The American Feminist

The American Feminist, Spring 1997

Enlightened Choices: How to Make Abortion Rare

The Democrats included a laudable goal of making "abortion rare and unnecessary, not more difficult and dangerous" in the party platform during their convention last fall. The Republican platform continued to support a human-life amendment to the Constitution. But the challenge is for both parties to provide resources that will measurably reduce the 1.5 million abortions per year in this country.

We should begin by raising a generation of young men and women who have the skills and information to make life-affirming choices. No compassionate person wants a teenage girl to have to drop out of school and face a lifetime of poverty because she became pregnant. Nor do we want her to suffer the pain and anguish of abortion.

Government funding for comprehensive programs that emphasize teen pregnancy prevention must be increased dramatically. We need unbiased and honest tracking, evaluation and replication of model teen-pregnancy prevention programs that stress life-planning skills and feature a mentoring program. It is vital that boys, as well as girls, be included in the remedy. Parents and teachers must educate young men that they are equally responsible for the children they helped to create. This can be done in part through the grossly underfunded, abstinence- based Adolescent Family Life Program, which had received a paltry $7 million and which has been increased to $12 million. A congressional advisory panel has recently been created to evaluate existing community-based programs. Equally important, we need to let children be children as we guide them toward adulthood.

Although it is critical that we reach out to the next generation to prevent crisis pregnancies, it is every bit as important to look at why women terminate their pregnancies. We must work systematically to address the factors that drive women to the personal tragedy of abortion. The Alan Guttmacher Institute reports two basic reasons: financial and emotional.

Sadly, groups like Feminists for Life and crisis pregnancy centers regularly get calls from women threatened by partners who say they will pay $300 for an abortion but won't pay a dime in child support. When a child is conceived, both parents enter into an invisible contract to care for their daughter or son for the next 18 years. Men and boys need to know that thanks to new legislation that requires paternity establishment and toughens child support enforcement, they can no longer coerce women into having abortions by threatening to abandon their children when they are born. New penalties for failing to support their children include loss of a driver's license. But fathers need to do more than make payments. Their presence is needed in their children's lives. For women whose partners are absent and who are unable to provide for their children, welfare reform (now moved to the state legislatures) must protect children by providing basics, including affordable, quality child care, job training, and placement assistance for the mother.

Women in the workplace should not have to choose between their child and their job. That is no choice at all. Employers who have not already done so should consider flex time, job sharing, on-site child care and telecommuting. Women need maternity coverage in health care and maternity leave. And to support our children, we need to earn a living wage.

Similarly, women shouldn't be forced to decide between their college education and life plans and their child. A number of college counselors tell us the only choice they are aware of is among various abortion clinics. This year Feminists for Life is distributing pregnancy resource kits to campus clinic directors and other advisors to give women the "rest of the choices." We are challenging universities to provide housing, on-site child care and maternity coverage within any student health-care plan, and inform women of the recent changes in child-support legislation.

Established, credible pregnancy resource centers should be eligible for federal dollars if we are serious as a country about significantly reducing the number of abortions. Nearly 4,000 crisis pregnancy centers and maternity homes guide women in crisis through the maze of available support ranging from food, clothing, housing, furniture, medical care (including for high-risk pregnancies), legal assistance, help with employment and education, drug abuse and domestic- violence counseling, childbirth, breastfeeding and parenting classes. Spanish is spoken at many crisis pregnancy centers. Some specialize in adoption and post-abortion counseling.

Adoption needs to be promoted at every level as an empowering option for women. Women who give their babies a good life with a new family are likelier to go on to finish their education, have their own careers, marry and have children. Birth mothers who put their children first and choose adoption when they cannot care for them deserve our admiration and support.

Finally, every woman deserves the truth about her body and the risks of abortion. Across the country Americans on both sides of the debate agree: women have a right to make informed decisions about their pregnancies. We can empower women to do so by passing "right to know" legislation. As with any other medical procedure, we have a right to full disclosure of its nature, alternative support services, risks, and complications, as well as the father's responsibility. In addition, women have the right to know their doctor's name, and whether he/she will be available in a medical emergency; the right to a fully equipped clinic in case of complications, and an ambulance nearby; and the right to redress if she is hurt by the abortion.

More than a century ago, the same women who fought for women's right to vote and the right of slaves to be free also fought for our right to life. Mattie Brinkerhoff wrote in an 1869 edition of a radical feminist paper, The Revolution: "When a man steals to satisfy hunger, we can safely conclude that there is something wrong in society - so when a woman destroys the life of her unborn child, it is an evidence that either by education or circumstances she has been greatly wronged."

Today, let us "right the wrong" both through education and by changing circumstances so that no woman will be driven to the personal tragedy of abortion. We need to focus our energy on what women really want. Women shouldn't have to settle for less.

There is a better way. We owe it to our daughters, our sisters and ourselves to find it.