Examining How We Can Start to Limit Abortion Without the Supreme Court
Roe v Wade (1973) was decided 47 years ago today. This decision was based on the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court ruled that a woman’s choice on whether or not to have an abortion is a fundamental right of privacy which is inherent in the Due Process Clause. The Court ruled in this decision that this is balanced along with the government’s interest in protecting women’s health and protecting the potential of a human life. Within the decision the Court laid out how states can limit abortion throughout the stages of a pregnancy. In the first trimester, the Court ruled that a state can not restrict abortion in any way. In the second trimester, the state can restrict abortion when related to maternal health. Finally, in the third trimester, the state can restrict abortion as long as there are exception to the life of the mother (Oyez n.d.). In 2017, 18% of pregnancies ended in abortion. That comes out to 862,320 abortions (Guttmacher Institute 2020). Roe v Wade (1973) has resulted in the loss of almost an entire generation.
It is no surprise that as a Christian Conservative Republican I am adamantly against abortion at all stages of a pregnancy. My Christian beliefs, along with science, tell me that life begins at conception. When I look at the first lines of the Constitution it states that every person has certain unalienable rights. The rights that are chief among those are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is the reasoning I use to justify why the state has a responsibility to take action in limiting abortion. I do not believe this is a state issue, as it is a matter of life and death. I understand until we get a new Court decision taking new science into account we have to live in a world where Roe v Wade (1973) is law. That is why I do not want to give the normal we need to protect all lives argument. I believe, in the intermediate, there are steps we can take to limit the situations where women feel like abortion is necessary.
First, lets look at the main reasons that women choose to have abortions. Of women that get abortions there are 90% that have given reasons. 74% of women say a child would dramatically change their life which includes interfering with their education, interfering with their job, and having other dependents. 73% of women say they can’t afford a baby right now because they are unmarried, are a student or are planning to study, can’t afford a baby and child care, can’t afford the basic needs of life, are unemployed. 48% of women don’t want to be a single mom or are having relationship problems in which they say they are unsure about their relationship, their relationship may break up or end soon. 25% say they do not want people to know they had sex or got pregnant. 14% say that their husband wanted them to have an abortion. 6% say their parents wanted them to have an abortion. Only, 1% of women said they were aborting because they were raped and .05% because of incest. (Illinois Right to Life n.d.)
I take a look at these statistics to show that I understand that abortion for many women is a complicated issue. There are many reasons people will choose to have abortion. I will be addressing some of these reasons that women give as I go into ways we can bring down the situations where a women would seek an abortion.
There are 48% of women that say that they don’t want to be a single mom or are having relationship problems. The breakdown of relationship norms is a good explanation of this statistic. Cohabitation, which is living together outside of marriage, has risen to 18 million people in 2016. That is a rise of 29% since 2007 (Geiger & Livingston 2019). Cohabitation has risen 900% in the past 50 years (Fox 2014). With cohabitation comes sex outside of marriage. Relationships are not fully cemented during this time of cohabitation and when a pregnancy does arise it can break a relationship. Cohabitation is seen as a first-step towards marriage, but when sex is involved, which it most always is, it can get unnecessarily complicated. Teaching the society that living together outside of the confines of marriage will in turn cause problems is a first step to bringing down this statistic. Cohabitation is not the sole reason for the breakdown of relationship norms. Sex outside of marriage and relationships have been on the rise without cohabitation. This is most true of young, low-income teenagers where abortion is most prominent. Studies indicate one in four low-income children between the ages of 11 and 16 is having sex (Jeffers 2009). The society that we live in push finding your sexuality. That means for young people having sex at younger ages which in turn leads to pregnancies outside of marriage. As a society, we need to teach teenagers the importance of waiting for to have sex and the benefits of waiting to get married and have children until after high school.
There are three simple steps teenagers can take to make sure they do not end up in poverty. These steps include waiting until you graduate high school, turn 21, and have a full-time job before getting married or having children. Research has found that if teenagers follow these three simple rules they will be 90% less likely to live in poverty. Following just 2 of the 3 steps is still beneficial in staying out of poverty (Haskins 2013). When 74% of women say a child would dramatically change their life in this way a majority of which say includes interfering with their education that is something that can be addressed. We need to educate children at a young age that if they follow these steps, then they can have a better chance at success. This needs to be addressed in low-income communities where abortion and marriages/pregnancies at a young age are prominent. That is something that we as Christians can push to help educate children. Society needs to stop pushing a narrative of finding your sexuality and promoting sex outside of marriage. Instead, the narrative needs to be about finding someone that you can spend your life with and have a family and never need an abortion.
I want to touch on the idea that adoption is always an option. I won’t go into the numbers, because there is a lot there. The most common argument against adoption instead of abortion is that there are too many children in the system already. This idea rests on the assumption that it is better to be dead than to be alive and in the government adoption system. That belief is the reason why many women choose to get an abortion rather than giving the child up for adoption. I think myself and other Christians need to push for a more robust adoption/foster system in America. This will help push back against the narrative that it would better for a child to die than be in the system.
The final thing that I will touch on is the idea of choice. The way I see it, is that the woman had a choice when she decided to have sex (excluding rape and health of the mother). The biological reason that humans have sex is to reproduce. There was a choice that was made prior to conception. The moment that choice is made, I believe, you should be responsible for what come from that action. I see the fetus as a separate human being and at that point the only choice is life.
I acknowledge that abortion will always be present in this world. I acknowledge that we live in a world where Roe v Wade (1973) is the current law. I will though support any measure to limit the instances that abortion is seen as the only option. I am not just pro-life in terms of abortion. I am pro-life from womb to tomb. I know that there are those that will disagree with many of the points that I have made. I am not here to sway people on this issue. I pray though that those that don’t agree with these points, at least now, see the other side of this debate.
Sources
Fox, Lauren. (Mar 2014). The Science of Cohabitation: A Step Toward Marriage, Not a Rebellion. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/03/the-science-of-cohabitation-a-step-toward-marriage-not-a-rebellion/284512/
Geiger, A.W.; Gretchen, Livingston. (Feb 2019). 8 facts about love and marriage in America. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/02/13/8-facts-about-love-and-marriage/
Guttmacher. (2020). Induced Abortion in the United States. Retrieved from https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/induced-abortion-united-states
Haskins, Ron. (Mar 2013). Three Simple Rules Poor Teens Should Follow to Join the Middle Class. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/three-simple-rules-poor-teens-should-follow-to-join-the-middle-class/
Jeffers, Wainwright. (Aug 2009). Children are having sex at younger ages. Retrieved from https://www.walb.com/story/10972974/children-are-having-sex-at-younger-ages/
Roe v. Wade. (n.d.). Oyez. Retrieved from https://www.oyez.org/cases/1971/70-18
Why Do Women Have Abortions? (n.d.). Illinois Right to Life. Retrieved from https://illinoisrighttolife.org/why-do-women-have-abortions/
Politics with Kegan Prentice 