Someone left a comment on my recent article Even If Roe Ends We Still Have A Culture of Death:
"This once again misses the mark completely. People being evil is not the main driver of abortion. The main driver is the economic cost of raising and having a kid. There is a reason that so many people who have abortions are under 200% of the federal poverty level. And crisis pregnancy centers do nothing to help in that regard. Anyone who thinks for a few seconds realizes that the vast majority or cost and hardship associated with having a kid happen after birth. Crisis pregnancy centers are not a solution to abortion."
It gets tiresome having to respond to comments that may be well-intentioned but aren't essentially thoughtful, but my editor encourages me to do so so I make an effort. My response to this one, offered here in lieu of an original blog post:
“Crisis pregnancy centers are not a solution to abortion.” Great strawman, thanks for that.
Dr. Monica Miller, Executive Director for Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, was very sober in her assessment in a recent interview after the Dobbs v Jackson hearing:
“Let’s say they seriously restricted abortion. Our country still needs to be educated, it needs to be converted, the Church needs to be strengthened…as we go forward we’ve got another hundred years of evangelization to do on the life issues. And let’s be honest and frank about it–abortion is the consequence of a disordered sexual ethic. 75%-80% or more of the women walking through the doors of an abortion clinic are having out of wedlock pregnancies, they’re not getting support from the fathers who have beggetted these children. So there’s the crisis. Stop that, and you will stop abortion. The two things are connected. Abortion is not just a life issue, it has to do with what is the meaning of human sexuality and sexual commitment. That also has to be healed and attended to, and then we can advance a culture of life.”
I’m essentially arguing something similar in the article: “In other words, even if Roe is eventually overturned, we still have to deal with our rampant culture of death and the fact that people want abortion as a component of their lifestyle.”
From PP’s own Guttermacher Institute:
74% of women seek an abortion because “having a baby would dramatically change my life.”
73% because they “can’t afford a baby right now.”
48% “don’t want to be a single mother or having relationship problems”
38% “have completed their childbearing”
1% were the victim of rape
0.5% were the victim of incest
So, 98.5% of women (and men) are engaging in sexual relations voluntarily and seeing abortion as a way of getting out from underneath the responsibility (financial or otherwise) of having a child (which, obviously, comes from engaging in sexual relations).
To your point about “so many people who have abortions are under 200% of the federal poverty level”:
“Using National Survey of Family Growth Data from the Centers for Disease Control, women living at 100 percent or less of the federal poverty level (single households earning approximately $11,200 per year or less) who are not actively trying to conceive are twice as likely not to use contraception as their wealthier counterparts (those at 400 percent or above of the poverty level, or earning over $44,700 per year). Poor women not trying to conceive are also three times more likely to get pregnant than their higher income counterparts (9 percent compared to 3 percent), and ultimately at 5 times more likely to give birth. In addition, abortion rates among the poor are lower, with 32 percent in the highest income bracket having an abortion compared to 9 percent of low-income terminations.” (Brookings)
Abortion is evil, but my point in the article is because I am skeptical of the “If Roe v Wade is overturned, we have won” and everyone gets to go home. If anything, the cultural battle has just begun. Ask anyone on the street, your random citizen, “what is the purpose and end of human sexuality?” and I will bet 99.8% will give you an answer that is not in line with the Church’s vision (God’s intention, not to mention the Natural Law) of human sexuality. This is the light of not only human reason, but the redemption of our fallen nature in Christ’s death and resurrection. But alas, the words of St. John seem to hold true: “Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”
People have accepted a counterfeit vision and are perishing and losing their souls as a result, as scripture says ” My people perish for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). If Catholics committed to spreading the Truth and Light of the Gospel and the dignity of the human person in a fallen, post-Christian, essentially pagan society thought it was hard-going pre-Roe….just wait til it gets overturned. That’s when the real work (and suffering) begins."
I don't have pat answers to this inhumane mess, and it's not my job to fix the world. All I know is that you can't just kill innocent people to make your problems go away.
Related: Abortion is Slavery ("If We Are Wrong, God Almighty Is Wrong")
<< But alas, the words of St. John seem to hold true: “Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” >>
ReplyDeleteTHAT is precisely the rub. THAT is precisely what needs to be proclaimed and from the rooftops. The Catholic Church has forgotten how to evangelize. Time for faithful, practicing Catholics to open their mouths, despite what the world thinks...nay, BECAUSE of what the world thinks. With our baptism we were given the gift of discerning right from wrong, good from evil. Now we need to remember what we were given at Confirmation: Courage. We're going to need it.