General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The Rude Pundit - You Wanna Keep Harassing Women at Clinics? Then Let's Play [View all]happyslug
(14,779 posts)The Anti-Abortion protests have had almost no effect on women getting abortions, they make the protesters feel good, but have had no affect on abortion rates. Thus I give it as evidence to support the position that the protests being proposed would have the same affect, make the protesters feel good, but have no affect on the people being protested.
This is main reason the Supreme Court made the decision it did, such protests rarely work. This is NOT like bringing up something to people who are unaware of the problem, just protests do have affect, it brings attention to whatever is being protested for or against.
The problem with Anti-Abortion protesters is they are trying to protest against women who have already made their mind up, thus such protests are useless. The more effective protest would be to show support for alternatives to abortion, including increase welfare payments for Children.
The Federal Government will pay up to $721 a month for one child (this is called the Standard of Need) if the State agrees to pay 1/2 of that amount. No State has EVER taken up that Federal offer to its full amount, most agree to much lower numbers. My home county the limit for one person is $174 a month. If the amount would be increase to the full Standard of Need, more women would avoid having an abortion, but states before low taxes then the extra money such a program would bring into the State.
Advertisement showing young mothers taking care of their babies would be effective (it gives a positive image to keeping the fetus), but many of these anti-Abortion fanatics revert to horrible pictures of aborted fetuses that tend to turn people off (and thus avoiding the message).
If people want to do stupid ineffective things, leave them, do not give them a chance to see how ineffective those efforts are. Thus I agree this would be a waste of time and energy. These protests are more to keep the protesters happy then to do anything EFFECTIVE about abortion.