What's funny is so many of the pro-lifers are against all the things that would prevent abortions, and are against financial assistance for the woman that decides to keep her baby if she can't afford it.

I'm generalizing, but things that would help stop abortions and the pro-life position on them:

Sex Education (bad)

Birth Control (bad)

Free birth control (evil, promotes promiscuity)

Free prenatal care (bad..except for ultrasound that is shown to attach the future Mom to the baby)

Free, or subsidized child care (bad)

Universal health care (evil, socialistic)

I'm not even going into the issues of the folks that want to shame the "bad" women, that think they deserve to be punished for getting pregnant, I think (hope) they are a minority of the real pro-lifers, even if they are sometimes over represented on these boards.

Condoms break, vasectomies fail, many drugs reduce the effectiveness of the pill and not all women are aware of that. When I had an ear infection, my regular doctor didn't tell me that the antibiotic would make the pill ineffective for the rest of the month. I knew it, but he didn't bother.

One more problem. There is a fairly large group of young people (male and female) that are religious, that truly think that premarital sex is a sin. That it's wrong.

If they got birth control it meant they were planning to sin. If they just get swept away with the moment, it wasn't premeditated, they feel it could be forgiven.

But for abuse to stop happening, the abused person (nod to the guys here, it can happen to both sexes) has to recognize they are being abused and to stop tolerating it, even if that means being willing to leave.

Until that happens, nothing will change.

Anecdotally -- for what that's worth -- the most common reason I have heard young women state for not using the pill is the side effect of weight gain.

I hear you, it's the same reason many use to excuse their smoking. (BTW, if you want to smoke fine, but don't give dumb reasons to justify it.)

The funny thing is, the weight gain that the pill gets blamed for coincides with life changes that frequently see weight gain in both men and women.

You start college...

You get out on your own and are over 21 and start going to happy hour regularly with your friends...

You start dating someone seriously and you go out to dinner regularly...

You get married and start sharing meals at home together...

All of these things are major changes to your eating and exercise habits. I admit the pill can make you retain a little more water weight than normal, but that's a pound or two, not the freshman 15+ that so many young women and men get.

I don't see you as a troll myself, even if we don't agree. It takes a while to get to know regular posters and a single thread or two won't always give an accurate take.

That being said, that doesn't mean there aren't some serious trolls out there and that discourse could be improved if they were limited to their postings.

I'm personally glad that Glenn banned a writer or two on his threads. The disruptive ones that were hardly ever on topic anyway.

Guess what? Even getting your tubes tied is not a 100%guarantee against pregnancy. The odds are small, but some women's tubes will fuse back together, I guess similar to what can happen to some men after a vasectomy.

I liked the 99% odds (that decrease slightly over time) enough that I did go for the tubal ligation route. Much less chance of a screw up on my part or my husband's part.

Trouble is, the surgery is not cheap, and doctors try to dissuade you, especially if you are childless. I had to sign a form and undergo a waiting period.

Congratulations on being a free woman! It's funny, getting the tubal ligation made me feel free, too. I've been lucky, I never had to make a "choice" either way.

My husband already had kids, didn't want anymore, which was great for me.

Now, I've skipped to right Grandma, best decision ever. Being a Grandma is a pretty cool job.

One more jump in on the government telling us what to do all the time.

I've had a number of large corporate clients over the years in the construction industry. Trust me, it's rare that a project gets cancelled (or even significantly delayed) because of the "government". 99% of the time I can get a variance for just about anything. (This is true for my friend's little projects, too, like a neighbor's carport) The farther up the chain I go, the more likley it will be approved.

Sure, we might have to add a facade to a building to look like the neighboring area, not be allowed to have a 50 foot tall neon sign, have to add a few drought resistant plants in the parking lot, but's that cheap stuff in the long run.

The only time my clients have been truly set back was by citizen action. The cities alway try to accomodate, but there have been some very effective neighborhood groups that have managed to stop us from building. After this happens, all of a sudden the city/community leadership will jump on the bandwagon and pretend that they were opposed to a project.

There's a lesson in this somewhere...