Posted by Dave on 10/03/05 at 01:28:16 pm
Categories: Pro-Life

From Ed, at Sollicitudo Rei Socialis [hat tip Lauren at Feministe]:

In something like the abortion debate, the so-called pro-life side has dealt exclusively with the supply side of abortion. They have attacked doctors who perform abortions, even murdering some as Jesus would have done, and they have condemned women who have sought abortions, even murdering some as Jesus would have done. Their thinking has exclusively been, "If we can put an end to laws that allow abortions and to people who perform them, we will end abortion."
...
I mean, there wouldn't be any abortions if girls didn't demand them. Isn't it time to look at factors on the demand side? Short of a constitutional amendment banning abortion, and no administration, Republican or Democrat, has seriously pursued that. Abortion is a right. It's not based on a law. It's based on the Constitution.

The only thing at our disposal, short of an amendement, is to attack the demand side. We can make some changes there. We can bolster welfare programs so that another child won't cripple a family, even if that family is African American and poor. We can set up day care centers beyond what we already offer so single mothers can work. We can help every family attain adequate housing. We can provide appropriate sex education and contraception education to kids who need it. We can do a host of things to attack the demand side of abortion, but we don't.

I have recently been in an e-mail exchange with a friend about this exact issue. He votes Republican solely because of abortion, because he believes that eventually Republicans will make abortion illegal. The problem with this is that it is unrealistic, as it is very highly unlikely that abortion will be made illegal.

So I argue that we need to respond to the cause instead of the problem. In my pro-life philosophy, I believe that abortion is wrong. But I do not believe that abortion is the root of the problem. The root of the problem is unwanted pregnancies, and there is a great number of things that we can do to address this problem. Some of those things are as follows:

• Easy access to birth control
• Honest sex education
• Affordable/free childcare
• Affordable/universal healthcare
• Adequate housing
• Better welfare/anti-poverty programs

As Ed pointed out - we do all of these things, and much more. But we do not. One side ("liberals") are often unwilling to acknowledge that abortion is a bad thing, so they are unwilling to address these issues in that light. The other side ("conservatives") are unwilling because it costs money and talks about sex - both things that the Right claims to hate.

We can do so much more to reduce abortions. Why are we not willing?

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