Our Abortion Debate - Nothing to Hang Your Hat On. Or coat.

This past Tuesday was the 40^th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision on the case of Roe vs. Wade, legalizing abortion in the United States.  We’ve spent countless hours since then ripping ourselves apart at the straw man argument of all or none: should there be free, legal, and available abortions at all times, or should we outlaw them in the name of the sanctity of life?  These two distinctly opposite arguments have produced countless spider-webbing discussions that have produced their own discussions as well: When does life begin? Does an embryo, and the stem cells contained therein count as a person? Do all babies, in fact, wanna get borned? Here’s what we aren’t doing: working to eliminate the need for abortions.

I don’t really know anyone who is a big fan of abortions. I know plenty of people who are big fans of making sure that abortion stays legal and accessible for women, but I don’t know anyone, nor do I think many Americans are super psyched about the prospect of getting an abortion. No one is throwing abortion showers, or getting pregnant because they love sweet feeling of a mood-lifting abortion. As far as I know, Planned Parenthood doesn’t offer a free set of steak knives after you punch your card for your fifth abortion.  When someone discloses that they’ve had an abortion, I seriously doubt even the most ardent pro-choice supporter goes for a high five and says, “attagirl!”  From the pro-choice side, while the goal is ultimately to protect a woman’s right to choose, the goal is still the same as those who are pro-life – reducing and ending the need for abortions. This may seem like a comedic oversimplification of the burdens, both physical and emotional, that are placed on a woman who makes the difficult decision to have an abortion, because it is, and this oversimplification proves my point – no one takes actual abortions lightly, and no one celebrates the act of abortion.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, since 1984/1985, the years with the highest rate of abortions per live birth (364 abortions per every 1000 live births), abortions have mostly declined, though it is not an uninterrupted downward slope, experiencing spikes in 1987, 1994, 1996, 2006, and 2008.  During that time, the birth rate has not increased drastically.  From 1984, when 3,669,141 live births were reported in the US, to 4,131,019 reported in 2009, the increase is about 14%, while the decrease in total number of abortions is about 38%.  This means the decrease in abortions is outpacing the increase in births.  On its face, this would seem like the pro-life movement is winning the battle.  However, the abortion rate has mostly mirrored the movements of the birth rate, they spiked in the 90s when birth rates dropped to under four million per year for the vast majority of the Clinton administration. Under the Bush administration, birth rates rose once more, never dropping under 4 million for those eight years.  The abortion rate dropped to under a million in 1998 for the first time since the 1970s, and has remained under 900,000 as of the latest statistic (2008). Click here for the single source of all that data.

Most likely, due to cuts in funding and statewide support drying up for Planned Parenthood, this has decreased access to abortions for many women.  For the right, this is a positive – the overall number of abortions has been declining.  For the left, this is bad because it reduces a woman’s right to choose, and likely increases the number of unwanted pregnancies. The problem for many Americans, however, is that this does nothing to reduce the number of abortions AND unwanted pregnancies, which are the root cause of elective abortions.

Despite the fact that the vast majority of coverage on US Opinions about abortions covers only those who want abortions to be safe and legal or those who want abortions to be illegal under all circumstances including rape, incest, and concerns for the life of the mother, at no point in the past five years has either extreme position held a majority in the public eye.  In fact, combined, the two extremes have never held a majority over the opinion of “legal only under certain/few circumstances” which has polled at over 50%support for each time the poll was conducted, dating back to the Bush Administration.  No, not that Bush.  Bush 41.

Obviously, “certain/few circumstances” is a fairly nebulous term.  In a poll conducted most recently in 2011, there is overwhelming support for the legality of abortions when the life of the mother is at risk (83% support) or in the case of rape/incest (75% support).  Further in that poll, the support drops to 50% when the child’s physical health is at risk, and 51% (ibid) if the child would be born mentally impaired.  But the steepest drop off is for when when the woman or family cannot afford to raise the child.

The majority of Americans support legalized abortion in cases of rape/incest, the life of the mother is in danger, and less so, the child being born with a life threatening illness are at play.  Most Americans do not support fully outlawing abortions, and it would seem that most Americans do not support unconditional abortions. It is interesting to note, according to a January 2003 poll, women are actually less in favor of abortions being generally available or available with stricter limits (37% for each) and more in favor of abortions being not permitted (24%) than are men (40%, 40%, and 20% for the same questions, respectively.) Click here for the single source for all that data.

Additionally, a 2004 survey by the Guttmacher institute, which is a group connected with Planned Parenthood, shows that nearly 3 out of 4 women report that their reason for having an abortion was either financial concerns, or dramatic change to their lives.  Almost half said that their relationship affected their decision (single/having relationship problems).  Only 13% said they were concerned about possible problems affecting the health of the fetus, 12% reporting concerns about their own health, 6% because of parental desires, 1% were the victims of rape, and less than half a percent became pregnant as a result of incest.

Of the majority of Americans, those responses are problematic based upon American values with regard to abortions.  In a democracy, this is important, as the will of the people becomes the law of the land many times.  The problem with outlawing elective abortions is that it creates a problem of supply and demand.  In simple troglodyte capitalist terms, just because abortions become illegal does not make them unobtainable.  If anything, it makes them more dangerous to both the mother and the fetus.

Preventing access to abortions AND birth control/sex education at the same time (the right’s plan) presents an obvious logistical problem: when birth control is unobtainable, unwanted pregnancies are bound to happen. When those pregnancies happen, it is unfortunate that abortions will still occur.  The abortion toothpaste is out of the tube at this point, which may be a repugnant point of view for those who wish to see abortions outlawed, but this is an objective and not moral look at reducing elective abortions in the United States.

For liberals, the logic would seem to dictate that access to Birth Control should reduce abortions in the US.  However, during the Clinton administration, abortion rates were at or near the highest in the past twenty years – upwards of 1.2 million abortions per year for the vast majority of his presidency.  In 2008 while campaigning for Hillary, President Clinton addressed Pro-Life hecklers in Eastern Ohio, stating that they could not name a person who introduced “more policies that reduce the number of real abortions.”  Unfortunately, the numbers don’t bear that out.  

While President Bush’s administration reduced the number of reported abortions to the CDC to the lowest numbers since the 1970s, this does not account for reducing the need for abortions, just the reported abortions.  While it is interesting that many Americans (upwards of 3 in 4) are uncomfortable with many elective abortions, and an even higher rate (89% of ALL Americans, regardless of religious affiliation) support some type of birth control, be it oral contraceptives or barrier methods, the need is clearly still there.  When a woman becomes pregnant, the lowest polling reason for an elective abortion is affordability of raising the child, yet the second highest reported reason for elective abortions in 2004 was affordability of raising the child (73%.)

In order to tackle that sole issue, the United States needs to investigate methods to remove the financial burden of caring for a child, especially for single women and low-income families, while increasing the prevalence of birth control and sex education for everyone, regardless of SES or relationship status. In order to prevent abortions, making them the less desirable option should be the goal by making other options more desirable, rather than making abortions the undue burden.

Strengthening adoption is a start, as the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 did, allowing for tax credits related to Adoption related fees, as well as the foster care system.  The problem is, this does not cover the full cost of adoption – according to adoptivefamilies.com, the average cost of newborn adoptions through an agency costs almost 34,000 dollars.  Through an attorney, that number is about $31,500. Those numbers are from 2009-2010.  Reducing or subsidizing those costs, especially through agencies, is paramount to increasing access to adoption for loving families who would provide good homes for children, making adoption a more viable option.

Individuals in the United States can also take a more active role in promoting the third way, by refusing to submit to the binary forced choice of all or none.  In the past twenty twenty one years since the last time abortion, in limited forms, polled below 50%, the narrative about abortion has been one of two arguments:

1. Women who get abortions are murders and sluts, not necessarily in that order. Or...
2. Those who would take away a woman’s right to choose are religious zealots who want to impose their theocratic values system on our secular society.

Neither is the accurate view of most Americans, and though you wouldn’t hear it spoken of, it is the majority opinion in our country, and has been for more than two decades.