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In Britain, only 8 percent of the population is Catholic (compared with 25 percent in the United States). Abortion there is legal. Abortion is free. And yet British women have fewer abortions than Americans do. I asked Cardinal Hume why that is.
The cardinal said that there were several reasons but that one important explanation was Britain’s universal health-care system. “If that frightened, unemployed 19-year-old knows that she and her child will have access to medical care whenever it’s needed,” Hume explained, “she’s more likely to carry the baby to term. Isn’t it obvious?”
A young woman I knew in Britain added another explanation. “If you’re [sexually] active,” she said, “the way to avoid abortion is to avoid pregnancy. Most of us do that with an IUD or a diaphragm. It means going to the doctor. But that’s easy here, because anybody can go to the doctor free.”
”T.R. Reid - Universal health care tends to cut the abortion rate - washingtonpost.com
via sexartandpolitics : southpol : ezraklein
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People who are anti-abortion and also anti-healthcare baffle me.
(via stfuconservatives)
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“…to see the Republicans up there carrying on the way they are, I basically concluded that maybe we should just pass this thing. … If the Republicans hate it, there must be some good in it.””
Ft. Hood soldier hand delivers letter to Obama, "keep your promise"
What happened at Fort Hood has made it abundantly clear that the military mental health system, and our soldiers, are broken.
We ask that:
- Each soldier about to be deployed and returning from deployment be assigned a mental health provider who will reach out to them, rather than requiring them to initiate the search for help.
- Ensure that the stigma of seeking care for mental health issues is removed for soldiers at all levels-from junior enlisted to senior enlisted and officers alike.
- Ensure that if mental health care is not available from military facilities, soldiers can seek mental health care with civilian providers of their choice
- Ensure that soldiers are prevented from deploying with mental health problems and issues.
- Stop multiple redeployments of the same troops.
- Ensure full background checks for all mental health providers and periodic check ups for them to decompress from the stresses they shoulder from the soldiers they counsel to the workload they endure.
