Abortion: Who Speaks for You?

Most Americans, and by a wide margin, are in favor of legal abortion, though both opinions and laws vary as to where and when the lines should be drawn. A small percentage of Americans are opposed to the legality of abortion in all circumstances. A small percentage of Americans are in favor of the legality of abortion in all circumstances. Most Americans, perhaps unsurprisingly, would limit abortion to either the first or second trimester, with consideration given for the health of the mother and unborn child.

Those in favor of a complete prohibition of abortion from the moment of conception are in a small minority, and have no prospect of getting their beliefs implemented in law — with or without Roe v. Wade. They are simply too marginal a group: essentially every significant demographic, male and female, religious and non-religious, old and young, black and white, educated and uneducated, disagrees with them.

Similarly, those who believe that abortion should be legal up to the moment of birth are in a small minority. However, unlike the strict anti-abortion prohibitionists, this group does have significant influence. Prominent Democratic politicians are promoting and enacting legislation that effectively allows elective abortion until the moment of birth, despite the fact that very few people actually support such a practice except in the most dire circumstances of medical emergency.

Proponents of legal-until-birth legislation understand that their position is unpopular, so they use legislative legerdemain to hide the reality of their bills. The recently passed New York Reproductive Health Act is an example of this practice. The Act changes the limitations on late-term abortion, stating that an abortion may be performed

“at any time when necessary to protect a patient’s life or health.”

What exactly constitutes the “patient’s health” is not defined in the statute. However, the Supreme Court gave us some idea what the term means in 1973, in the less well-known landmark abortion case, Doe v. Bolton, when it concluded that “health” was whatever a physician deemed it to be after taking into account such factors as “physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age.” (emphasis mine)

If that isn’t broad enough and vague enough — emotional, psychological, familial health? — the New York statute both remove violations of abortion restrictions from the criminal code, and states that abortions can be provided by health care workers who are not actual physicians.

This is now the law in New York state. The state of Virginia is considering similar legislation, with the enthusiastic support of its Governor. Proponents acknowledge that the proposed legislation would allow the elective termination of a healthy, viable child right up to the day of birth.

I understand that some people are fearful that abortion might be made illegal, or so difficult to acquire that it is effectively out of the reach of many or most women. I don’t think that’s a realistic concern, given the broad public support for legal abortion, but I understand how some might think it is.

I confess that I find it harder to understand the enthusiastic defense of abortion up to the moment of a child’s birth. I don’t understand why a woman would not choose to deliver the child, say by Cesarean section, and give it up for adoption, thus undergoing a procedure comparable to a late-term abortion but less likely to leave her emotionally scarred. I don’t understand why anyone thinks it’s a good, necessary, or appropriate thing to make the elective termination of a child at full gestation easier.

Safe, legal, and rare. That was what many who supported abortion rights wanted. Today we’re told that late-term abortions make up one to one-and-a-half percent of the abortions performed every year in America. That’s one per hour, every hour of every day.

Finally, I wonder how many people who, like me, are in favor of abortion being legal but not unbounded, are aware that the pro-choice movement is moving so far to the extreme, and doing so enthusiastically, and with the support of high-profile and influential Democratic politicians.

This seems like a mistake — both political and moral.