To: TimF who wrote (17061 ) 6/18/2001 6:14:44 PM From: Solon Read Replies (2) | Respond to That's like saying "WWII and the pacifist movement increased American military spending in the 1940s". "In 1967, Romanian dictator Nicolai Ceausescu came to power and reversed that country's policy of legal and safe abortion. Although the birth rate initially increased, by the 1980's, it had shrunk back down to the mid-60's level because underground abortion networks had mushroomed. The drive to increase births was not accompanied by any basic medical or social improvements. Countless mothers and babies died for lack of medical care, food, and maternity beds. The country was so embarrassed at its soaring maternal and infant mortality rates that it abandoned international standards for recording them. Over the course of 20 years, an estimated 10,000 women died needlessly from illegal abortions alone. Ceausescu's action led to his downfall (he was executed in 1989), and it resulted in thousands of abandoned and neglected children whose plight moved the world. "In the Netherlands, abortion is freely available on demand. Yet the Netherlands boasts the lowest abortion rate in the world, about 6 abortions per 1000 women per year, and the complication and death rates for abortion are miniscule. How do they do it? First of all, contraception is widely available and free -- it's covered by the national health insurance plan. Holland also carries out extensive public education on contraception, family planning, and sexuality. An ethic of personal responsibility for one's sexual activity is strongly promoted. Of course, some people say that teaching kids about sex and contraception will only encourage them to have lots of sex. But Dutch teenagers tend to have less frequent sex, starting at an older age, than American teenagers, and the Dutch teenage pregnancy rate is 9 times lower than in the U.S. " The Catholic Church has not had the power to allow and forbid things for hundreds of years
