It's been a few weeks now since the leak of Justice Alito's Dobbs draft verdict sent shock waves around our nation. People on both sides of the debate have taken to protests and counter-protests in the streets, at the Supreme Court, and even at Supreme Court justices' homes. Alito has been taken into a safe house as threats for his safety have been made. Protesters have attempted to disrupt Catholic mass at a California church. It feels like an unsettled time; particularly because the final result is not yet set in stone and the aftermath of that final result is not yet known.
As a pro-life person, I can certainly see the value of legal protection for the unborn which would occur if the Dobbs case continues on to repeal Roe V. Wade. At the same time, and as many in the pro-life movement have been stating for many years, repealing Roe V. Wade complicates things. Right now, crisis pregnancy centers can certainly attest to that, as some are being violently attacked because of the draft verdict. Many of these pro-life folks aren't political. They are simply focused on saving two lives at a time; that particular mama and that particular baby that have made it in front of them. Other than advertising, they aren't going out into the world to seek mothers in crisis. They know that women need their services and those mothers will seek them out. They wait with smiling faces for whomever comes walking through the door of their crisis pregnancy center. Now, they also have to worry that someone might throw a brick through their door. It's certainly a challenging time.
Ordinary folks have flocked to social media to describe their concerns with overcoming Roe. There are two main arguments against repealing Roe that are circulating right now. These are the points I would like to respond to. As always, my goal is to get all of us, pro-choice and pro-life people alike, thinking and discussing those deep, hard questions that arise at times like these.
The "Forced Birth" Narrative
The "Forced Birth" narrative states that women who have gotten pregnant will now be forced to give birth, since abortion may not be legal in the state in which they live. This narrative depends upon "The Patriarchy", a group of crazed, old, Puritanical, male politicians who are interested in serving as the morality police and jumping through the bedroom door and catching people in the act of whatever kinky sex act they are committing, then hauling them out and having them placed in the stocks. Since these women aren't supposed to have sex, the narrative states, they are being punished for their crimes by being forced to carry their pregnancy to term.
The trouble with the "Forced Birth" narrative is that it attempts to look at everything completely backwards. The natural and logical consequence of sex is actually reproduction. That is why we call the uterus, vagina, penis, testicles et al part of the reproductive system. These organs, coupled together in a certain way, lead to pregnancy. Those of us who are women have a body that prepares for pregnancy EVERY MONTH. Just in case. Pregnancy is not an aberration. Decades of sex ed in America and our culture is still immersed in a type of science denialism that is shocked when a baby is created after intercourse.
But wait, we've invented birth control, you say! Isn't that the solution to that dirty old inconvenience of fertility? Any of us 80's kids can remember back to Jurassic Park when the dinosaurs were all female, and so they couldn't breed, right? Then, Jeff Goldbloom's character finds a nest of eggs. (He's that quirky chaos theory scientist who made the movie worth watching.) He utters the phrase, "Life will find a way". It's kind of the same with our reproductive systems. They are simply trying to do what they are build to do, and sometimes they get around our "safe sex" protocols and life is begun.
So, we have people who don't act as though their reproductive systems are meant for reproduction. When they then are confronted with the natural and logical consequence of pregnancy, we're stating then that they are forced to give birth. Why are we not angry with a society that sold our citizens the promise of safety with their birth control? Why are we not angry with those that give an illusion that sex could be without consequences?
Fine, some would say, we will just get rid of the consequence. Abortion is an alternative, and we can have that woman "back to normal" in no time. But here is the inconvenient truth. Abortion ends the life of a child. Period. Whether it is a very young child, or a child ready to be born tomorrow, it ends the life of a child. That's inconvenient. It's annoying. But it's true. I, and many like me, would state that this child, being human, is entitled by law to protection of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
So, it is a great difficulty to overcome that we've created a society that depends upon abortion, the deliberate ending of a life, in order to function. That doesn't make that society great or just or right. It's just where we are at this place in time. Our country needs abortion to meet the demands of the current culture in the same way that the south needed slavery before the civil war. Let that sink in.
The Burden on The Poor
Another concern voiced is the one that the poor in the country would shoulder an undue burden from the repeal of Roe V. Wade because they may live in a state that will restrict or make abortion illegal. Since that woman is poor, she wouldn't have the luxury of traveling to another state to have an abortion. That woman would then wind up parenting her child without having the resources to adequately do so. Alternatively, she may wind up having an illegal abortion and could wind up losing her life in the process.
This, too, is a concern for me. I feel a special kinship to the world's poor. I try to live in solidarity with the poor as much as I can. As such, I try to do what I can to help my brothers and sisters who are going without. As a mother with three children, I know that it can be especially challenging to make ends meet with more mouths to feed.
So, perhaps we should ask ourselves two things. Are children inherently more valuable if they come to rich people? And would more people choose life if they had more resources?
The first concept, stemming from an elitism that grades people on their socioeconomic status, is troublesome because we know that there are some very exceptional people who have been born into impoverished circumstances. We can also think anecdotally about people who are the children of wealthy parents who also may not have turned into the most amazing members of our society. The ideas that privilege can actually be a problem in our society and that poverty builds resilience are both fairly straightforward.
Wealthy elites may decide that poorer people should not have children because they are a burden and a drain on society. However, when our society deems it so, we forget that people are actually a resource. Sure, kids do take up resources to begin life, especially if we want to emphasize raising them the "Western Way"- orthodontia and iphones and college. However, each child may in turn become a resource for both society and their families. It is an investment in the future of our country that every parent and every teacher understands well. It is also what our ancestors saw children and how our ancestors lived.
Would more people choose life if they had more resources? Consider the fact that economic reasons are stated as a reason for the vast majority of abortions. The resources to parent or to find adoptive parents for their children can change many parents' hearts and minds. Changing hearts and minds are what the pro-life ministry has been about all these years while operating crisis pregnancy centers. Likewise, providing resources for parents are a huge part of the crisis pregnancy center's activities. Going forward, if we wind up finding we in fact are living in a post-Roe world, we as a society need to renew our responsibilities to those people facing crisis pregnancies. Are we a society of abundance or a society of scarcity? I think if you can look around at our privileged lives, you can answer that question.
