This isn’t a topic I usually wade (so to speak) into on social media, but after the recent election, reading comments/posts by people whose sole voting issue is abortion – whose start-to-finish interest in a politician is their stance on abortion – I just… I need to say something.
Or rather, I need to ask something:
Do you want to BAN abortion?Or do you want to do something to STOP abortion?
Because banning abortion does not stop abortion. It never has. It never will. There were abortions in the US before Roe vs Wade. There continue to be abortions in countries that have banned them.
We can argue all day long about this and why you still believe it should be criminalized and why I still believe it shouldn’t, but that’s not the point of this post. What I want to talk about is what actually WILL reduce abortions. Because believe it or not, we both want the same thing here: fewer abortions. Where we seem to differ is on how to accomplish that.
If you really truly want to do something about abortion, you need to do more than elect pro-life lawmakers and then dust off your hands because they’ll take it from there. The issue is far too nuanced and has far too many factors in play to simply say “No more abortions!” and call it a day.
If you want fewer abortions to happen, then you need lawmakers who…
1. Support affordable, accessible healthcare. A first trimester abortion is usually $1,000 or less. An uncomplicated vaginal birth without insurance can easily be 10x that much, if not more. That’s to say nothing of prenatal and postnatal care, C-sections, complications, stints in the NICU, etc. Even with insurance, it’s not unusual for new parents to take huge bills home along with their newborn, who they now also have to feed, house, and clothe. For someone barely staying fed, housed, and clothed already, those costs can spell disaster.
2. Support raising the federal minimum wage and other means of reducing poverty. Diana Greene Foster, a professor at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health, a research group at the University of California, San Francisco, states that the single most common reason women cite for wanting an abortion is because they cannot afford to raise a child (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-abortion-hardship/denial-of-abortion-leads-to-economic-hardship-for-low-income-women-idUSKBN1F731Z). The more women you have in poverty, the more abortions will happen.
3. Support better protection for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. In some states, if a rapist impregnates his victim, he has parental rights, which he can use to have access to both the child and the victim for the next 18 years. Domestic abuse survivors often still have to interact with their abusers due to shared custody situations. Rapists and domestic abusers rarely see the inside of prison cells, never mind for any length of time. Instead of passing laws that require women to obtain permission from the father to get an abortion, even if that father raped her, we need lawmakers who believe victims should be protected from their abusers. Until such time as we do, none of us get to judge women who choose abortion so they won’t be shackled to their rapist for 18 years.
4. Don’t demonize late term abortion. I know this is one’s an extra hot button, but it’s important. Contrary to popular belief, liberals aren’t a bunch of evil people who encourage moms to abort at 37 weeks just because they feel like it. The vast, vast, VAST majority of abortions are performed in the first trimester, and the later they’re performed, the more likely they are to be for non-elective reasons. Putting severe limitations on late term abortions might make people feel better, but in practice, it does nothing to actually reduce elective abortions. What it DOES do is does cause serious red tape and heartache for the majority of people seeking late term abortions: those who are terminating wanted pregnancies due to catastrophic incompatible-with-life defects or to save their own lives.
5. Support comprehensive sex ed in public schools. The more kids know, the better. You’re not doing kids any favors by keeping information from them or leaving it to their parents to teach it at home.
6. Support affordable, accessible birth control. I genuinely don’t care if you think we should be “subsidizing people’s sex lives.” Accessible birth control means fewer unwanted pregnancies, and fewer unwanted pregnancies mean fewer abortions. If fewer abortions really is your goal, then there’s no logical reason to be against making birth control as readily available as possible.
7. Support better support systems for working parents and parents attending school. Childcare costs are through the roof, and many women cite “having a child would interfere with education” as a reason to have an abortion (https://www.verywellhealth.com/reasons-for-abortion-906589). If someone is already working three jobs to keep their head above water, an abortion may very well be the solution to avoid financial disaster.
8. Support mandatory paid parental leave. And not just 6 weeks, either. The rest of the world provides months and upwards of two years of maternity leave without their economy imploding. The US has no excuse, and no leg to stand on to shame mothers who abort a pregnancy because they simply won’t be able to survive taking even a couple of unpaid weeks off to recover from having a baby.
9. Support affordable higher education. Seeing a pattern yet? The things people need in order to have the stability to cope with an unexpected pregnancy are astronomically expensive, putting them well out of reach for many would-be mothers. Education is one of those things.
If your candidate claims to be pro-life, but either doesn’t support or actively opposes any of the above, then why are you voting for them? Why are you choosing candidates who call themselves pro-life, but who aren’t actively working to reduce *demand* for abortions?
Which brings me back to my original question, one I hope you will consider before the next election:
Do you want to BAN abortion?
Or do you want to do something to STOP abortion?
Because they’re not the same thing.
Hey, single-issue voters? In particular, those whose single issue is abortion? We need to talk.
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