Re-Framing Abortion:

Sex, $, Power, and Fear of the Sacred

by Suzanne Arms

Part 3

• I value science, the process of creating a theory, and investigating and testing it to see if it is valid. Yet I know people who place no value in what science says, pointing to the fact that its conclusions might change next year.

That’s true; but the problem lies not in the practice of rigorous inquiry and investigation but in how complex the world is and how limited our tools are for studying it. Thus, the results of research can change. And that's a good thing; it shows that when more evidence becomes available - or more tools for evaluating that evidence - the results can and do change.*

Indigenous civilizations have created sacred myths - meaning-filled stories, as opposed to the recent definition of a "myth" as a falsehood - to make sense of their world. They appreciated (and sometimes feared as well as revered) the super-natural, forces that exist but are unseen. They created entire cosmologies to explain the mystery and viewed themselves as part of the whole, rather than separate from it, as we have been led to believe.

We Westernized intellectual folk often dismiss that way of knowing as "primitive". Yet much of that so-called "primitive" world view is now being validated by science.

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I don’t expect to change anyone’s mind just by giving some scientifically "proven" facts, but I believe they can help us form questions that may result in altering beliefs we have held as not only "true" but sacred.

Here are just a few of the facts that I hope will get us thinking more deeply about abortion:

• The number of abortions performed each year in the U.S. has dropped significantly over the last few decades, without laws restricting abortion. Research from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the respected Guttmacher Institute found that between the year 2000 and 2020, the number of abortions dropped significantly, from 1.3 million a year to 930,000.

This drop in U.S. abortions is due to a number of factors, including: 1) safer forms of contraception; 2) more women feeling comfortable using contraception, seeking and being able to get it – even when their male partner is against using it; 3) the rise in sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), which has resulted in more men willing to use condoms; and 4) the “morning after” pill having been made legal and fairly accessible.

• Approximately 1 out of every 4 U.S. women has had an abortion by the age of 45; and these women, as I will point out, come from every background.

• Most abortions are done early, done close to the time when the woman realizes she is pregnant and makes her decision not to carry the baby. The vast majority of U.S. abortions – approximately 93% - are done before the 12th week of pregnancy, in what’s called “the first trimester”, well before a pregnant person feels life moving inside their body.

• Men have become more aware of the need for them to support the desire of those women (who might be their partners or daughters) to not wish to be pregnant. For more than a decade, the majority of both women and men in the U.S. have approved of abortion, although women more so than men (63% to men’s 58%).

We tend to hear from men who see their wives and children as possessions, and elevate pregnancy and motherhood as the epitome of womanhood. Their numbers are decreasing. But they hold a disproportionate majority in many state legislatures and today in the U.S. Congress and Supreme Court as well.

• 60% of women in the U.S. who decide to abort have already had at least one living child. We can assume that most of these women did not make their decision lightly, that they know what raising a child means for them and what the responsibility of being a parent entails.

• Conception is a complicated, brilliantly evolved process; and nature weeds out many potential babies, from conception to birth. Nature spontaneously ends those potential babies for a variety of reasons.

Research from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) shows that as many as 25% of all conceptions end naturally, in a spontaneous miscarriage before the 12th week. More than that, 50% of all fertilized eggs are lost before the woman even misses a period.

Given that nature herself aborts a large percentage of fetuses - for myriad reasons - should women not be allowed to end a pregnancy? And should they be judged for and punished for doing so?

Why does a woman choose abortion? There are myriad reasons women choose abortion, including age, financial situation, desire to focus on education or career, being in an abusive relationship, not having a partner committed to raise this child, or having no safe or stable place to live.

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As a woman who herself once chose to have an abortion, the daughter of a woman who had an abortion, and the mother of one who did, I know how deeply personal a choice it is and that it can affect the entire family and generations to come.

My maternal grandmother Ida, a 4’10” deaf woman born in the Ukraine, was raised in an Orthodox Jewish family and, as was the custom, denied vital knowledge about her body, about sexuality, and about the birth process.

Ida bore two children with her Catholic husband; and each time labored alone in a hospital without any emotional support. She revealed to my mother – her firstborn – that she had experienced both births to be torture. After bearing those two children, still having no access to any form of contraception, she proceeded to secretly abort every pregnancy by any means available to her, which she said included a coat hanger.

My grandmother was fortunate not to have ended up permanently scarred or dead.

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Who are those folks who believe abortion should be illegal? Although media gives a disproportionally loud voice to the vocal anti-choice perspective, “pro-life” folks are not monolithic in their beliefs. Furthermore, the pro-life stance is actually a minority position.

A large 2015 survey sponsored by a nonprofit which supports pregnancy centers (which are actually anti-abortion centers) found that fully 70% of U.S. women who’ve had one or more abortions identify as Christian AND church-going, and 16% identify as evangelicals!

I was surprised to learn that 76% said their church had no influence on their decision to have an abortion. Since so many folks believe abortion is against God’s wishes, you might be surprised to learn that this same study found a mere 7% of women who had an abortion had chosen to speak directly with someone in their church about their decision.

So, what part does religion play in women wanting an abortion? Views change over time, but religion does still play a large part in the belief systems of most people regarding abortion.

You might be surprised to learn that the Pew Research Group, who did a large sampling early in 2022, found that regardless of whether they’ve had an abortion themselves or not the majority of white mainline Protestants (59%), Black Protestants (56%) and white Roman Catholics (52%!) today support legal access to abortion in all or most cases. And only 45% of all Christians feel that abortion should be illegal in most or all circumstances!

To be against abortion does not necessarily mean one is “pro-life” or “pro-child”. Being against abortion has actually never been pro-life. In fact, it is more correctly termed a “pro-pregnancy” stance, since it wants pregnancies maintained at any cost. It also places a higher value on the would-be child/fetus than on the its biological mother. It’s the pregnancy that matters, not the person who is pregnant. And women, according to this belief, should be pregnant and should want to be mothers.

Unfortunately, this view in effect reduces women to objects, property to be controlled by others.

Thirty-eight U.S. states already have “fetal homicide” laws, under which women attempting or having abortions may be charged with manslaughter or murder. This is not something even most anti-abortion folks want.

There is an article in the October 2022 issue of Harper’s Magazine by Charlotte Shane, titled “The Right Not to be Pregnant”, that does a brilliant job of clarify the legal issues surrounding abortion. My head was spinning as I read it. I now understand how the pro-life movement is actually about control, not saving a life.

If being pro-life were truly life-affirming, there would be bills in Congress and legislatures across the country and policies to ensure that all babies (and therefore all mothers, and also fathers) would have their basic needs met, so they could thrive.

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For a child to thrive it needs to receive both physical and emotional protection, nurturance and support, not only in the womb and through birth, but in the critical first months after birth, and throughout childhood. Guaranteeing anything less to a child shows disregard for its life.

Some pro-life advocates believe this as much as I do and are working to help parents and their children; but the majority are not rallying for these essential social changes.

Thank you for reading this far. Suzanne

Continued in Part 4