ABORTION is perhaps the most contentious issue in America, a paradox given the fact that people, in general, value life and have been given by our Creator the instincts and the intelligence to protect life. Then why has this issue divided us when we uphold the same value for life?
We all believe that life is sacred from the womb to tomb. This is one of the values that unify us Filipinos in America, especially because of the fact that we were born and raised Christians, Catholics to be more precise.
While we may be sharing the same values and aspirations, the two-party political system of the United States, grounded mostly on ideology, puts us in a box. Many of us have to choose between the two major parties, while relatively fewer remain to choose to be independent or to be of no party affiliation.
But for most Americans, it is a choice between liberal or conservative principles, between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, even when for many of us, it is not as black and white as how we feel about the issues.
Some of us may be leaning “Blue” (Democrat) when it comes to safety nets and social services like health and education, but lean “Red” (Republican) in matters of taxes and national security, for example.
As we discern on how to vote and who to vote for in November, may I respectfully ask for your kind indulgence and let us all remove our partisan hats so we can have common working knowledge about the background of the law on abortion in the United States, and how we can all work together to achieve what we share in common — to save lives.
Amid the more restrictive sexual mores of the 1800s, abortion was actually common, the History Channel reported. According to at least one estimate, one in every five women at the time had had an abortion.
In the late 1850s, however, the newly established American Medical Association (AMA) began lobbying for the criminalization of abortion, which according to the History Channel was “partly in an effort to eliminate doctors’ competitors such as midwives and homeopaths.”
In 1869, the Catholic Church changed its law and banned abortion at any stage of pregnancy. In 1873, the U.S. Congress passed the Comstock Act, which made it illegal to distribute contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs through the U.S. mail. By the 1880s, abortion was outlawed across most of the country.
The 1960s, however, saw the rise of the women’s rights movement. Court cases involving the use of contraceptives laid the groundwork for Roe v. Wade. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a law in 1965 banning the distribution of birth control to married couples, ruling that the law violated their implied right to privacy under the U.S. Constitution. And in 1972, the Supreme Court struck down a law prohibiting the distribution of contraceptives to unmarried adults.
Roe v. Wade
Despite the law criminalizing abortion, some women resorted to illegal, dangerous, “back-alley” abortions or self-induced abortions. According to the History Channel, “in the 1950s and 1960s, the estimated number of illegal abortions in the United States ranged from 200,000 to 1.2 million per year, according to the Guttmacher Institute.”
After trying unsuccessfully to get an illegal abortion, Norma McCorvey was referred to Texas attorneys Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, who were interested in challenging anti-abortion laws. In court documents, McCorvey became known as “Jane Roe.”
According to the History Channel, the attorneys filed a lawsuit in 1970, on behalf of McCorvey and all the other women “who were or might become pregnant and want to consider all options,” against Henry Wade, the district attorney of Dallas County, where McCorvey lived.
Roe won over Wade. The Supreme Court struck down the Texas law that criminalizes abortion, taking after the jurisprudence of the legalization of the use of contraceptives, protected by the right to privacy of the 14th Amendment.
In its decision, the History Channel said “the court divided pregnancy into three trimesters, and declared that the choice to end a pregnancy in the first trimester was solely up to the woman. In the second trimester, the government could regulate abortion, although not ban it, in order to protect the mother’s health.”
“In the third trimester, the state could prohibit abortion to protect a fetus that could survive on its own outside the womb, except when a woman’s health was in danger,” the report added.
Since Roe v. Wade, many states have imposed restrictions that weaken abortion rights, and Americans remain divided over support for a woman’s right to choose an abortion.
Yet, despite these stricter restrictions and clinics being closed, women continued having abortions, with some women fatally performing abortions on themselves.
Republicans made anti-abortion their battle cry, accusing Democrats of being “baby killers” because they support abortion.
Why some women chose to have an abortion
Democrats contend that nobody is being forced to abort their babies — it is the personal choice of a woman what to do with her body and arguing that women have grave reasons to get one like rape, incest, threats to her life, being in an abusive relationship, unwanted pregnancy complicated by poverty, and a lack of information on her choices.
Qualitative studies conducted by the Guttmacher Institute revealed that women who had had an abortion as typically feeling that they had no other choice, given their limited resources and existing responsibilities to others.
The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told senators during her confirmation hearing when asked about abortion: “Abortion prohibition by the State controls women and denies them full autonomy and full equality with men.”
“The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a woman’s life, to her well-being and dignity. It is a decision she must make for herself. When Government controls that decision for her, she is being treated as less than a fully adult human responsible for her own choices,” she added.
This right of the woman to make a decision for herself and for her own body, therefore, is in congruence with the promise of America as envisioned by our founding fathers — that in America, all people are created equal, and should therefore be treated equally and be granted with equal protection of the law.
But the decriminalization of abortion did not force, mandate, nor push women to “kill” their own babies. Women took this very seriously and would not resort to abortion unless they are in despair. This is a right to choose based on their personal circumstances.
Conversely, imposing strict abortion measures has not prevented or stopped women from getting an abortion, on the other hand, they would even compel them to turn to self-induced abortion.
Sharp decline in the abortion rate
Guttmacher Institute reports: “Between 1990 and 2008, the abortion rate declined an average of 2% per year, but between 2008 and 2011, it dropped 13%. Fewer women had abortions in 2011 than in 2008 because fewer women became pregnant when they did not want to: Over this period, the proportion of pregnancies that were unintended declined from 51% to 45%, and the rate of unintended pregnancy dropped 18%, from 54 to 45 per 1,000 women.”
The updated study found that the U.S. abortion rate continued to drop to 13.5 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44 in 2017, the lowest rate recorded since abortion was legalized in 1973 and an 8% decline from 2014.
“Birthrates declined in almost all states during this period, indicating that fewer people became pregnant, not that more individuals chose or were made to give birth rather than have an abortion,” the study said.
Guttmacher Institute reports:
”With abortion rates falling in almost all states, our study did not find evidence that the national decline in abortions during this period was the result of new state abortion restrictions. We also found no evidence that the decline was linked to a drop in the number of abortion providers during this period,” says Rachel Jones, lead author of the study.
“Rather, the decline in abortions coincided with a steep national drop in overall pregnancy and birth rates. Contraceptive use improved during this period, as more women and couples were using highly effective long-acting reversible contraceptive methods, such as the IUD. Moreover, the recent recession led many women and couples to want to avoid or delay pregnancy and childbearing.”
With the available evidence, it is impossible to pinpoint exactly which factors drove recent declines, and to what degree. However, previous Guttmacher analyses have documented that abortion restrictions, while incredibly harmful at an individual level, were not the main driver of national declines in the abortion rate in the 2008–20115 or 2011–20146 time periods.
Much the same appears to hold true for the 2011–2017 timeframe, as detailed below.
Rather, the decline in abortions appears to be part of a broader decline in pregnancies, as evidenced by fewer births over the same period.
Decisions in the 2020 elections: How can we work together to save lives?
Given the hard facts about abortion, I hope we realize that criminalizing abortion and crucifying women in despair did not help as much to lower abortion rates to save lives.
What has helped to lower the abortion rate is empowering women with knowledge and science-based information so they will realize that they have the choice not to choose abortion, despite their limited resources and existing responsibilities to others.
We can do this by helping them with empathy instead of judgment, compassion instead of condemnation, love instead of hate.
As parents, we can continue instilling in our children the value of life through our own examples, not just for the unborn, but for all people, especially the marginalized sectors of our society, regardless of age, race, social and economic status.
We can also help our teachers and health officials in being open with our children that aside from restraining ourselves from our sexual energies and desires, which God created us with during our teens through our childbearing years, we also have safe contraceptive measures available to avoid unwanted pregnancy.
We can help lead those who have already been pregnant but cannot give their babies a decent life realize that they have the choice and the support system to continue on with the pregnancy and that loving families are waiting to nurture and raise their baby.
We can also fight for a more equitable society so that each person will be given equal rights and opportunities to be relieved from poverty — health care, education, living wages — and move up the economic ladder and be productive members of society, instead of abusing them so that the richest of the rich can rake in more millions and billions with their insatiable greed.
IF you are supporting Trump because of this singular issue of abortion and exonerate him for all his transgressions against the Constitution, the American people, his lies and his assault against the decency and unity of our nation, then please discern and pray more for God’s guidance and light.
Many Republican leaders have already announced that they will not support Trump’s re-election bid because the loyalty of every American should be for the country and not for the party, and especially not for a man like Donald Trump.
Many of them have also endorsed Joe Biden for president. Do not think you have no choice but to vote for Trump because you want to save lives from the womb to tomb. Donald Trump does not really share that value; he only tells you what you want to hear to get your vote.
Instead, let us follow God’s example of inclusive, compassionate love to heal our neighbors and the world to help save more lives and souls as we cast our sacred vote this November.
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Gel Santos Relos has been in news, talk, public service and educational broadcasting since 1989 with ABS-CBN and is now serving the Filipino audience using different platforms, including digital broadcasting, and print, and is working on a new public service program for the community. You may contact her through email at [email protected], or send her a message via Facebook at Facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos.
