BANNING ABORTION, IS THERE A BETTER SOLUTION?

In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court decided a landmark case – Roe v. Wade. It ruled that the 14th Amendment’s “due process clause” to the U.S. Constitution provides a right to privacy that protects a pregnant woman’s freedom to choose whether or not to have an abortion. It’s now 2019, and all three branches of the federal government (except the House of Representatives) are Republican-controlled and/or conservative in terms of ideology. And the debate on abortion has stepped ever closer to reopening the Roe v. Wade case in the Supreme Court.

Namely, state legislators in Georgia and Alabama are spearheading the debate. 

Alabama just recently passed the strictest abortion law in the country. Alabama’s near-total ban would punish doctors who perform the procedure with up to 99 years in prison, and includes no exceptions for cases of rape and incest. Georgia, meanwhile, has banned abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Seeing as how most women don’t find out about their pregnancy until the six-week mark, it’s effectively a ban.

The passing of these laws has ignited a nationwide conversation, and debate or argument over the topic of abortion: Is it a lawful right for a woman carrying the child to decide? Or is it a broader moral dilemma that the government should be involved with? 

Simply comparing the arguments for being “pro-life” or “pro-choice” doesn’t do anything for debate and puts the whole topic in a box. The argument could be made that abortions are inhumane and painful to the babies that are being carried. However, the same argument could be refuted, with the exact opposite sentiment. For example, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists stated that a fetus is not capable of feeling pain until the third trimester. So, you can see how these arguments end up going in circles.  

Abortions often happen because of an unfortunate set of circumstances such as lack of birth control, improper sex education, or economic disadvantage. We at the Advocate believe a lack of accessibility to birth control is a root problem of the abortion issue. If women do not have equal access to birth control, they are at a higher risk of becoming pregnant.

A 2012 study from Washington University School of Medicine found that half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned. Half of those are due to misuse of contraception (thanks largely to inadequate sex education), and the other half are due to a lack of contraception entirely. The study, called the Contraceptive CHOICE Project, had 9,256 females ages 14-45 choose from a range of birth control options, at no cost. Many of the women chose a long-lasting IUD, but some chose short-term options, such as hormone pills.

From 2008-2010, abortion rates among the Washington University study participants ranged from 4.4 to 7.5 per 1,000 women. The national rate in 2008, in contrast, was 19.6 abortions per 1,000 women. We believe this is a perfect example of how preventative care is a more logical option than banning abortions.  

Having a child can often be presented as an inconvenience for women and partners. This thought process is what many people are led to believe abortion is primarily used for. That is a false narrative: Assuming someone’s motives is a habit that can lead to blind hatred, rather than one side of a debate understanding the other.

Even though abortion laws in some states have gotten less restrictive over the years, Abortion Surveillance Reports (available for viewing online) collected by the CDC – the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention – found that between 2006 and 2015, abortion rates decreased by 26%. Also worth mentioning: 91% of abortions in 2015 took place during the first trimester. Too often, people paint abortions as the murder of almost fully developed babies – the numbers reveal that sentiment to be largely untrue.  

At the end of the day, nobody likes to be told what they cannot do with their own body. Imagine the uproar we would witness if cigarettes were outlawed because they are bad for public health. People would be angry, because if they want to put cigarette smoke into their body, they should have the right to do so. Their body belongs to them, right?  

There is a lot of misconception regarding abortion. However, we can all agree that the best way to prevent abortion is to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Americans have tried abstinence-only sex education, and that’s a comprehensive debate in itself. It’s time for the U.S. to move on to brighter ideas like developing better sex education classes, making birth control accessible to more women – and not making laws that restrict what a person can do with their own body.