Yeah leoj I suppose we should also consider ' financial reasons' as to whether we let oldies live or the disabled for that matter. What a pathetically lame excuse for taking life.

My,

"It is silly to believe that the unavailability of perfect contraception would solve the apparent problem of 'too many' abortions'

should be,

"It is silly to believe that the AVAILABILITY of perfect contraception would solve the apparent problem of 'too many' abortions."

Sorry, some distractions this morning

Toni,
Thanks for that, I did get the NSW family planning website where there is all sorts of info.

While there seems no definite or major reason for failures of the pill, I will concede the taking the oral pill is not as simple as I assumed and can be quite complicated. There are many reasons why it is not used or not used strictly as it should.

Oh, by the way I understand that a male pill could come out in future which stops the sperms from swimming and cannot get to the egg. But I do not expect that to impact the abortion rate. Many men are slack and unless its use can be linked to renewing the car rego they will 'forget'. Maybe if it worked instantly it would help, but she would have to remind him at dinner and buy the packet when she shopped.

"Many men are slack and unless its use can be linked to renewing the car rego they will 'forget'"

Men are selfish, uncaring and irresponsible? That is not my experience of men of any age.

Another poster suggested vasectomies.

Feminists recommend that men abstain from sex unless they are prepared to accept the burden of an unplanned child. Men 'get' that feminists exclude them from fertility decisions, including termination.

Any wonder that some men decline to respond to surveys and so on regarding contraception. They believe their views are not welcome and will be discounted. How dare a man comment on anything that might affect a woman's body?

The man hate has got to stop.

There is a lot of resistance to collecting and analysing termination numbers. Some of that reluctance is understandable. However with incomplete numbers and substantial gaps no inferences of any worth can be drawn.

What if there has been a big, sustained spike in terminations affecting women (and couples!) in their best child bearing and child raising years, 20-35? What might that say about social policies?

Firstly, in my personal experience with young women and abortions it's not failure of contraception but either laziness or dislike of some side effects of some types that stop women using them.
Some, like the pill and the implant put weight on women. Others they might find annoying or messy. I know some women who have had four or more abortions, simply as a form of birth control.
None if which is an excuse and as many Pregnancies occurr with non permanent partners, condoms should also be used more often , especially in view of the escalating rate of stds.
On the issue of men taking responsibility for pregnancies, as a woman I disagree. As long as women have total control over what happens to that foetus, then they take full responsibility for the pregnancy.
Want men to take some responsibility then give them some rights over their unborn child

At the root of the controversy concerning abortion
seems to be a basic value judgement about the
human status of the fetus. If the fetus is considered
a baby, then abortion is a form of killing; if it
is considered a mere collection of cells and tissue,
then abortion is a morally neutral surgical
procedure.

The status of the fetus is inherently ambiguous; it
is neither self-evidently a human being nor self-evidently
just tissue (for if these matters were self-evident, there
would be little disagreement about abortion).

On the one hand, the fetus is not a human being in the
usual sense, for it is generally not viable. Indeed, no
society treats the fetus as human, for example, if the
mother accidentally miscarries, the fetus is not given a
funeral, but is simply disposed of like any other tissue.
On the other hand, the fetus is not like any other tissue,
such as discarded nail or hair clippings.

The fetus is potentially a human being, one that might
become alive and unique. The conflicting value
judgements about abortion stem from this fundamental
ambiguity in the status of the fetus.

The question is further compounded by a related issue, the
right of a woman to control her own body. Added to that
is the other ambiguity that half the genes in the fetus
were contributed by the father, and although the woman
must bear the child, society may make the father responsible
for the child's support for years thereafter. If the father
waives his responsibilities - by deserting the mother - then
of course he has no further rights in the matter. But if he
accepts his responsibilities and wants the child born,
what are his rights in relation to the mother's right to
control her body?

Of course for those who believe that the fetus is human,
there is a third party present; the mother is controlling
not only her own body, but somebody else's potential
body and life - the baby's.

There are other abortion-related issues that go beyond the
immediate concerns of the parents.

To be continued later.