On the Moralistic Policies of George W. Bush: Back-Alley Abortions Aren't Progress, Plain and Simple

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

Remember back-alley abortions, with wire hangers? That was back in the '60s and '70s, when young women (prior to the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision) would go to dangerous lengths to terminate unwanted pregnancies. I knew people who flew overseas (to Cuba) or who used dangerous homemade methods, such as implanting foreign objects in the womb, to abort. Now, the New York Times reports that young Latinas have come up with equally dangerous methods. Unfortunately, the millennial version of back-alley abortions is the use of legal prescription drugs in illegal and dangerous ways.

What hath the right wing wrought? Abstinence-only education that—plain and simple—does not work. And now, abuse of a prescription drug that can cause abortion, but only if used properly:

But it does not always do so, not least because notions of how best to use it vary from inserting several pills into the vagina to letting them dissolve under the tongue. The side effects can be serious, and include rupture of the uterus, severe bleeding and shock.

Is this progress? Not at all! The Obama administration will spend years undoing the damage perpetrated by moralistic government policies set in place by Obama's predecessor.

• Read more by Bonnie Erbe.
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• Read more about abstinence.
• Read more about abortion.
• Read more about George W. Bush.