Totally, when you come into power, you know you've got four years in the US, maybe eight if you're lucky/paid off the right people. The anti-abortion feeling is one that has its roots in a perceived morality to me.

Yoiks!

"If you were to ask the average woman what would be a great hindrance to their advancement as a gender out of a choice of a) abortion laws introduced that banned the procedure or b) sexist working regulations that treated women as second-class citizens and wilfully kept them out of any seat of power, I’m pretty which choice most women would go for."

But that's the point. If everyone knew where the problems were rooted, then they'd have done more about it. People take on the symptoms ("sexist working regulations") rather than the cause. If an equal number of women can't get into the workplace because they are housewives then how can this change?

"The idea that politicians would prefer women not to have abortions to keep down the employment rate is a curious one both socially and economically."

What is the main priority of the government? To make the country work economically or to convince the public that it works economically? I say it's the latter. We couldn't exist as we do unless women work, but Christian values state that they should be at home. The Republicans have a long history of giving tax cuts and even cash supplements to families with full-time housewives. It's true that there would unavoidably be more single mums if abortion was removed, however the Church/Right ideally aims to keep couples together (and married) whatever the circumstances.

"If they do then that ideal is grossly outdated and totally unrealistic."

The Religious Right are outdated? You don't say.

"If you saw the last election debate between Kerry and Bush, the only time GW actually looked calm and settled was when he was talking about his faith and what it meant to him."

And he looked decidedly unsettled when on the subject of abortion, if I remember clearly. Faith is an easy topic because the vast majority of American voters have some belief and so long as it's not particularly specific ("God is our leader, he believes all of us should have a chance at life, blah blah") then no one will raise an eyebrow.

"The feelings against abortion in many Latin American countries doesn’t stem from political fear or economic viewpoints: it’s plainly and simply the idea that abortion is murder."

I don't know an awful lot about Latin America, but the idea that abortion is murder presumably comes from their religious leaders. And if so, the exact same principle applies. Especially if you believe that religion was basically invented - or at least refined - so that the public are controllable.

"Banning abortion wouldn’t just be a setback for women’s rights, it would be a setback for the rights of all people who desire the freedom to run their own lives without being dictated to by someone else‘s rules"

Abso-fucking-lutely. I'm a man (last time I checked) and my main concern is the rights of the individual, any individual. This is why I am a feminist and not the other way around. If people want to drug themselves or kill themselves (particularly when ill) or whatever it should be up to them, not the government to decide. The only time they should get involved if people are hurting other people against their will.

What I and the Right disagree on is that the potential for human life is the same as a human life. The Catholic Church basically says that not only can you not use contraception, but that if you do you are responsible for murder. Not only that, but if a woman doesn't continuously try to get pregnant at all times, they are committing a sin. Of course, they don't shove THAT down peoples throats anymore because people would balk at the idea today, but that's what the church has said for centuries and hardliners still believe it.

In the '80s a woman who had had cancer for years and lost both her legs to it got pregnant with her doctor's say-so and the cancer returned. Instead of asking her permission, the governers ruled that instead of treating her they would drug her into a coma so she would live longer and have the baby (albeit prematurely). The baby was removed via caesarian early and died as a result. They revived the woman to tell her the baby had died. She slipped into a coma within hours, by this point untreatable and died soon after.

This year, in Texas I believe, a woman was put on trial for murder because she refused to have a caesarian and one of her twins died in child birth. The government is also intent on bringing in a law that means if a woman miscarries after being attacked, then the attacker is resposible for the murder of the foetus. Superficially most Americans (again mostly middle class mothers) are going to love this, but in a more sinister light it's obvious that this is going to make pregnant women responsible for murder if they miscarry and their behaviour is not deemed "suitable" by the authorities.

It's a very complex issue and not at all what it immediately seems.