Americans Widely Support Abortion Rights

Americans want abortion to be legal. The focus should be lowering unwanted pregnancies.

Roe v Wade had guaranteed abortion up until fetal viability outside of the womb, which is generally accepted to be between 22-24 weeks. 

Dobbs vs Jackson Women’s Health Organization was a case challenging Mississippi’s abortion ban at 15 weeks. When this ban was upheld by the ultra conservative Supreme Court, it opened a whole new world of legal battles across the United States on abortion rights at the state level.

There is an unfortunate hypocrisy with the Pro Life movement in that they support a fetus’s right to life more than the life of someone who has been born.

The clearest example of this is that 11% of people feel abortion should be illegal even if the mother’s health or life is at risk. Meaning that they feel that the right to life for the fetus outweighs the mother’s right to life.

This is the situation people find themselves in when they try to take an all or nothing, hardline approach to any topic they deem to be a morality issue. If you can’t accept that the context of a situation matters, and that the science surrounding the issue matters, then you can’t make reasoned decisions.

There are additional issues with the Pro Life movement such as being against

• Anti Universal Healthcare - despite people dying preventable deaths

• Anti Gun Regulation - gun deaths are the leading cause of death in children in the US

• Anti LGBT - 45% of LGBT youth consider committing suicide due to lack of acceptance and bullying. 5-10% (based on age range) have attempted suicide.

Not very Pro Life at all.

Fortunately, this is a minority view in America.

61% of Americans feel abortion should be legal in most or all cases. These numbers increase when considering factors such as the mother’s life or health being at risk and rape.

Not surprisingly religion plays a large factor in how someone feels about abortion. As a note, this survey did not have enough respondents from different non-Christian religious groups to provide accurate reports for those groups such as: Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists.

For the majority of Americans, the determining factor on abortion is based on how far along the pregnancy is. It isn’t until 24 weeks that the majority view turns from legal to illegal. Which shows that Roe v Wade was a proper fit for America.

Despite the timing being the main issue that needs to be discussed, this isn’t the debate we’re having.

That is what happens when one of only two major political parties aligns itself with the Pro Life movement and needs their votes to win elections. The small minority opinion gets outsized weight in determining policy.

Another important consideration is that much like prohibition did nothing to stop the sale and consumption of alcohol, and the War on Drugs failed to stem the flow of illegal narcotics, banning abortion does not stop abortion.

Illegal abortions are often unsafe abortions which put the mother at risk. Worldwide, unsafe abortions account for up to 13% of maternal deaths according to the World Health Organization. Whereas proper abortions are extremely safe procedures with little to no risk for the mother.

Prior to states passing laws making abortion legal, and later the historical ruling of Roe v Wade, American women did seek out illegal abortions that were often unsafe.

This fact was the main reason why Ronald Reagan passed the Therapeutic Abortion Bill in 1967 as governor of California. 100,000 California women were seeking illegal abortions each year and Reagan felt that the least the government could do was make it safer for them.

It can’t be stressed enough that making abortions illegal or harder to get will not stop abortions, only increase the risk of having them. 

Instead, we should be focused on reducing unwanted pregnancies.  The fewer unwanted pregnancies, the lower the need for abortions.

The first step to reducing unwanted pregnancies is through education. Unfortunately many of the same people who want to make abortion fully illegal have also fought to prevent sexual education in school. Their fear is that teaching children about sex will lead to them having sex, but the evidence proves the opposite.

Multiple organizations have done studies on this very topic. Even the CDC states that quality sexual health education has the benefits of:

• Delaying initiation of sexual intercourse

• Having fewer sex partners

• Having fewer experiences of unprotected sex

• Increasing use of protection, specifically condoms

• Improves academic performance of students

The next step beyond proper sexual education is to provide free condoms in schools. Just like with sexual education, there have been people against free condoms as they think it will lead to children having sex. Studies have shown this not to be true. The schools which provide free condoms have a lower number of pregnancies and STDs than in areas where condoms are not provided. 

A similar note is allowing affordable and easy access to birth control for adults. Too often companies try to prevent providing birth control through their healthcare for a number of reasons such as the cost or religious beliefs. But if the goal is to reduce the number of abortions, than contraceptives are a key part in achieving that goal.

The data is clear that the best approach is sex education and easily accessible contraception. But outside all of the data surrounding the issue is the significant impact that the lack of choice can have on a woman’s life.

“A pregnancy to a woman is perhaps one of the most determinative aspects of her life. It disrupts her body. It disrupts her education. It disrupts her employment. And it often disrupts her entire family life.” - Sarah Weddington

“No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother.” - Margaret Sanger.