If the leaked Supreme Court decision proves to be final, America has taken a terrible step backward, not only for the health and safety of its women, but as a society. I think abortion is very morally wrong. It is the destruction of a life and always tragic. But I live in a diverse society and don’t have the right to expect other citizens to live by my personal moral code, especially when it comes to something as private as their own body. And, making abortion illegal won’t stop abortion.
A recent study by the Guttmacher Center found, once again, what we have long known. Restricting access to abortions does not lead to fewer abortions it leads to unsafe abortions. Some of the coutries with the most draconian laws against safe abortion also have some of the hightest abortion rates. Many countries with access to safe abortion have lower abortion rates.
Anti-abortion activists express moral outrage about the number of abortions done, to the point of accusing young girls pregenant from incest who choose not to carry a pregnacy to term of infanticide. Even more unconscionably, they refuse to fund the programs that a woman with an unexpected pregnancy could rely on. If the anti-abortion movement is really interested in preventing abortion, they should spearhead an effort to give new mothers financial protections other developed democracies take for granted.
But the anti-abortion movement isn’t seeking public policy solutions. They stand up and scream about imposing their (often warped) interpretation of their bible on the rest of us. What the anti-abortion movement is advocating is not about changes in the law to end abortion; they are seeking to live in a society where everyone will have to live by their extreme religious convictions. In my faith, Judaism, we believe that a fetus is a potential life, worthy of protection, but not as important as the life of the mother. I don’t want a public policy that equates the life of the fetus with the life of the mother. This, too, is a fundamentally immoral approach. Anti-abortion activist would accuse me of supporting infanticide just because I don’t agree that there are never times when abortion isn’t immoral.
The anti-abortion movement cannot even conceptualize a moral voice for choice. They would not think that someone would find their point of view the immoral one. It wouldn’t occur to them. That way of thinking is dangerous for democracy.
We do not need a law that endangers the life of women; that won’t work in the real world. The problem with the anti-abortion movement is not that they want to stop abortion, it’s that they exclude every other point of view. They are focused on trying to turn a diverse democracy into a society ruled by the extreme convictions of one group.
Progressive Without Apology 