15 areas of common ground in the abortion debate
The following are areas that I think should be easy common ground for pro-life and pro-choice people. What would you add?
- Evidenced-based informed consent for women seeking abortion, including information regarding contraindications, physical and mental health issues, and accurate fetal development information, and including offering women the option to view the ultrasound
- Comprehensive sex education, including education regarding our reproductive systems, fetal development, contraception (the different types, how they work, and their levels of effectiveness), and other fertility issues
- Streamlined access to contraception, including advanced provision of recurrent forms, and funding research into more effective male contraception
- Better resources for pregnant women who feel pressured to abort, including resources for financial issues, abusive situations, child care problems, discrimination from the workplace or school, and medical issues, and including connecting women to communities that can offer social and emotional support
- Fighting ableism in the medical community. Educating medical providers about the perspectives of people with the disabilities being diagnosed, and the perspectives of their families. Training medical providers to give prenatal diagnoses in a objective and evidence-based way, which means discussing not only possible challenges with a condition but also resources available to help parents prepare for and care for the child (including not only support for medical issues but also social and emotional support).
- Fighting ableism in society generally, including educating the general public about a lot of the same information listed above.
- Developing perinatal hospice programs and making sure parents are aware of those programs at the time of an adverse fetal diagnosis. Also better general public education about these programs.
- Screening women seeking abortion for domestic violence, coercion, and sex trafficking
- Resources available for people who experience emotional and psychological issues following an abortion, including resources not specific to any religious views.
- Mandatory reporting of pregnant minors as defined by state law
- Reporting accurate anonymized abortion-related statistics to state health departments
- Better general public education about miscarriage: its frequency and causes (when known), and common emotional and psychological reactions from loss parents
- Better training for medical professionals regarding how to care for patients experiencing miscarriage, including some awareness of the emotional and psychological aspects in addition to the medical aspects.
- Standard protocols for transferring miscarried or aborted remains from medical facilities to funeral homes or to the family’s custody, if patients so desire.
- Abortion clinics held to appropriate safety and health standards.
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