What Pro-Choicers Do Not Accept About Pro-Lifers

Pro-life supporters do not believe the government should support abortion, considering it to be a barbaric and antisocial practice. They believe that private citizens should and will support mothers and babies both before and after birth, and that this in and of itself should encourage women not to kill their children.

Many pro-choicers do not understand this simple concept. They argue that if we want to reduce the number of abortions, we need governmental mandates to subsidize women and children through direct support (WIC, AFDC, tax credits) and indirect support (regulations on business requiring paid leave, for example). The argument is that pro-lifers do not really want to reduce the number of abortions because they don't typically support more government interference in these areas.

But it really does miss the point, doesn't it? Most abortions are not sought by the poor, who would takethe most advantage of government subsidies. They are sought by middle and upper middle class white women who would most likely want the abortion regardless of government support for women and children. As much as pro-choicers hate to admit it, these abortions are about convenience versus inconvenience. Not just the inconvenience of a nine-month pregnancy, but the inconvenience of a lifelong commitment to someone else who might interfere with other life goals (for example, career advancement, educational pursuits).

Poor women desire abortions less often than richer women because having more children does not change their lives as dramatically. If you make $20,000 per year as a clerk, have two children, get both WIC and AFDC, and live very close to the vest, another child, while inconvenient, is not earth-shattering. These women make other sacrifices to make their lives work.

The women who typically seek abortions are well-to-do, the kind who see 2 a.m. feedings and daycare as threatening to their financial well-being and privilege. For a woman, say in college or working on a professional certification, the rigors of childrearing can interfere with their ability to concentrate. For the professional woman, a day's absence from work can harm the client or one's chances of advancement. For the woman with two almost grown children, the desire for life outside dirty diapers and teething and the pursuit of her own interests--career or otherwise--might justify abortion.

But to put it simply, greater governmental support wouldn't really change the decisions of any of these women. Their decision to abort or keep the child is based on internal factors, not external ones. Which is why pro-lifers do not believe any of the proposals pro-choicers trumpet would reduce abortions at all. And why they look at greater restrictions on abortion as a better way to reduce abortions.