back on trial

Thanks to the federal government’s insistence on paying for our health care (i.e. making us pay while they choose the plan), abortion is again at the front of public debate.

As I was reading this article on the issue two things popped out at me:

“Abortion is one of the most common surgical procedures on women, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. More than 1.2 million abortions were performed in the United States in 2005, and estimates show that at current rates, about one-third of American women will have had an abortion by age 45, the foundation said.

The author of the article seems to be using this information to imply that, of course, the public should pay for abortions because they are common, completely dismissing even the possibility that the fact they are common is not a good thing.

To illustrate her view that the Hyde amendment is flawed, she told the story of a young, married government employee, who met with her staff, who desperately wanted a child but discovered when she became pregnant that her fetus had severe brain damage.

The abortion debate is always argued based on the exceptions, like this. Everyone always asks, “What about rape and incest?” if you say you are against abortion. First of all, what percentage of abortions are actually necessitated by these exceptions. Second, is it possible that if something is not good, it is always not good, even in tough circumstances?