In response to Gregory Barr's article searching for any "proportionate reasons" to vote for Obama ("Dude, where's my proportionality?" Sept. 9), I write today to offer one reason. My argument is that an Obama presidency would likely lower the number of abortions in the United States despite his pro-choice stance due to his heath care plan.To make my case, I'd like to look at Western Europe and Latin America. Western Europe has the lowest number of abortions for any region in the world (11 per 1000 pregnancies) while Latin America has among the highest (37 per 1000). The oddity lies in the fact that abortions in Latin America are almost completely illegal while abortions in Western Europe are legal.I am not trying to make the point that anti-abortion laws promote abortion. There is no conclusive evidence that I am aware of that suggests there is a direct correlation between abortion laws and the prevalence of abortions. Instead, I am trying to make the point that abortion is an extremely complicated issue that cannot be solved merely by making it illegal. While no one knows for sure why Europe's abortion rates are so low, a popular and, in my mind, convincing argument is that abortion rates are low due to their high quality of life - specifically, the quality of health care and education.Without going into a prolonged debate, his health care plan provides many potential solutions to the problems our health care system faces. Currently, about 46 million Americans are uninsured. If our healthcare system improves under his presidency like I assume it would, abortion rates would arguably decrease despite his pro-choice stance. If the problems in our health care system are not rectified, it seems clear to me that abortions would likely increase over the next decade. To me, this is a more-than-proportionate reason to vote for Obama.
Michael Massengalesenioroff campusSept. 9
