More constructive ways to stop abortion

With the election of a Republican president and Republican majorities in Congress, we have likely started down a road that will lead us to increased restrictions on abortion rights in this country. The only question seems to be how far down that road we are destined to travel.

This issue, as much as any other, is one that is almost impossible to discuss calmly and rationally. People’s feelings are so charged one way or the other that voices and blood pressures rise within seconds of the topic being raised, and finger pointing and name-calling quickly ensue.

But as difficult as it may prove to be, we need to take a breath and start a serious dialogue on how a compassionate society should deal with this sensitive issue. We might start by trying to foresee what impact any potential changes to existing laws might have, both good and bad.

For one thing, we need to consider how new laws restricting abortion might be written. Would the practice be banned outright for all cases, as some of the most ardent pro-lifers demand? That would mean that a woman facing a potentially life-threatening pregnancy would have no choice but to carry the pregnancy to term and sacrifice her life. Is this really a decision we want the government making for private citizens?

I doubt that most people would be comfortable with that, so exceptions would likely have to be made. But what exceptions, exactly? Opinions vary widely on what constitutes an “acceptable” reason for an abortion. Who will make that decision? Consensus will be extremely difficult to reach on this point.

Let’s assume that we are able to navigate that particular morass and come up with a set of laws that spell out the conditions under which women may legally have abortions. Would laws that, as a minimum, limit abortions to women with a compelling physical or psychological reason for having them be reasonable and desirable?

My heart tells me that they would be. I have always considered abortion, when used as a form of emergency birth control, to be an irresponsible and morally indefensible course of action. But my head tells me that criminalizing abortion could lead to more problems than it solves.

There are countries in the world where abortion is severely restricted, and it is debatable whether such laws have actually served the greater good. Even when the practice is banned, experience shows that abortions still occur on a wide scale.

Portugal, for example, has some of the toughest abortion laws in Europe. Estimates for the number of illegal abortions performed in that country of 10 million people range from 20,000 to 40,000 a year.

And it goes without saying that clandestine abortions, often performed by unqualified individuals or by women on themselves, are far more likely to injure or kill women than those performed by experienced surgeons in a sterile environment. Is this what we want for America? Would this really be an improvement over the way things are now?

I realize that I’m whispering in a thunderstorm here, but I think the energy being put into the crusade to criminalize abortion is well-intentioned, but misdirected. I don’t believe we’ll be making things better by putting women in trouble and their doctors in jail.

Perhaps a more constructive way to deal with the situation would be to focus that energy into programs that help prevent the occurrence of unwanted pregnancies, and in helping to ensure sure that all women who are considering having an abortion are provided with counseling that includes information about alternatives, such as adoption.