Some Thoughts on Abortion

Several weeks ago, I was surfing the net and I saw a poll on one site: “Should Roe v Wade” be overturned?” I was stunned and appalled that a comfortable majority had voted yes, 56% to 43%, to be precise. In past polls about abortion, I’d normally seen the reverse statistic, with most people supporting a woman’s right to choose, even if they were personally against abortion for themselves.

This about-face is but another example of the regressive trend this country has taken under the current Bush administration, another being renewed attempts to have creation “science” being taught in public schools.

Abortion is a highly complex issue that cannot be approached with an absolutist, black and white mindset. No one likes abortion. Many times, it is merely the lesser of two evils.

However, I believe that abortion should remain a legal choice that should be equally accessible to all women. We have to consider that overturning Roe v. Wade would not end abortion, but would only serve to make it more dangerous. Wealthy women would still be able to obtain safe abortions, as they were able to do in the days before legal abortion, but poor and less well connected women would be returned to the Russian roulette of illegal abortion. Desperate women throughout history have always been willing to resort to desperate measures to end an unwanted pregnancy.

Rather than attempting to overturn Roe v. Wade, a more realistic goal would be to find ways to reduce the number of abortions. This would start by looking at the various reasons why women choose abortion, and then working to provide workable alternatives.

This would include such things as affordable day care, low cost educational opportunities, vocational assistance, safer and more effective birth control, working to reduce stigma against unwed mothers, expanded health insurance, more funding of programs benefiting children, such as Head Start, family friendly workplaces, and the like. Of course, this wouldn’t eliminate abortion altogether, but would go a long way to reducing it.

Many, though not all, “pro lifers” are inconsistent about their support for life. There are against abortion, but many are just as fervently for the death penalty. They assert that adoption is the solution, not abortion, as abortion is a traumatic event, supposedly scarring a woman for life, yet few would be personally willing to adopt such babies. They want to protect fetuses, but once they’re born, they’re on their own, as many are against funding programs that largely benefit children. I’m guessing that, for some of them, the underlying motive is to make sure that having sex always has a “consequence”.

Prohibition didn’t work. Abortion being illegal before 1973 didn’t work any better, as women have sought abortions from the beginning of time, even when having one could likely endanger their own lives as well. They can’t put the genie back into the bottle. Let’s keep abortion safe and legal.