Abortion is a clearly established Constitutional right. Yet the same lawmakers who claim to love the Constitution when talking about guns or religious freedom are quick to do all they can to erode or eliminate the Constitutional right of abortion.
Anti-choicers claim that eliminating abortion would protect women from unscrupulous doctors. Those same women would then somehow miraculously come up with the resources to support their unplanned babies. The more honest anti-choice zealots assert that it doesn't matter whether women can actually support their pregnancies and babies; pregnancy, childbirth, and 18+ years of parenthood are a fair penalty for the decision to have sex.
But what would really happen if abortion were illegal? We don't have to speculate to find out. Legal changes in other countries, coupled with a number of scientific studies, make it clear that abortion is one of the best ways to protect women and children.
Abortions Would Not Decrease
The ostensible reason to ban abortion is that doing so would end or reduce its frequency. The data says otherwise. According to the World Health Organization, abortion does not end when it becomes illegal. It only goes underground, spurring women to seek potentially lethal abortions. When El Salvador banned abortions, 11% of women and girls seeking such abortions died. In the United States, the abortion death rate is 1 out of every 200,000 women, or 0.000005%.
50,000 women die each year from unsafe abortions. When women die, so too do their fetuses—hardly a pro-life outcome.
Women and Babies Would Die
Illegal abortions are just one cause of death for women in locations that ban abortion. In El Salvador, where abortion remains illegal, 57% of deaths during pregnancy are due to suicide. Because bans on abortion don't reduce the cost of medical care or change the stigma associated with an unwanted pregnancy, women who otherwise would have sought abortions may forgo medical care. This endangers their lives, as well as the lives of their developing fetuses.
States such as Kentucky, where abortion clinics are already under threat, may soon witness similar trends. Louisiana abortion clinics were recently banned from performing the safest second-trimester abortion procedure, potentially endangering the lives of thousands of women.
More Women and Children Would Face Abuse
An ongoing study of women denied abortions in the U.S. provides a wealth of data on what happens to women denied abortions. Known as the Turnaway Study, the research points to consistently tragic outcomes when women cannot access safe and legal abortions. Among the study's findings: women who cannot access abortions are more likely to stay in abusive relationships. This subjects both women and their future children to abuse.
Women are more likely to be abused during pregnancy than at any other time in their lives, with 1 in 6 women experience domestic violence during pregnancy. Homicide—usually at the hands of an abusive husband or boyfriend—is the leading cause of death among pregnant women.
Poverty Would Increase
As anyone who has ever had a child knows, pregnancy and parenthood are among life's most expensive undertakings. From the exorbitant costs of health insurance and childbirth to the seemingly endless pile of gear a child demands, responsible parenthood is simply out of reach for the poorest women.
Anti-Choicers Would Do Nothing to Protect Children's Lives
Anti-choice lawmakers consistently oppose any measures that would protect children, lower the abortion rate, or support women. If abortion became illegal, it is quite clear this would not change. They would continue to treat pregnancy as a punishment.
This approach makes it clear that the anti-choice position has nothing to do with concern for life or health. So why do we continue to allow anti-choicers to call themselves pro-life? The anti-choice position is about punishing and controlling women. If it were truly about concern for human life, anti-choicers would be more interested in helping women than in punishing them for getting pregnant.
