The war on women

Aisha Bain, 25, center, of New York City, joins thousands of fellow protesters in Washington, D.C., Sunday, April 25, 2004 during the "March for Women's Lives," a pro-choice rally held on the National Mall.
Photograph by Nikki Kahn

By Andrew Wiley

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude…shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” After reading that passage it’s hard not to picture someone in chains, picking cotton, getting whipped for trying to escape, or any of the other heinous acts usually coinciding with American slavery. But, the next time you read it, try and picture someone else: a soon-to-be mother.

As soon as a woman gives birth, she is instantly thrust into a life of servitude. Some women welcome that servitude with open arms and relish the opportunity to care for a child. Others, however, want absolutely nothing to do with it. Whether it’s because of financial, family, or professional reasons, forcing a woman to be a parent is against her right as an American citizen.

In the groundbreaking Supreme Court decision of Roe versus Wade in 1973, it was decided that it would be unconstitutional to force a woman to continue an unwanted pregnancy. This decision has been supported by Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, many unwanted pregnancies that don’t result in abortion result in higher abuse rates, higher crime rates, and much lower mother high school graduation rates.

One of, if not the main argument against abortion is that life begins at conception and abortion would therefore be murder. According to prochoice.org, 88 percent of abortions take place in the first trimester of pregnancy. During this period, the fetus could not live independent of the mother, and cannot be considered a separate human being due to its inability to survive.

Although most abortions take place in the first trimester, there are those that occur later in the pregnancy. Even though I do support a woman’s right to choose, if the pregnancy is in its later stages, there should be some restrictions on abortions. If the child could survive independently from the mother, abortions should not be permitted.

Another main argument against abortion is adoption. According to the anti-choice community, there are countless families anxiously awaiting babies to adopt, lining up for days and even traveling to other countries to do so.

According to americanbar.org there are approximately 120,000 adoptions in the United States each year, with half being related adoptions, where the child is adopted by a family member.

According to the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth, there were approximately 500,000 women seeking adoption of a child. Of these 500,000 women, only about 232,000 were taking legitimate steps toward adoption and only 100,000 had even applied for adoption. Few other studies have been done on this subject since 1995.

If abortion was made illegal, there would most likely be an extreme boost to the number of children being placed for adoption which would result in more children not being adopted and living their life in short term foster care or even orphanages until they are of age to leave.

Foster care centers would be extremely over crowded which would require the construction of more of them. Seeing how foster care is funded through a welfare grant, the more children put into foster care the more tax dollars would have to be spent to properly fund it.

Stephen J. Dubner, a New York journalist, and Steven D. Levitt, an award winning economist, explore the connection between abortions and drops of crime rates in their book Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, explaining that after the decision of Roe versus Wade, the rate of abortions rose, which in turn, made crime rates drop radically in the 1990s.

According to Dubner and Levitt, the extreme decrease in crime during the 1990s can be directly attributed to the increase in abortions after the decision of Roe versus Wade.

They argue that many unwanted pregnancies result in the child becoming a criminal, due to the fact that usually the child is brought up in harsh environments with minimal resources. After abortion was made legal, these unwanted children were simply not around to commit the crimes. They suggest that males 18 to 24 years of age are most likely to commit crimes and statistics show that crime in the United States started to decline beginning in 1992, 19 years after the decision of Roe versus Wade.

Statistics also show that states that legalized abortion prior to the decision of Roe versus Wade started seeing a decline in crime before 1992 and states with high abortion rates show greater reductions in crime.

Finally, it has been argued by antichoice supporters that abortions cause health risks for the mother. These risks involve a greater chance of future miscarriage, the risk of tubal pregnancies doubles, and an increase in pelvic inflammatory disease. They also suggest that abortions also cause intense psychological pain and stress.

Abortions are extremely safe for the mother and pose virtually no future health problems which would inhibit her from future pregnancies. According to prochoice.org 97 percent of women who have adoptions report no problems.

The American Psychological Association found that women often feel extreme stress in the days and weeks leading up to an abortion, but afterwards rarely show any signs of post-abortion syndrome. Abortion of an unwanted child gives the woman the chance to have a child when she is ready -- physically, mentally, and financially.

If unwanted pregnancies can be dealt with, without putting the life of the mother in jeopardy, it would be extremely irresponsible if the option were to be denied. Even after all of the statistics, that show just how much difficult things would be for both mother and child, are given, it boils down to the fact that it would be unconstitutional to infringe on a woman’s right to choose.

Contact Andrew Wiley at communitarian@mail.dccc.edu

Philadelphia

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