severe abnormalities, "incompatible with life outside the womb," so if we're talking about defects that are going to kill the baby anyway, the law won't apply in the first place.

    Having said that, do I think the authors of the Texas law took these factors into serious consideration? No. Since you're in Jersey, you probably didn't watch the House debate on the bill. It was a joke. The member carrying the bill (Rep. Jodie Laubenberg, a Republican who predictably represents a mostly suburban but partly rural district in the Dallas area) was completely overwhelmed and horribly unprepared in the debate. As someone who's pro-life (and "rabidly so" to borrow your verbiage), it was embarrassing to watch. In fact, it was going so badly that eventually she stopped defending the bill and abandoned the front mic, while still moving to table Democratic amendments. (Normal protocol is for amendments that aren't acceptable to the bill's author to be debated primary by the bill's author and the amendment's author, and after debate is complete, the bill's author moves to table.)

    Obviously if you have the votes to pass a bill no matter what happens on the floor, it doesn't matter if you're dumb and can't debate. However, if you're actually trying to win hearts and minds on the issue, it certainly does matter. In fact, that's a big problem the Right has on abortion and most issues. Their spokesmen are dumb and can't intelligently debate against a liberal who approaches the issue with any degree of intellect or nuance. It's sad.
     
  3. Joe Fan

    Joe Fan 10,000+ Posts

    oh boy





    I admit I did literally laugh out loud at the end of it
     
  4. Mr. Deez

    Mr. Deez Beer Prophet

    If you have time to be offended by a commercial, then you're not busy enough. Get a hobby or go clean something.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  5. ProdigalHorn

    ProdigalHorn 10,000+ Posts

    That's pretty well it. I have some generalizations as to why that happens, and it has nothing to do with liberals and conservatives and their respective intelligence. But I have noticed that the more emotional the issue, the dumber the logic is that's used to support it. I think that's because why bother intellectualizing a case for defeating abortion when it's just murder? Why bother making a reasoned argument about immigration reform when we all know it's mean to tell anyone to go home.
     
  6. ProdigalHorn

    ProdigalHorn 10,000+ Posts

    Well we certainly wouldn't want anyone to think a fetus was human, would we...
     
  7. zork

    zork 2,500+ Posts

    They should have run the puppy/monkey/baby commercial with that one back to back. :cow:
     
  8. Joe Fan

    Joe Fan 10,000+ Posts

    Anyone notice the dedication in Gloria Stenheim's new book?
     
  9. NJlonghorn

    NJlonghorn 2,500+ Posts

    I hadn't, but looked it up in response to your post. It is to the doctor who performed an illegal abortion for her when she was 22. The left sees it as touching. The right sees is as disgusting.

    Yawn.
     
  10. Joe Fan

    Joe Fan 10,000+ Posts


    Ouch, that's mean.
    You should have prefaced that with a trigger warning
     

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