Abortion problem goes beyond the womb

Last week the FDA balked at making a real decision about whether to allow over the counter sales of the morning-after pill due to a firestorm of political pressure.

The abortion debate always centers on one central question: Should a woman have the right to choose whether or not to have an abortion? Although the answer is often presented in two manners (as with most issues in America's dichotomous wind tunnel), either pro-choice or pro-life, there are really a range of views, mostly related to how many restrictions should be placed on a woman's options regarding abortive services, timing and justification. Whatever your own view, it is sure to be hotly contested by someone who disagrees. Indeed, the abortion issue is one of the most controversial in the nation.

Very rarely does the debate cool off enough to consider the demand for abortion. While it might be true that pro-life advocates do not want women to have abortions, it is not the case that pro-choice advocates want women to have abortions — they simply want women to have the right to have an abortion. Both sides are inherently happier when the demand for abortion goes down.

This is exactly what has been happening since 1980. According to the pro-choice Alan Guttmacher Institute, the rate of abortions declined throughout the 1980s and this rate of decline was twice as sharp in the 1990s. The U.S. now witnesses just over 20 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44, compared to 30 per 1,000 two decades ago: 1.3 million abortions per year (still too many). This decrease I would argue is due to two things in particular: an increase in wealth and greater access to and use of contraceptives, both furthering and dependent on the growing empowerment of American women.

Perhaps, then, abortion advocates' and opponents' time would be better spent helping to support the women of this nation. Considering that women who have abortions are predominately young, single, low-income minorities (the group neglected so often in our society), perhaps the debate should be shifted toward how to best help women avoid ever having to make the choice as to whether to have an abortion (whether or not it is legally protected) in the first place.

Cries against the infanticide of abortion ring hollow when not coupled with efforts to support the already alive and suffering children of the very women determining whether to welcome additional babies into their world. If these children grow up in adverse and impoverished conditions without healthcare, decent educational opportunities, safe neighborhoods and other resources (imperatives) needed to maintain and mold healthy lives, why are we surprised when they face the same dilemmas of their own parents?

Those who fight for the right of women to have a choice about abortion must also fight for the right of women to have a choice about pregnancy. Half of pregnancies are unwanted, and of these, half are aborted. While many are among married and well-enough-to-do mothers, many are not. A startling number of teenage pregnancies last year sprung from the loins of much older men who were undoubtedly inappropriate in having sexual relations with such young girls. Many other unwanted pregnancies occurred among women and girls who didn't know how to protect themselves or were too poor or uneducated to have the resources for contraception.

In a country that under-funds mental health, under-funds substance abuse services, has 43 million uninsured, failing inner-city schools, has half of black children born into poverty and too often only teaches abstinence in the school system, it is not surprising that the U.S. has one of the highest rates of abortion in the western industrialized world.

Mountains of evidence have now been produced showing that poor single mothers too often have daughters who become poor single mothers. At what point do we stop picketing abortion clinics and start lobbying Congress to actually intervene with the women and children we supposedly care so much about and the public policy that shapes their living lives?

Surely millions of Americans are not determined to rewrite, protect and uphold the legal status of a fetus (or zygote these days, regarding opposition to the morning after pill) only to abandon its right to life once it is born. Robin Williams is a Wilson School major from Greensboro, N.C. You can reach him at awilliam@princeton.edu.