Interesting stories on red state vs. blue state teen pregnancies and ideas on taxing abortions.

Jivin J's Life Links
5-10-10 by JivinJ,
host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

Ross Douthat on the differences between teen birth and teen abortion in red and blue states: More important, Cahn and Carbone also acknowledge one of the more polarizing aspects of the "blue family" model. Conservative states may have more teen births and more divorces, but liberal states have many more abortions. Liberals sometimes argue that their preferred approach to family life reduces the need for abortion. In reality, it may depend on abortion to succeed. The teen pregnancy rate in blue CT, for instance, is roughly identical to the teen pregnancy rate in red MT. But in CT, those pregnancies are half as likely to be carried to term. Over all, the abortion rate is twice as high in NY as in TX and 3 times as high in MA as in UT.


At FRC Action's blog, Tom McClusky argues that an abortion tax (proposed by KS Republican Sen. Mary Pilcher Cook   would be a bad idea: When you tax something, especially targeting something specific, it creates a revenue stream that politicians get addicted to - thus making the object of your taxation harder to eliminate. Taxing something also gives it legitimacy in the eyes of many. Even objects that fall under the so-called category of "sin taxes" have this legitimacy - almost as if being taxed gives you government approval. Morally it is also troubling. Governments should not be profiting from abortion - no matter how profitable. While certainly not the intention of the author, but it would be the result.