Massachusetts Democratic Senator Ed Markey and Democratic Representative Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania made waves last week at President Biden’s State of the Union Address for proudly sporting “abortion” pins. The attention-getting detail in the pins was the heart shape that replaced the first “o” in the word.
“Abortion is essential healthcare and we need to codify this right,” Markey tweeted ahead of the president’s speech. Captioning a photo of her donning the prominent lapel pin, Representative Dean likewise tweeted, “Abortion is health care. Abortion care saves lives.” Not only has it become all too easy to reduce life inside the womb to mere “pregnancy tissue,” politicians now find themselves doggedly perpetuating lies to enshrine a perceived right. They’ve lost sight of humanity, and not just the humanity of the unborn, but also that of the mother.
It’s about health care, they say. But is it, really? While Markey’s and Dean’s views match the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ perception of abortion as “essential” to health care, they miss the reality that a small minority of abortions actually occur for “health” reasons. A typical woman seeking abortion already has at least one child, is low-income, unmarried and in her late 20s, according to a New York Times piece that cited common reasons for abortion. She has some college education and is typically early in her pregnancy, the article noted. More than half of abortions take place in the first six weeks, according to data cited by the authors, notably before any serious complications can be detected in the baby.
Financial reasons were the top reason (40%) cited in a 2013 study of 954 post-abortive women. Another 36% of respondents stated reasons related to poor timing. Almost a third of those polled provided partner-related reasons for their abortion and 29% of respondents believed they needed to focus on the children they had.
One in five women also said having a baby would “interfere with their future goals and opportunities in general.” Among several other reasons listed by respondents, only 12% cited health-related reasons as a factor in seeking an abortion and 5% of those noted drug, alcohol or illicit drug use as their concern.
If those are deemed legitimate barriers to childbirth, why not focus instead on ways of helping women keep their babies than solely on enabling them to get rid of them? This is exactly the message House Republicans sought to send when proposing a Congressional resolution condemning violent attacks on pregnancy centers.
“There have been now nearly 100 recorded acts of violence and intimidation against pro-life individuals and organizations by radical, pro-abortion activists since the initial leak of the draft Supreme Court Dobbs opinion,” Republican Representative Ann Wagner of Missouri said. The measure passed in a vote of 222-219 last month with only three Democrats voting for it.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren (MA) last fall described the work of pregnancy centers as “luring pregnant people” with “false and misleading tactics.” Contrary to Warren’s assertion, pregnancy resource centers provide free and low-cost care to women, with services ranging from medical to education and referrals for community and public health services. Many pregnancy resource centers additionally provide after-abortion recovery support.
Politicians like Senator Markey and Representative Dean maintain that abortion is health care. It’s essential. And to them and many others, it’s a right that precludes all other means of actually helping women in any holistic sense. If they cared about women, they’d rally around legislative condemnation of violence against services and programs intended to help them.
They’d look beyond the minority of women who pursue abortion for purported health reasons, and they’d find meaningful solutions that answer the concerns cited by mothers. Lawmakers have a responsibility to their constituents, and that right doesn’t exclude a focus on meaningful empowerment of women through motherhood and beyond. That’s true health care.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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This has been obvious since day one. Sanger started P.P. to get rid of Blacks and the majority of clinics are in low income areas. Over the years they educated those women to think they are doing them a favor – not talking about prevention/education but killing their babies! It’s about CONTROL by those that want power over the masses. Make them think that somehow others who care about them & their kids hate them & burden them with their own children. God help these women to wake up.
What “moderate” Democrat politicians? After claiming to be moderate at election time, they then vote in lockstep for the leftist agenda dictated by their leaders.
Adoption.
how about not getting pregnant, in the first place… ???
It would be best if there was some means of preventing Democrat women from becoming pregnant at all. Most of their aborted progeny would have grown up to become additional parasites on society and a burden on working people.
there ARE means: the pill, diafram, avoid sex for that week, early withdrawal….