"Late-term abortions "have been happening hundreds of times every single day for decades in America," he said. "Those who incomprehensibly call trying to change this a 'war on women' overlook the fact that roughly half of these babies that are so torturously killed each day are just little tiny women.""

This: "All four Democrats on the panel voted against advancing the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, arguing that it is unconstitutional and allows no exceptions for rape victims, incest victims, women whose health is endangered by a pregnancy, and cases of severe fetal anomalies. "

I don't see how and why anyone would think that a woman would undergo an abortion without giving it serious thought. Do these guys really think that abortions are fun or something and women won't be able to contain themselves from getting pregnant JUST SO they can proceed to abortions? 

These guys are quite obviously douchebags.. However:

1.2M abortions every year (hey, at least it's down from 1.5M+!) is strong circumstantial evidence that there _is_ a very large number of women who are utterly depraved and using abortion as a casual birth control method without holding any regard for the unborn child.  What portion of that 1.2M fall into such a  category? My guess is it's statistically significant while no where near a majority.  No one has to walk or drive far to see examples of the worst humanity has to offer.

Lumping all women into a category of being "serious" about abortion is about as accurate as lumping all muslims into the "terrorist" category.

So just because some women may not be serious about their birth control options means we lump ban abortion? Every woman that I know that's had an abortion has never said it was an easy decision for her to make. There are terrible people out there, but it's a red herring to trot out this hypothetical woman who callously has an abortion every month. Do you have any idea how expensive that would be, BTW? It's something like $300-$500 per procedure. I doubt anyone no matter how frivolous they are has that much cash to just dispose on an "easy" alternative to responsible birth control. I'd think that would mean we become more serious about birth control education, instead of continuing on this course where we hold abstinence-only as the only means to prevent pregnancy. 

America's views on sex and drug control just don't make sense to me. Other countries where there are lower drinking ages as well as adequate sex education don't have the problems we do. It'd make logical sense to emulate policies that work instead of blatantly disregarding them as "anomalies".

In the UK, in 2011, 36% of women who had an abortion had already had one before (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9296924/Tens-of-thousands-of-women-have-had-more-than-one-abortion-official-statistics.html).  Lifenews.com has a blurb about 43% in the US (not linking here. I once worked with the owner of lifenews: not giving him traffic). Britain being culturally very very similar to the US, particularly in the socio-demographic department, it seems a valid stat to me. 

In my book, having another abortion means you probably didn't take it too seriously the first time.

I actually thought the number would be way lower than 36-43%, btw...

Roughly 21-45% of DUI-ers are repeat offenders. Should we bring back Prohibition? 

Without knowing why these women are having more than 1 abortion, it's impossible to speculate their reasons. Why are you choosing to assume they're not taking it seriously the first time? How can you know that they're not parents trying to avoid having a child with a hereditary disorder, and are rolling the dice again and again in the hopes of having a healthy child? 

Those DUIers have to live with judicial oversight, at the very least in the realm of driving (tho often more invasively also). 

and with roughly ~500,000 data points (i.e. 1.2M x 40ish%) it's very appropriate to speculate on the distribution of justification. There simply aren't that many genetic anomolies (which appear on the order of instances per million instead of statistical percentage) to account for even a blip in that distribution curve.  Depravity (i.e. lack of seriousness) is GOING to be a huge plurality if not the majority of cases in this distribution, specifically because it's a self-selecting class. 

People simply do not do "serious" things that frequently unless forced. On the upside, at least 60% consider it so traumatic that they never put themselves in that position again.

And this is one of the annoying things about politics. Politics, particularly social impact politics, ALWAYS argues the edge case. It's necessary to do so as a matter of good rhetoric.  Gun control advocates argue the edge case, pro-lifers argue the edge case (i.e. this very proposal), pro-aborts also argue the edge case like you're doing above.   However, reality is not the bleeding edge. It's ~200 deaths from spree shooters vs 20,000+ suicides and thousands of drug deals gone bad. It's ~500 murdered half-born children or a few thousand fatal mutations vs 1.2M per year.  It's 19 snakes on a plane vs. a $10T war.

http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/2504499.html

"Conclusions: In developed countries with high abortion rates, use of abortion is likely to fall rapidly when a range of contraceptive methods become widely available and effectively used. Legalization of abortion and access to abortion services do not lead to increased reliance on abortion for fertility control in the long term; in developed countries with these conditions, the predominant trend in abortion rates has been downward."

IF abortion's really a huge issue for you, don't have one. And don't have sex with women who might have one.

I would just prefer that the government do less with regards to policing things that don't concern it. Like my body. Because where do we stop with the policing? Where is the line drawn? Things like absolute prohibition just don't work because if people want something badly enough, they'll resort to illegal means to get it done/get access to it. And then we have living women dying from back alley abortions again/what actually happens in other parts of the globe where it still is illegal. 

So you're proving the Santorumite thesis: that women are using abortion as simply another form of birth control, since they're increasingly choosing other options when those other options are available and affordable.

I'm not sure whether you want a blanket ban on abortion or not. I don't. Why? Because even though I take precautions to avoid pregnancy, no matter what I do I can't guarantee I won't get pregnant. If I get raped tomorrow (Lord knows I hope I don't, but we do live in a culture where 40% of women get raped) and wind up pregnant, I'm not bearing that child to term. I'd feel the same if abortion were illegal.

If I somehow wound up pregnant by any other means, I'd still not want the child. I can't afford it at this point in my life, and I don't really know whether I want biological children still. But I can't do anything to stop my body from getting pregnant, any doctor I'd see to get my tubes tied would tell me I'm crazy and I'm skirting my biological duty. And ultimately, that's what bothers me about this whole debate. As a woman I ultimately become only a vessel to make other humans. And no one seems to care whether I want that or not. They seem more than willing to make the decision for me.

I'd like to know how an incidence rate of 0.4/1000 percapita translates to 40% of all women getting raped.  It doesnt, but I've batted away enough strawmen today. I'll return to my own thesis:

You are a well meaning woman, forward thinking (!), who takes her rights and responsibilities in her life seriously.  You're making a grave logical fallacy by presuming that all women are just like you in those qualities, and you are making an even graver mistake by presuming those who work to prevent a traumatic, life destroying, procedure from being cynically used as societal crutch, which it so clearly is simply as a matter of scale, are doing it out of a hatred towards your freedom.