Quote Originally Posted by carl View Post
"Mandatory counseling/therapy for a significant portion of the population" is only slightly less objectionable. The phrase implies forcing people who haven't committed a crime, (correct me if I'm wrong, that is how I am interpreting it) into a status as medically deviant or deficient, then coercing them into a different mode of behavior. The possibilities for political abuse of this arrangement are beyond imagination.
I specifically have in mind young females having children at 15/16/17, etc., who refuse to give up children for adoption. We let people who we wouldn't allow into any other position of resposibility to make choices for other human beings that they have no business making.

Bringing a child into that environment constitutes a crime, in my opinion.

There is a precedent in American history for dealing with this sort of problem. In the 1820s Americans drank about 4 gallons of 200 proof alcohol per capita per year. About 20 years later, it was half of that. The reduction was done by moral suasion, not government intervention.
I think there are some issues with using that statistic. You're implying that if we just make something unpopular that the demand will decrease. You have major hurdles to overcome first -- first, decreasing its popularity enough in media and in public opinion to turn the tide towards popular hostility; second, reducing the compulsion of addicted individuals to gravitate towards these methods of coping with their lives.

I don't see a way of slowing the momentum this process has in our society without profound changes in how we regulate reproduction.