Abortion in the 21st Century

With the Democratic National Convention currently being held in Denver, the topic of abortion is once again being thrust into the spotlight, albeit in a much less brightness thanks to Bush's efforts in Iraq.  Be that as it may, this topic should have been put to rest a long time ago, and by people on both sides of the issue.  It certainly should not be a tool used by the Republicans to garner votes, and yet that is exactly what it has become.

Republicans have successfully convinced Democrats that if they vote for anyone in their party they are voting for abortion.  These politicians have used religious innuendo to sway voters away from their own party, and have shown a great amount of success in this endeavor.  One must applaud their efforts.

Republicans are not interested in changing our abortion laws, and their actions have proven this.  They need this issue to stay alive to be able to use it as a wedge issue come election time, and anyone who wishes to outlaw abortion in this country needs to realize this.  Consider the facts: since the passage of Roe vs. Wade in 1973 there have been six presidents of the United States.  In that time, four of them (Ford, Reagan and both Bushes) have been Republican.  Only two (Carter and Clinton) have been Democrats, yet the laws have not been changed.

Further, when Clinton took office in 1993, the Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate, but two years later, the Republicans won both houses.  For the remainder of Clinton's terms in office, the Republicans were in control of the congress.  The laws remained unchanged.

Finally, in 2001, George W. Bush, a Republican, took office.  For the next two years the Republicans were fully in control, holding the White House, the Senate and the Congress, and yet the laws remained unchanged.  This would have been the opportune time to enact legislation to outlaw abortion HAD THEY TRULY MEANT TO DO SO.  No such legislation was ever passed.

The Republicans need this issue to win elections.  As long as good-hearted Democrats believe that Republicans want to outlaw abortion (which they don't), those Democrats will vote the Republicans in and the Democrats out.  So, what's to be done?

First, we need to look at abortion logically rather than emotionally.  In the days before the passage of Roe vs. Wade abortions were being performed in this country, but not legally.  The following statistics come largely from the Centers for Disease Control, as this group has been recording such information since 1969.  

In 1972, the year before the legalization of abortion by the U.S. Supreme Court, there were 586,760 abortions performed in this country.  It is necessary to interject here that this number is lower than the actual number of abortions, as the practice was illegal at the time.  This number reflects the women who were known to have had an abortion, either because of an examination by their doctor, or by being brought to an emergency room because of the results of that abortion.

Using this number as our base, and looking at the total number of births in this country in 1972 (3,258,411) we have 18% of pregnancies that were ended in abortion.  In 2003, 30 years later, when abortion had been legal for three decades, the total number of births has risen to 4,089,950 and the total number of abortions has increased to 854,122.  Again, it's important to note that the number from 1972 is lower than the actual number of abortions, so the increase is not as significant as that.  Taking the total number of abortions in 2003 as a percentage of the number of pregnancies brings us to 21%.  From 18% to 21% is not a huge increase, so anyone who thinks that legalizing abortion has caused more abortions is not accurate.

So what does cause abortion?  Women who do not want to be pregnant.  According to the CDC, 91.8% of women who have had abortions did not want to be pregnant in the first place.  Only 8.2% of pregnancies are aborted because the woman's health is at risk, or the baby's health is at risk, or for some other reason.

What this tells me is that the pro-life groups need to shift their focus if they truly wish to lower the abortion rate in this country.  If the goal is to achieve zero abortions, the goal is not reasonable.  Abortions are not new and will not end with legislation against them.  The goal needs to be something reasonable, and that can be achieved.  Taking the figures for 2003, if only those abortions were conducted where someone's health was in danger, then rather than 854,122 abortions there would have been 70,038.  This lowers the percentage of abortions per pregnancies from 20% to less than two percent.  

This is a goal that can be achieved, and all it takes is for the pro-life groups to work with groups like Planned Parenthood to educate women on birth control.  Women who do not get pregnant do not have abortions 100% of the time.  This simple act would reduce the number of abortions in this country by a larger number than any legislation possibly can.  This action would also allow good-hearted Democrats to vote their conscience, and keep our government in the hands of the party that runs it best.