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Comment by diabeetusman | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure anyone here is saying that anyone should be aborted, but rather that people should have the choice to abort if that's what they decide.

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After having two kids and watching those ultrasounds, I’m a lot less sure of this than I was when I was 18.

Abortion is a horrible thing I wish didn’t exist. Given that it does exist, it’s a horrible choice I wish upon no one. Given that choice is ever made, it’s a horrible thought to consider punishing a woman for making it.

All of that said, as a society we have a responsibility to do better than almost a million abortions a year (~20% of all pregnancies) in the US.

I think a better male contraceptive choice would go a long way to reducing that number. As usual, I believe in a technological solution to societal ills.

We know how to drastically reduce abortions. Provide free long term contraceptives to women. We've seen it work in places like Denver who cut their teen pregnancy and abortion rates in half while saving $6 in medical bills for every $1 spent on IUDs. We cannot get programs like this more broadly because half our country thinks outlawing abortion and teaching "personal responsibility" is the solution despite evidence that neither actually work.

I think roughly half the country believes that abortion should be illegal not on policy grounds but on ethical grounds.

I do think contraception is obviously a powerful tool to reducing elective abortion, as a matter of policy.

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