It's not sensationalism as you claim. Every catholic source bangs (excuse the pun) on and on about procreation/sex and that is the link between the 4 things {gay sex, abortion, contraception and masturbation). So there is your direct link by your church. The official church stance is that all sex is only for procreation, thus banning gay sex, abortion, contraception and masturbation. As a catholic, you should be able to see that link, so I'm confused why you don't get it.
Do you have any concept of how many premature babies survive if they are born before the 24 week mark in a country with good medical care? Extremely few survive and of those that do, extremely few make it into adulthood and of those, extremely few make it into adulthood semi-functional (meaning they don't have to be fully cared for).
A study that started in 2005 and ended last year said it cost the US $50 Billion (YES, that's with a B) to raise all the 2005 premies to the age of 5, well of those that survived that long. That's just over $142 for every man, woman and child in the US just for the 2005 premies for those 5 years. Of course the costs keep building up because many of them have life long health issues that go along with being a premy. That doesn't even count the cost to businesses due to lost work, etc, etc. For some reason, I haven't found out what yet, the number of premature babies are increasing by 20% a decade since the 1950s.
In ancient times, kids weren't counted as human until they reached 1yo and not fully human until they reached 7yo. This was due to the high death rates. In fact, these people wrote most of your holy text.
So you (you support their stance, despite saying you don't always) and "Right to Life" want to continue to force the woman to suffer the trauma of the rape for another 9 months. WOW, you people are truly heartless. Ironically enough, extremely high percentages of "right to life" people also support the death penalty.
Who are the sexists in China?! It's not the government, but the individual people that decided they didn't want girls. Even with this personal choice of the people involved, women still make up, on average year to year, 52.8% of the world's population. Imagine what the number would be like if the Chinese didn't want only boys.
Like MrMazda, I also took a friend to have an abortion and I would do it again for anyone that asked. Though the circumstances were very different. She was already disowned by her family for wanting to continue to go to school, her boyfriend dumped her when she told him she was pregnant, etc, etc, etc. She could barely make ends meet as it was and a baby would have destroyed everything she had struggled for.