This was my contribution to a recent social media exchange related to contraception, pregnancy related to rape, and abortion. While I avoid being "topical" on this journal, I do think it summarizes my views on the topic as concisely as possible

Anecdotes are interesting, and we all have them, but they can't solve arguments. For every story of it working out like this, there are stories of women dying in childbirth or being forced to have children by abusers. However a woman individually decides to handle an unplanned pregnancy, if we make the decision for all women that they do NOT have a choice using the logic that "it might work out because it did in X Y Z situation" then we are doing a tremendous disservice to survivors of rape or women who have health complications due to pregnancy.

Can we not keep abortion legal, increase sex education and access to contraception while also increasing adoption services and pursuing medical advances that allow women to have a higher likelihood of surviving a high risk pregnancy? Can we not teach boys and girls about how to be as safe as possible in a sexual situation through contraception while also helping them understand the beauty of intimacy between loving committed partners who communicate (this would also reduce sexual violence rates) and put off having sex?

From my perspective, women don't choose abortion for just one reason, so the answer can't be as simple as "sorry lady, you just don't have a choice in this one, trust me though". We need to increase options for women, including; contraception, a genuine sex education that focuses not only on the continuum of risk factors associated with various types of sexual activity but also on consent and communication, access to better health care and healthier lifestyles, wages equal to men (or some other financial compensation) so a woman can more easily raise a child on her own if needed, adoption services, and the choice for abortion when a woman chooses.