The Growing Aversion to Abortion

The abortion debate has raged since 1973, when the Supreme Court gave abortion constitutional protection, but the basic law of the land has proved immutable. Abortion is legal, and it's going to remain legal for a long time.

Laws often alter attitudes, inducing people to accept things -- such as racial integration -- they once rejected. But sometimes, attitudes move in the opposite direction, as people see the consequences of the change. That's the case with abortion.

The news that the abortion rate has fallen to its lowest level in 30 years elicits various explanations, from increased use of contraceptives to lack of access to abortion clinics. But maybe the chief reason is that the great majority of Americans, even many who see themselves as pro-choice, are deeply uncomfortable with it.

In 1992, a Gallup/Newsweek poll found 34 percent of Americans thought abortion "should be legal under any circumstances," with 13 percent saying it should always be illegal. Last year, only 26 percent said it should always be allowed, with 18 percent saying it should never be permitted.

Sentiments are even more negative among the group that might place the highest value on being able to escape an unwanted pregnancy: young people. In 2003, Gallup found, one of every three kids from age 13 to 17 said abortion should be illegal in all circumstances. More revealing yet is that 72 percent said abortion is "morally wrong."

By now, pro-life groups know that outlawing most abortions is not a plausible aspiration. So they have adopted a two-pronged strategy. The first is to regulate it more closely -- with parental notification laws, informed consent requirements and a ban on partial-birth abortion. The second is to educate Americans with an eye toward changing "hearts and minds." In both, they have had considerable success.

Even those who insist Americans are solidly in favor of legal abortion implicitly acknowledge the widespread distaste. That's why the Democratic Party's 2004 platform omitted any mention of the issue, and why politicians who support abortion rights cloak them in euphemisms like "the right to choose."

But some abortion rights supporters admit reservations. It was a landmark moment in 1995 when the pro-choice author Naomi Wolf, writing in The New Republic magazine, declared that "the death of a fetus is a real death." She went on: "By refusing to look at abortion within a moral framework, we lose the millions of Americans who want to support abortion as a legal right but still need to condemn it as a moral iniquity."

The report on abortion rates from the Guttmacher Institute suggests that the evolution of attitudes has transformed behavior. Since 1990, the number of abortions has dropped from 1.61 million to 1.21 million. The abortion rate among women of childbearing age has declined by 29 percent.

Those changes could be the result of other factors, such as more use of contraception: If fewer women get pregnant, fewer will resort to abortion. But the shift is equally marked among women who do get pregnant. In 1990, 30.4 percent of pregnancies ended in abortion. Last year, the figure was 22.4 percent.

Pro-choice groups say women are having fewer abortions only because abortion clinics are growing scarcer. But abortion clinics may be growing scarcer because of a decline in demand for their services and a public opinion climate that has gotten more inhospitable.

This growing aversion to abortion may be traced to better information. When the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973, most people had little understanding of fetal development. But the proliferation of ultrasound images from the womb, combined with the dissemination of facts by pro-life groups, has lifted the veil. In the new comedy "Juno," a pregnant 16-year-old heads for an abortion clinic, only to change her mind after a teenage protester tells her, "Your baby probably has a beating heart, you know. It can feel pain. And it has fingernails."

"Juno" has been faulted as a "fairy tale" that sugarcoats the realities of teen pregnancy. But if it's a fairy tale, that tells something about how abortion violates our most heartfelt ideals -- and those of our adolescent children. Try to imagine a fairy tale in which the heroine has an abortion and lives happily ever after.

The prevailing view used to be: Abortion may be evil, but it's necessary. Increasingly, the sentiment is: Abortion may be necessary, but it's evil.

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On the matter of trying to win hearts and minds, as this writer suggests, we can - and are - doing that. She mentions the movie “Juno”. I offer “A Dream A Lot Like Mine” at http://www.myspace.com/emmettgrayson. I hope folks will click and listen.

I think the internet may have some impact. Most kids have access to it and can easily find sites that show the development of the child, making it more of a person than a glob of tissue.

I think that the Townhall people need to spend some time in FreeRepublic.

This post (<-click) in FreeRepublic attempts to show some serious corruption in the Supreme Court where the Court's scandalous ignoring of the 10th A. protected power of the states is concerned. The post explains how FDR's 10th A.-ignoring establishment of constitutionally unauthorized New Deal programs ultimately led to the Court's scandalous legalization of abortion. Note that the post gives two non-abortion USSC case examples in order to show Roe v. Wade in a different perspective.

Anybody who feels inclined to comment about the above referenced post, please do so in this thread.

Thank you.
Many crowns in glory await you.

Pro Plancio 80
etenim, iudices, cum omnibus virtutibus me adfectum esse cupio, tum nihil est quod malim quam me et esse gratum et videri. haec enim est una virtus non solum maxima sed etiam mater virtutum omnium reliquarum.

In truth, O judges, while I wish to be adorned with every virtue, yet there is nothing which I can esteem more highly than the being and appearing grateful. For this one virtue is not only the greatest, but is also the parent of all the other virtues.
— Cicero

I have a feeling that at sometime in his past, he used abortion to get rid of an accidental pregnancy.

He probably thinks that the only way he can be vindicated for his action is if everyone comes to believe abortion is okay. He needs to realize that he can never achieve vindication that way; the path to absolution is through repentance and atonement. Only by recognizing that what one has done is wrong, and seeking to do what one can to make up for it, can one escape the ghosts of one's past.

One of my good friends is like that. He’s mostly conservative, but he got some girl pregnant and college and they got rid of “the problem” so now he’s vehemently pro-choice. IMI, it’s as if to acknowledge the truth would be copping to a murder.

He needs to realize that if he comes clean, he can cut a deal to escape punishment.

The success rate is more like 98%. Higher when some "special sauce" is added.

I have no problem with minors doing what they want as long as they're taught proper relationship skills. If they're in a loving committed relationship(measured in years) and know how to keep themselves safe. Misguided attempts to force them to behave through abstinence education are destined to fail. Only when minors have the social and emotional skills to handle themselves will they be able to deal with life's temptations effectively.

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