Posted by Tiffany Winkelman on December 09, 2001 at 11:40:20:
In Reply to: Re: Greek Sociology posted by Martina on December 08, 2001 at 19:42:11:
: : Hello everyone!
: : My name is Tiffany Winkelman. I am a 24 year old American student, and I am currently working on a sociology project. My project concerns abortions, and what we in America can do to lower our abortion rate. I have found in statistical studies in 1998, that out of all the countries that abortion is legal, Greece has the lowest abortion rate. Greece's abortion rate was 2 out of every 1000 live births. Compare that to America's rate of 428/1000 live births, or even worse, Russia's rate of 2300/1000 live births. I have found out why Russia's rate is so high, but I am having a hard time finding out why Greece's rate is so low. Is it because of religious reasons? A strong moral value system? I don't know, and I was wondering if some of you out there would be able to help me out. I would love to here your opinions on the subject, and if you have any resources that would be great!
: : Thank you for your time....Good night and God Bless!
: : Tiffany Winkelman
:
: Hi Tiffany!
: I know that the Greek Orthodox church does not approve of abortion (but I'm not sure if there are exceptions).
: Is Russia's rate high because of poverty and prostitution? What reasons have you found?
: I wonder if the statistical information is the similar for the year 2000 or 2001 because I've been hearing (but haven't found any stats on it) that there have been more abortions recently in Greece. I think it would also be appropriate/interesting to explore the sexual education in the countries you mentioned.
: May I ask where you found your statistical information?
: Good luck on your project. I hope that you will post a summary of your findings because I'm really curious.
Martina,
Thank you for your reply! First of all, I wanted to let you know that I spoke directly to a Priest of a Christian Orthodox Church of Greece, and he was an immense help. He explained to me that in Greece, although abortion is legal, it is punishable by the church. If a woman that gets an abortion for any reason other than if the pregnancy was a result of rape, insest, or would risk the mother's health, she could be denied Holy Communion for up to 5 years. We also spoke of the fact that 98% of the citizens of Greece are of the same religion, and therefore share the same belief system. This is contrary to both Russia and America. Not only that, but people in Greece consider their religion sacred, it is what they live by. They keep their traditions close to heart, and pass them to generation to generation. Could you imagine if America was like this, 98% of American citizens following the same religious belief system? The Priest spoke America and our freedom...and how we should use our freedom wisely.
As for Russia, contraceptives are not easily accessible or affordable in their country. And yes, poverty has a lot to do with thier high abortion rate.
As for statistical information for 2000 and 2001, I am not sure. I was not able to find much on the internet. I got my statistical information from a software package called Student Explorit Version 4.0c, which is a product of Microcase Corporation. This package came with my "Discovering Sociology" book by Steve Barkan. If you are interested in statistical data, you may want to invest in this software. There are literally hundreds of sociological variables that you can test to find out information like this. You can find populations, population by race and gender and religion, (and soooooo much more)of every country and state.
I will post some of my paper in another post shortly after this one. This will also shed some light on the sexual education issue that you brought up.
Thank you very much for your interest!
Tiffany Winkelman
here is a reference that I used for some of my abortion information:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/abo_fact.htm