We have discussed here whether anyone is “pro abortion.” I think some are, and some not. But in NYC, it is clear that far too many women are indifferent to it. Otherwise, what explains a 39% rate of induced abortions in that city? From the story:
In 2009, there were 225,667 pregnancies in the City with 126,774 resulting in live births and 87,273 resulting in abortions. In addition to those abortion numbers, there were 11,620 spontaneous terminations. Forty-six percent of all births in the Bronx result in abortions—the highest among the five boroughs, according to the report. Blacks had the highest number of abortions with 40,798 with Hispanics having the second highest at 28,364, according to the report. In response, the Chiaroscuro Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports alternatives to abortion, pledged that it will spend $1 million in 2011 to address the City’s abortion rate—nearly double the national average of 23 percent.
There is no excuse for this. Abortion is not a morally neutral act, it stops a beating heart, as the old pro life advocacy slogan has it. And such a hedonistic indifference to the reality of destroying a gestating human being impacts the morality of society overall by subverting the perceived importance of human life and the duty to properly control one’s behavior and its consequences. In other words, I think it is our business.
I also believe that the ready availability of abortion has led to less sexual responsibility in the USA. I mean, it isn’t as if it is difficult to obtain condoms in NYC. Birth control is affordable and readily available. Good grief, any Catholic church can direct a couple to natural family planning that can effectively prevent pregnancy via temporary abstinence—and I am sure they would do so gratis. Are we that beyond self control we can’t take small steps to be responsible for our own sexuality?
If smokers can be subjected to peer pressure to abstain, why can’t the same be applied to reduce the abortion rate? We don’t have to be neutral. As a society, I think we should promote the choice of first, not getting pregnant unless you want to, and if that fails, birth. And pro-choicers, I think, have the greater obligation to speak out and take steps: After all, they are the ones who claim to want abortion to be safe, legal, and rare.
