Pro-Choice?

With a presidential election looming and the races already started for the position, one of the key topics that comes up is abortion. "What is his stance on the subject of abortion?" There are typically two stances: Pro-Life and Pro-Choice. Too often the two sides like to change the names of their opponents. The Pro-Choice side will often refer to the Pro-Lifers as "anti-abortion" which isn't actually true. They're not opposed to abortion; they're opposed to killing babies. But Pro-Lifers are equally unfair when they cast the Pro-Choice side as Pro-Abortion. In truth, most Pro-Choice folks are not strictly in favor of abortion. Most of them can be understood in the common expression, "Abortion should be safe, available, and rare." You see, they're not typically in favor of abortion. They're just not in favor of preventing women from not having one. That would be the difference. A true Pro-Abortion person would actually recommend abortion. They don't care if it's rare. Bring it on; the more the merrier.

Pro-Choice is having more and more difficulty with their position. Ultrasound and modern science shows more and more that the fetus in the womb is more human than "tissue" than we ever understood. Laws have been passed that make it a double homicide if a pregnant woman is killed and the fetus dies. The Pro-Abortion side wants to argue that it's not a big thing to terminate tissue, but science keeps edging the Pro-Choicers into a corner. Last February, for instance, a woman gave birth at a record 22 weeks. The baby was a bit on the edge, but survived. That ought to give one pause when considering that "In England, Wales and Scotland abortion is legal under 24 weeks of pregnancy" (source). Science and logic are telling us that the fetus is a baby -- not merely tissue -- and the first stage of human life. The closer people get to seeing this, the harder the Pro-Choice side will be to maintain.

Some Pro-Lifers might get excited about this. It may not be too long that the courts may have to reverse Roe v Wade. With existing laws, conservative justices, and more people seeing that a fetus is a baby, it gets harder to defend killing that baby in the womb. Legal abortion may be on its way out. Unfortunately, that's not the end of the question.

Abortion isn't legal because it's right. It's legal because so many women want it. It's legal because it makes it possible to terminate a pregnancy after the fact. Making it illegal won't solve the problem. The only way to solve the problem is to eliminate the demand for it. You see, abortion is legal and in demand because men and women are busy having sex outside of marriage.

According to statistics at Johnston's archives, prior to 1970 the abortion rate in the United States per 1000 women ages 15-44 including miscarriages and other fetal deaths was less than 1. In the years that followed it shot up to today's level of greater than 20. If you want to play the numbers game, from 1969 to 2003 there was a 3000% increase in the abortion rate with a peak of 5000% in 1980. While prior to 1965, abortions were in the triple digits, as the decade of "free love" took hold, the numbers of abortions shot up. Even prior to the landmark decision of Roe v Wade in 1973, the number of reported abortions had topped half a million. Sure, when abortion was legalized, abortions increased. However, it was in demand long before it was legalized. On the other hand, when the morality of the nation required that you get married before having sex and held that sex was for procreation, the demand for abortions were not nearly as high as they became in the 60's when sex became a recreational pastime.

I wouldn't be surprised if we see the end of legal abortions in my lifetime. I don't see that as the end of the problem or even a start to the end. Until our attitudes toward marriage and sex are altered, the problem will remain. Maybe it will shift to back alleys. Maybe it will go to "morning after" pills or abortifacents. Making abortion illegal won't eliminate the demand. Until that demand decreases, let's not shout "Victory!"