'preventive' medicine, continued

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Nov 16, 2010

We’ve already noticed the drive by Planned Parenthood to have abortion recognized as a form of “preventive medicine,” thus qualifying the procedure for Obamacare subsidies. The implicit premise is that pregnancy is a disease. There are several things wrong with that argument.

First, of course, pregnancy is not a disease. It is a normal, healthy condition.

Second, abortion does not prevent pregnancy. It ends a pregnancy that has already begun.

Third and perhaps not quite so obvious, an abortion in one pregnancy does not prevent another pregnancy. On the contrary, the Guttmacher Institute (a Planned Parenthood affiliate) reports that “about half” of abortions are repeat procedures. Having an abortion seems to make it more likely, not less, that a woman will experience another “problem pregnancy.”

So what does this “preventive” medicine actually prevent? Only this: the birth of a healthy child.