1 in 4 pregnancies ends in abortion?

[MultiBird]

Reading the BBC article about the US ruling, it says that in the US 1 in 6 pregnancies ends in abortion, which I thought seemed very high, but I looked it up and it's 1 in 4 in UK.

I'd fight very hard indeed if anyone challenged a woman's right to choose here, but isn't that very high? Is there some truth in the argument that it's being used as contraception? I've heard it said before and dismissed it as ridiculous but 25%?!

Bear with me a sec and I'll post the links.

I'm not a pro lifer and I don't want to ban abortion. Just yesterday I was saying how much I disagree with what is happening in the US.

You can be pro choice whilst feeling uncomfortable and about abortions that could have been avoided by taking due care.

You can be pro choice whilst strongly disagreeing with people being careless with contraception as they know abortion is a back up plan.

It's such a cop out to call everybody expressing concern about repeated avoidable abortions - pro life.

You’re very judgemental😟 it’s seeping through in quite a number of the things youve said.

Omg that's me too. I thought that figure of 25% was ridiculously high. But I've been pregnant 4 times. 1x miscarriage, 1 x abortion and 2 x live births.

It broke my heart to terminate but do I regret it? Absolutely not. I was a young teenager with a young baby already. I was sick when I was on the pill and got pregnant that way. :(

That post is only about prolifers who want to prevent women who want abortions from accessing them. There's no reason whatsoever for someone who knows they fit into neither of those boxes to imagine it relates to them

If you want to talk about how uncomfortable you feel with certain abortions as a prerequisite to your support for the legal right, I'm not going to pretend any of those qualms fundamentally affect the big picture, because they don't, but I've no quarrel with you either.

Sorry meant to quote @Barelyfunctioning3 there but it didn't.

Those who are uncomfortable with abortion as a plan b, can I ask you why?

The copper coil essentially brings about an abortion every month, and the MAP stops implantation. They're both forms of abortion. What is it about abortion that makes you feel uncomfortable?

"You can be pro choice whilst strongly disagreeing with people being careless with contraception as they know abortion is a back up plan."

No you cant.

Of course you can.

Being pro life is being completely against abortions in all circumstances. I'm not.

There are alot of so called accidental pregnancies these days where people swear they were caught short and now pregnant in a less than ideal situation, but how many of those do you think are really contraception failures? IUD's are 99% effective, the implant more than 99% effective, the pill is around 91% effective, condoms 98% effective.

No no no. You are very wrong. Condoms are NOT 98% effective. Most of those statistics above are over a year, with ideal use. Typical use, over a lifetime is VERY different statistically. People who don't understand contraception failure rates should not be anywhere near a conversation about abortion. You don't actually know how often contraception fails. The answer is A LOT.

What's the point of being pro-choice if you aren't pro-choice for people who are careless with contraception because they have abortion as a back up plan.

Honestly one of the main reasons I am pro choice is so Sarah down the road who got a bit tipsy, had a one night stand and didn't use protection isn't suddenly saddled with a child whilst the man who impregnated her is happily working 'self employed' avoiding child maintenance payments and suffering literally no repercussions.

I'm literally pro-choice for the women who use it as a back up plan.

Until men suffer the same consequences financially, mentally, emotionally and physically as women due to pregnancy then women need a method of reducing the burden on themselves for any reason they deem necessary, even carelessness and thoughtlessness with contraception.

Honestly I'm as barren as the Sahara desert, I have no skin in the game whatsoever, I wouldn't be here if abortion had been medically available years ago, but this is still literally the hill I am willing to die on.

I may be wrong, but I read that as believing Sarah down the road should be able to access a safe and legal abortion, just being unwilling to say as much without including some statement of disapproval too. In which case I'd say that's still pro choice. I'm just not going to pretend the statement of disapproval actually matters.

Nobody has the right to police what women do with their uteruses.

If you want an abortion then have one, it's none of my business.

You don't want an abortion, then don't have one, it's none of my business.

As early as possible, as late as necessary.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but if you disagree with a woman's right to an abortion & the sanctity of life then you should also:

Not eat meat as that lovely roast lamb on your dinner plate was once a life, an animal's child.

Not kill a flies or ants that's a life.

Not drink loads the night before & then drive the next morning as you're still probably over the limit as there is always the slight possibility of you killing someone by car. (It does happen)

Not smoke in front of other people as you are subjecting them to the damaging effects of second hand smoke (remember Roy Castle)

Not take drugs especially cocaine as you are condoning the torture & murder of people by the drug cartels in countries like Mexico.

If the the USA or any other country that is so lax with control, you should not support the right for people to bear arms as you are allowing & condoning people to be shot dead for no reason at all.
Remember Uvalde, Sandy Hook, Columbine etc.

The pro lifers arguments that it's about saving lives is absolute bullshit as they probably do or support at least one or more or the above.

I think you have misunderstood my post. There was no statement of disapproval. I was responding to the people who disapprove.

I have literally and consistently within this thread been pro choice, with no disapproval whatsoever so I can only assume you are confusing me with someone else or have not understood my point.

Option three, I'm not talking about you.

It looked to me like you were discussing whether someone who says they support abortion rights but still disapprove of certain abortions is pro choice. You seem to think they're not. I think they are. But the person whose view we're discussing there isn't you.

You're close.

It's not Sarah down the road wanting an abortion after a drunken ONS that I disapprove of. It happens. People make mistakes all of time. Me included. Nobody is infallible. You do you Sarah. Power to you. Sarah will most likely take steps to make sure she isn't in the same position again. She might now go onto contraception, or if her contraception failed, she might switch to something else.

It's Jane round the corner who doesn't bother with contraception at all and is on her 4th, 5th (and so on) abortion I disapprove of.

My disapproval stems from wondering why she wouldn't seek to prevent it happening a second time, let alone the rest. Its the frustration of thinking "just why would you keep putting yourself in this position, it's so easily avoidable"

Its not too dissimilar to the frustration you might feel when your friend keeps going back to the absolute wanker who keeps cheating on her. You respect her right to do so, but you think she's being stupid and you wish she'd make better choices. You won't try to force her hand not to go back because overall it's her choice to make.

That's where I am. I'm not pro life. Not by a long shot.

FWIW I came close to having an abortion myself. I changed my mind and proceeded with the pregnancy but I was fully prepared to go through with it at one point.

If I did have that abortion then continued to have unprotected sex, pregnant again, abortion, rinse and repeat - I can guarantee my friends and family would be telling me to give my head a shake.

just why would you keep putting yourself in this position, it's so easily avoidable

But as has been pointed out to you repeatedly.

1. It's not always so easily avoided. I had 2 different forms of contraception fail.

1. So fucking what if she chooses not to use contraception and would rather abort than have a child. I'm glad that options there for her so she's not bringing more unwanted children into the world. It literally doesn't matter how many abortions a woman has, or how she's choosing to prevent being a mother if she doesn't want to. It's not your business and not your place to judge. The fact you are says a lot more about you as a person than the woman who's brave enough to admit she can't provide the right life for a child and refuses to bring one into the world regardless of how she got to that point.

You can't judge what anyone else does.

People can judge if they want, they just shouldn't expect anyone else to pretend that judgement is anything other than self-indulgence.

Well yes, you can.

It's human nature.

These boards in particular AIBU is full of people passing judgement on others. There was somebody last night asking if they should call social services because they heard a baby crying and the parents were in the garden having a fag ffs.

The difference between me and a pro lifer is that I don't seek to restrict a woman's ability to access an abortion. I don't have to like the fact it's happening when it could have been avoided, but I still support her right to have one (two, three, ten)

I'm going to stop reading the thread now as I'm just repeating myself. I posted initially as the OP asked whether there were women out there using abortion in place of contraception, I said yes there was as I knew one personally and now I've been dragged into a "you are a pro lifer" rhetoric and accused of trying to police women's choices.

It's impossible to use abortion as contraception as contraception prevents a pregnancy from occurring. Abortion ends a pregnancy that's already occurred.
There are women who may or may not use it in place of contraception, but even if they do it doesn't matter. Good on them for not bringing an unwanted child into this world

I posted initially as the OP asked whether there were women out there using abortion in place of contraception, I said yes there was as I knew one personally and now I've been dragged into a "you are a pro lifer" rhetoric and accused of trying to police women's choices.

Its a stupid question and your response that yes there are some women who use abortion as ‘contraception’ (misnomer) is hardly some searing revelation, because everyone knows that some women do do that.

But they are not the typical profile of a woman who gets an abortion.

And I don’t see why it’s any of my business why someone gets an abortion, nor their reason for it.

It’s their body, their pregnancy, their bunch of cells. What does what they do with it matter to me?

Those were my thoughts too.

Otherwise it means 50% of pregnancies end in either in miscarriage or abortion!

(More than) 50% of my pregnancies have. 🤷🏻‍♀️

One abortion, two miscarriages (that I know of) and two children.

I had a missed miscarriage the first time I was pregnant. I had to have a d&c. Presumably that would have counted as a medical abortion for these figures??? I also had a spontaneous abortion during my 3rd pregnancy. I've been pregnant 5 times and have 3 dc. So presumably I'm a 1 in 5 am I? If that's the case I can totally see how those figures would be skewed.

I wondered this. I’ve had treatment for an incomplete miscarriage and I was wondering what that would be classed as.