The History of Abortion Support

The incessant gnashing of teeth over the purported impending overturning of Roe v. Wade seems to be driven by the oft quoted statistics suggesting overwhelming public opposition to overturning Roe. But does anyone bring up the level of support for abortion just prior to the release of the Roe decision?

Honestly, I’ve searched but cannot fund such polling data. Maybe the technology didn’t exist in 1973 to obtain statistically significant numbers, or perhaps society just assumed that killing babies was untenable and didn’t require a ridiculous survey to determine that. (How many surveys are out today to assess people’s acceptance of pedophilia, after all?)

Pre-Roe, We do know that at least 30 states prohibited abortion outright, with nearly all the others severely limiting abortion to extreme instances, New York being the exception. Unlimited abortion, we can assume, was extremely unpopular just prior to Roe.

The law, it is said, is a powerful teacher. What is legal is often mistaken for what’s moral. There is also the effect of becoming inured to the current millieu, forgetting the values that we took for granted only a generation ago.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3791164/

https://www.guttmacher.org/gpr/2003/03/lessons-roe-will-past-be-prologue

I’m not an advocate of abortion at all, but these figures seem very balanced. I’ve seen far worse statistics used to defend abortion.

The second article provides a lot of historical context.

It seems clear to me the pragmatic arguments for legal abortion existed before the advent of antibiotics and the ability to deliver a live baby before 16 weeks... the purpose of legal abortion was to reduce the prolific injury and death rates of women getting “backstreet” abortions. And not all backstreet abortions were wanted by the women who had them.

I had a grandmother who was forced to have a backstreet abortion by her employer (she was a domestic and the master of the house ploughed his way through the help). Having been forcibly dispossessed of her baby she was thrown on the street for “tempting him.” Like she could’ve said no.

Many anti abortion folks like me would be quite happy to see some limitations IF there’s a way to prevent any return of those despicable practices.

Now, congratulations on the USA overturning RvW but that isn’t ‘mission accomplished’. Babies don’t just die from chemical abortion. There are other ways to kill a fetus.

Daddy punching mummy in the gut can do the same job. A lack of ability to pay for good healthcare during pregnancy can kill the unborn kid. Both these can kill mommy as well as baby.

Death penalty for anyone forcing a woman to have an abortion against her will? I’m fine with that. Universal healthcare throughout pregnancy and for the first 2 years of a baby’s life? That’d also be good.

I mean, what’s the point of outlawing abortion if you just enable the killing of the mother and/or baby by other avenues?

I don’t thing abortion was ever POPULAR, so much as it remains an ugly fact of life throughout the world. Only destigmatization of single parenthood, poverty reduction, vastly improved antenatal healthcare access, and medical advancements render it obsolete.

Think of it like alcohol prohibition, or prohibiting cannabis. You want to stop people using the practice, not move it out of sight. So you need to address the causes of use, not just ban the consumption.

I’m a libertarian. A better solution to banning any product is to create the circumstances where people don’t ever “need” let alone “want” the product. Sometimes that means, you just need a mass market alternative.

What “products” can make abortion seem like an unnecessary solution to a nonexistent problem? Condoms. The Pill. The Morning After Pill. Humane surrogacy and adoption processes. Guaranteed healthcare support for expectant mums and their babies. Not expecting women to make a binary choice between career and motherhood.

It’s not rocket science.

The problem with the left’s dictates is that whatever is Permitted, they deem as an open door for Promotion. And now it’s become Prioritized - 4 “P’s”. So, society ends up subsidizing abortions with taxpayer money, your money and my money, just because it’s “permitted“.

If it does nothing else, having jurisdictions which choose to criminalize abortion will be a safeguard against promotion. Even a few states which do this is a powerful bulwark against the forces of darkness - Nationwide.

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