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Pregnancy, abortion issues should be discussed with facts, Gouverneur woman says

Posted 12/26/13

To the Editor: The recent letter to the editor regarding breast cancer risk associated with birth control pills and abortions caught my attention this morning. Author Chris LaRose has a valid …

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Pregnancy, abortion issues should be discussed with facts, Gouverneur woman says

Posted

To the Editor:

The recent letter to the editor regarding breast cancer risk associated with birth control pills and abortions caught my attention this morning.

Author Chris LaRose has a valid concern, as the rate of unintended pregnancies (and therefore abortions [Guttmacher Institute 2013]) in the

United States continues to be higher than other developed countries.

In fact, 49 percent of pregnancies in our country are unintended (CDC, 2011).

It is also of note that the rates of unintended pregnancies are higher among women with lower educational levels (Guttmacher Institute, 2013, Finer &

Zolna, 2011).

This is important to keep in mind when publicly offering "facts," as many women may not be able to differentiate between scare tactics, skewed data,

and true statistically sound data.

It is my hope that women would never be frightened of preventing unintended pregnancies, to hopefully decrease the abortion rate, by reading

unreferenced "facts" in the local newspaper.

Preventing pregnancy in the first place is the soundest way to prevent abortions, and every opportunity to promote all forms of contraceptives as

well as abstinence should be taken.

Please take this into consideration when publishing opinion pieces in the future. I realize this is also only my opinion, but it is backed by sound,

statistically significant data that was collected in an unbiased manner.

Katherine Richey, RN, CCRN, MSN student

Gouverneur