Mom’s Soap Box

An abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus from the uterus, resulting in or caused by its death. An abortion can occur spontaneously due to complications during pregnancy or can be induced. Abortion as a term most commonly refers to the induced abortion of a human pregnancy, while spontaneous abortions are usually termed miscarriages.

Abortion has a long history and has been induced by various methods including herbal abortifacients, the use of sharpened tools, physical trauma and other traditional methods. Modern medicine utilizes medications and surgical procedures to induce abortion. The legality, prevalence, and cultural views on abortion vary substantially around the world. In many parts of the world there is a divisive public debate over the ethical and legal aspects of abortion between the pro-life and pro-choice movements.

Reasons for procuring induced abortions are typically characterized as either therapeutic or elective. An abortion is medically referred to as therapeutic when it is performed to:

* Save the life of the pregnant woman

* Preserve the woman’s physical or mental health

* Terminate pregnancy that would result in a child born with a congenital disorder that would be fatal or associated with significant morbidity

* Selectively reduce the number of fetuses to lessen health risks associated with multiple pregnancy

An abortion is referred to as elective when it is performed at the request of the woman “for reasons other than maternal health or fetal disease.”

Worldwide, almost all abortions are the result of unintended pregnancies. Common factors cited to have influenced the abortion decision were: desire to delay or end childbearing, concern over the interruption of work or education, issues of financial or relationship stability, and perceived immaturity. Some abortions are undergone as the result of societal pressures. These might include the stigmatization of disabled persons, preference for children of a specific sex, disapproval of single motherhood, insufficient economic support for families, lack of access to or rejection of contraceptive methods, or efforts toward population control (such as China’s one-child policy). These factors can sometimes result in compulsory abortion or sex-selective abortion.

• 83% of all abortions are obtained in developing countries and 17% occur in developed countries.
• 52% of women obtaining abortions in the U.S. are younger than 25: Women aged 20-24 obtain 32% of all abortions; Teenagers obtain 20% and girls under 15 account for 1.2%.
• While white women obtain 60% of all abortions, their abortion rate is well below that of minority women. Black women are more than 3 times as likely as white women to have an abortion, and Hispanic women are roughly 2 times as likely.
• 64.4% of all abortions are performed on never-married women; Married women account for 18.4% of all abortions and divorced women obtain 9.4%.
• Women with family incomes less than $15,000 obtain 28.7% of all abortions; Women with family incomes between $15,000 and $29,999 obtain 19.5%; Women with family incomes between $30,000 and $59,999 obtain 38.0%; Women with family incomes over $60,000 obtain 13.8%.
• Women identifying themselves as Protestants obtain 37.4% of all abortions in the U.S., Catholic women account for 31.3%, Jewish women account for 1.3%, and women with no religious affiliation obtain 23.7% of all abortions. 18% of all abortions are performed on women who identify themselves as “Born-again/Evangelical”.

The most radical formulation of the anti-abortion or “pro-life” side of the debate views abortion as the murder of unborn children, and so as the equivalent of out and out infanticide, making the legal use of abortion since Roe v. Wade, at a rate of around 1.5 million a year in the United States, into a holocaust of the innocent fully comparable to the Nazi genocide against the Jews.

On the other hand, the most radical formulation of the pro-abortion or “pro-choice” side views opposition to abortion as opposition to the freedom of women, as hatred of women, and as part of a historical effort to “subjugate” women as nothing more than baby-making machines or, failing that, to see that they die in botched abortions as part of, indeed, something comparable to the Nazi genocide of the Jews.

And that is where they both lose me. If you have to equate your opponent with Hitler and the Nazis to win a debate, you don’t have a sound argument and that’s an automatic “fail” in my book. Which is why I’m firmly in the middle. I have friends in both camps, but I don’t completely agree with either side. I think, as with most things, the extreme views are wrong. Life isn’t black and white. Sometimes an abortion isn’t just the best choice; it’s the only choice. Abortions should not be used as post-conception birth control, but some women do not have access to adequate contraception. What are they supposed to do? Why do we insist that it is an either/or situation?