Pro-Abortion activists have long argued that abortions will happen regardless if it is legal or not. But such an assertion sidesteps the veritable industry that abortion has become.
This is Part 4 in a series on the abortion issue by editor/owner Justin Stapley. Click here to read Part 3.
The final argument of the pro-abortion viewpoint that does not play out in the numbers is that abortions are an inevitability and will happen regardless. This argument suggests that a woman who does not want to be pregnant will go to whatever lengths and use whatever means available to terminate her pregnancy.
This argument cites the many horrible instances in the past where women have engaged in dangerous behavior to self-abort or have submitted themselves to the treatment of those offering abortion services through an unregulated black market. Based on these occurrences, pro-abortion advocates suggest abortions are an inevitability. They argue it must be legal to protect the health of women who will seek abortive procedures regardless of whether they are legal or not.
While these are serious concerns for society to address, whether abortion is legal or not, the argument that abortion should be wholly legal and unrestricted because abortions are an inevitability makes several faulty assumptions.
The argument assumes only those who would go to the lengths of self-harm or submitting themselves to a black-market physician would be the ones getting an abortion when it is legal.
The argument ignores the reality that those who would submit themselves to self-harm or questionable procedures need love, understanding, and counseling, not just merely a termination of their pregnancy.
The argument side-steps the fact that abortion advocates and abortion clinics have a personal stake in their viewpoints and the success of their business model or worldview.
Abortion has become an industry and, like any industry, it seeks to grow, expand, and convince its consumers that its services are valuable and necessary. This industry glorifies women who get abortions as liberated heroes of feminism. In contrast, this same industry shames women who birth children and become mothers for acquiescing to “the patriarchy” (especially if they choose to be stay-at-home mothers).
If there is an inevitability in the abortion question, it’s that such an industry will encourage the procedure in which it has invested so much time, money, and effort.
Due to fewer pregnancies in recent decades, the overall abortion numbers have, in fact, been trending down. But this trend didn’t begin until the ‘90s. Before then, the numbers steadily rose starting in 1974 and culminated in an all-time high in 1990.
We can infer the drop in the abortion rate is due to other factors beyond abortion access. One such factor is likely better affordability and increased access to effective contraceptives. We can also infer, judging by an abortion rate decrease not as steep as the decrease in the number of pregnancies, that while the overall abortion rate has dropped, the percentage of actual pregnancies aborted has likely continued to increase.
Even more concerning is that minority communities do not reflect the nationwide drop in the abortion rate. These rates have continued to increase. The decrease in the abortion rate is due to a reduction in pregnancies in the middle and upper classes of society (further making a case for contraceptives as a primary reason for the decrease).
Clearly, having legal and unrestricted abortion access increases the number of abortions that occur significantly. While some abortions may happen regardless, even if the practice is banned, abortion activists cannot reasonably assert that just as many abortions would occur as presently is the case.
In Part 5 of this series, The Right to Choose and Fetal Non-Personhood, Justin will discuss the most prevalent argument for legal abortion still used today, that a woman has the right choose, and will demonstrate just how much that argument relies on the idea of fetal non-personhood.
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