Prevention, Abortion, and Lifestyle Choices, oh my...

The question went like this: "How do you refute this argument?" It was followed by (I'll address it in its entirety, point by point, so don't feel like you MUST read the initial argument...I provide it here for context in case you come across this arguement in real life) :

PREVENTION IS NOT ABORTION! If there is no conception, there is no fetus or life. Having contraception available to the adults prevents conception and therefore prevents abortion. Irresponsible pro-creation has put many people in misery even using their children to beg on the streets to survive when they could have been in school. We cannot stop people from having sex! So why not give them the tool to plan their family? It's their decision to have sex and when or how many children they can afford to raise. To see people living on the streets with many children is heartbreaking. But it's the kind of life many of them can't run away from because NO ONE CAN PREVENT PEOPLE FROM HAVING SEX! Our politicians and celebrities even flaunt their trophy mistresses and concubines. Therefore, many unwanted children are born into this world only to die from hunger and disease. The RH Bill is not about abortion. It's about contraception, family planning and maternity health care and education. We are the only country that don't allow the distribution of condoms that also prevent sexually transmitted diseases. All other catholic countries like Italy where the Vatican sits allow it. So why don't we? It's obvious that in this country, our lawmakers are influenced by the interference of the church. They are aware of the "poverty" problem we've been having is getting worse and yet, they are still complacent, apathetic and incorrigible in their misguided beliefs. The squatters issue is one of the results of their misguided beliefs. Would they rather see the sufferings of children in slow painful death or prevent the SENSELESS AND IRRESPONSIBLE pro-creation so as to avoid this problem that's caused by too many unplanned and unwanted children? Again, prevention is not abortion!

Let's break it down and address it point by point:

"PREVENTION IS NOT ABORTION! If there is no conception, there is no fetus or life."

No problem there!

"Having contraception available to the adults prevents conception and therefore prevents abortion."

That's not what the stats and history tell us (see below for some sources). Those show that with the increase in availavbe contraceptives, there is a direct increase in abortion rates. So, it seems that having contraception available acts to encourage sex...which then leads to unplanned and unwanted pregnancies...and then to abortion. That's what the stats show.

"Irresponsible pro-creation has put many people in misery even using their children to beg on the streets to survive when they could have been in school."

Re-wording: Irresponsible choices force people into having to deal with the consequences of their actions. I don't see a problem with expecting people to deal with the consequences of their behavior...it's part of learning.

"We cannot stop people from having sex! So why not give them the tool to plan their family? It's their decision to have sex and when or how many children they can afford to raise."

The Catholic Church has a GREAT tool for planning the family!! In fact, it's safer and more effective than ANY contraception on the market. It's called, "abstian from sex if you don't want to make babies". There is also NFP...which kinda follows the same guidelines, and it's FREE.

"To see people living on the streets with many children is heartbreaking. But it's the kind of life many of them can't run away from because NO ONE CAN PREVENT PEOPLE FROM HAVING SEX!"

Heartbreaking as it is, it is the natural consequence of their decision to make a poor choice. We reap what we sow. We can't prevent people from making bad decisions, but we can encourage them to make WISE decisions and allow them to live out the consequences of their decisions so that they can learn from them.

"Our politicians and celebrities even flaunt their trophy mistresses and concubines. Therefore, many unwanted children are born into this world only to die from hunger and disease."

What? What kind of logical fallacy is this, where someone flaunting people as "possessions" makes other people sin or cause the death and disease of someone else in a completely unrelated context? Oh, yeah, it's called a "non sequitur".

"The RH Bill is not about abortion. It's about contraception, family planning and maternity health care and education."

No, it's about abortion and allowing people to skip out on the consequences of their lifestyle choices.

"We are the only country that don't allow the distribution of condoms that also prevent sexually transmitted diseases. All other catholic countries like Italy where the Vatican sits allow it."

Just because others do it makes it right? As our proverbial mothers used to say, "..if Jimmy jumped off a bridge, would you jump off too??"

"So why don't we? It's obvious that in this country, our lawmakers are influenced by the interference of the church."

Or maybe it's because we have higher moral standards and we don't mind letting people live with the consequences of the choices they make? Though, I'm doubting that we really have higher moral standards here anymore...but maybe we used to.

"They are aware of the "poverty" problem we've been having is getting worse and yet, they are still complacent, apathetic and incorrigible in their misguided beliefs. The squatters issue is one of the results of their misguided beliefs."

So, are we assuming that we can solve the entire poverty issue by allowing people to dodge the consequences of their bad choices? I think it's the other way around. I think that if we excuse people from taking responsibility, that they will continue to become more dependent upon others to get them out of jams and we'll have an ever worse poverty issue on our hands.

"Would they rather see the sufferings of children in slow painful death..."

Is the claim here that all unplanned pregnancies result in death and suffering? And is the claim that preventing conception will stop suffering and death? Sounds like an emotional plea absent any objective fact to back it up. The only suffering and death I can see that would apply here would be in regards to abortion, which defintely should be avoided. And the BEST way to prevent that unwanted pregnacy is, as statistics show us, NOT by making contraception available, but by encouraging people to abstain if they don't want children, and allowing people to deal with the consequences of their lifestyle choices.

"...or prevent the SENSELESS AND IRRESPONSIBLE pro-creation so as to avoid this problem that's caused by too many unplanned and unwanted children?"

That's another logical inconsistency and an emotional plea with no fact to back it up. The fact is that unplanned pregnancy is a result of engaging in the act that LEADS to unplanned pregnancies...which is SEX. Yep, having sex can lead to pregnacy...and the best way to avoid an unwanted pregnancy is to avoid the act that can cause it. That's as simple as it gets...and doesn't cost the tax-payers anyhing either...thus helping to alleviate the whole poverty deal.

"Again, prevention is not abortion!"

No problem there! "Prevention" is abstaining from an act that can lead to an undesried effect, as opposed to engaing in that act anyway, and just hoping it turns out well for you.

Some sources: (These show a correlation between contraception and divorce and abortion rates)
http://www.crisismagazine.com/2012/marriages-vanishing-act
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/sexuality/se0002.html
http://steve.onemoresoul.com/in-my-opinion/does-use-of-contraception-lead-to-divorce.html
http://onemoresoul.com/contraception-abortion/risks-consequences/the-connection-between-contraception-and-abortion.html
http://divorceministry4kids.com/2011/divorce-statistics/
http://www.abort73.com/abortion_facts/us_abortion_statistics/
http://www.cirtl.org/stats.htm

#contraceptiontopreventabortion #weneedcontraception

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