Overturning Roe v. Wade Won’t Stop Abortion (But These Other Tactics Might)

I grew up as Christian as it gets. My dad was the pastor of an evangelical megachurch, I was homeschooled, and I graduated from one of the most conservative Christian universities in the country.

My faith, as I experienced it, was a package deal—religion, lifestyle, and politics—and being pro-life was part of all three, which is why I was a single-issue voter for nearly a decade and would’ve listed overturning Roe v. Wade as a top political priority.

In one of my college classes, I was taught how to defend my pro-life stance. The professor spoke passionately about the unborn’s right to life and showed us horrific images of aborted babies. He taught deductive arguments to help us convince pro-choicers that abortion was unjust and directly implied that peope who support abortion rights are murderers who hate babies. He compared abortion to the Holocaust and told us it was our Christian duty to stop it.  

So for the next 9 years, I voted pro-life all the way down my ballot hoping the people I voted for would find a way to ban abortion. Because what could be more important than saving babies?

Then, several years ago, during a time of intense spiritual growth and personal learning, I realized something: Both sides of this issue are failing in the same way—they are both sacrificing the lives of women and children for the sake of principal.

It was spring, 2016 and I was in graduate school studying international community development at a Christian university near Seattle. As research for my degree, I attended a global conference about maternal and child health where I knew my beliefs about reproductive rights would be challenged. 

On the first night of the conference, there was a panel featuring a well-known reproductive rights activist. As I was about to enter the auditorium that evening, I stopped abruptly just outside the doors, causing the woman behind me to crash into me. I muttered an apology but didn’t move. A battle was raging inside my head about how openly or skeptically I was going to listen to the panel. I stood there, holding my program, creating a traffic jam, arguing with myself like Smeagol.

Abortion is wrong! 

Then why are they so passionate about protecting it? I don’t understand.

There is no justification for killing innocent babies!

But surely none of these compassionate, smart women would argue that you should kill innocent babies… 

I decided I must be missing something. This panel would be a simple fact-finding mission. Facts are neutral, right? I walked in and took a seat.

The panel spoke passionately about reproductive rights and the plight of women who don’t have access to abortion. They told tragic stories of little girls who were forced to give birth to babies as a result of rape and incest and the panelists presented deductive arguments for why it was unjust to take away women’s choice. They implied that anyone who doesn’t support abortion is cruel and hates women. One speaker compared the pro-life movement to slavery and told us that it was our duty as women to fight for reproductive rights.

It was an eerily familiar call to arms. Just on the other side.

Then the reproductive rights advocate spoke up. She began, “What the anti-abortion movement doesn’t seem to understand is that…” 

I sat up straighter. I knew I was missing something! What?! What don’t I understand?

“Banning abortion doesn’t decrease abortions,” she continued. “In fact, when access to abortion is restricted the number of abortions often goes up.”

Wait. What? My brain stuttered. 

She went on to explain that when abortion is banned, access to free birth control typically goes down with it. Clinics that provide free basic healthcare are often closed, making it more difficult and more expensive to give birth and care for an unplanned child. States that ban abortion often don’t require sexual education in schools, or if they do, have programs that stress abstinence-only which means young people know less about sex, less about their bodies, and less about pregnancy prevention… resulting in higher unplanned and teenage pregnancy rates in states that restrict abortion. 

And since women are resourceful and determined, if they believe they cannot have a baby, they will not have that baby. They turn to illegal, back-alley procedures. Abortion rates go up and women die (roughly 23,000 every year).

It also turns out effective strategies for dramatically decreasing abortion rates are well-documented: Provide free birth control (this alone has been shown to decrease abortion rates by 62 to 78 percent!) Make basic healthcare affordable and accessible. Provide comprehensive sex education. Address underlying issues of race and poverty (the most common reason women give for wanting an abortion is that they can’t afford to raise a child). The list goes on, but you get the idea.

And yet, I never learned any of these more effective ways to prevent abortion and save babies while being taught to defend my pro-life stance. That was the moment I realized that neither side of this issue is getting what they want because they’re going about it all wrong. 

They’re both spending all their time and energy yelling from their soapbox, rather than trying to figure out how to actually achieve their goal.

Pro-lifers insist on arguing that abortion should be banned because abortion is wrong—rather than trying to practically decrease the number of abortions that are being performed by using methods proven to be effective. It begs the question: Do they actually want to save babies? Or do they just want to make a statement about the morality of abortion? Because if they really want to save babies, why aren’t they using strategies that actually work?

Pro-choicers, on the other hand, insist on arguing that abortion should be legal because restricting women’s control over their bodies is wrong—rather than using arguments that could actually get people on their side, like how access to certain social services decreases the number of abortions. It begs the question: Do they actually want to improve women’s lives? Or do they just want to make a statement about the morality of abortion? Because if they really want to give women more control over their bodies, wouldn’t they use strategies that actually work?

Look. No one believes that abortion is the optimal choice. In fact, the vast majority of us would agree that the absolute best-case scenario is that no one ever gets pregnant with a child they don’t want, can’t care for, can’t afford, can’t healthily carry, or who won’t survive the pregnancy. 

But overturning Roe v. Wade and making abortion illegal won’t get us there. And neither will accusing people of hating women or hating babies. 

So let’s work together toward that goal by using effective methods that protect women and children instead of dying on our soapboxes and calling people names. 

It’s time to choose...

Do we want to make a moral statement? 

Or do we actually want to save babies and help women?

I pray that the Supreme Court will choose to save babies and help women. That they will abandon this ineffective war on abortion rights and focus their efforts on loving the women and children in our country by providing free birth control, affordable healthcare, comprehensive sexual education, and a realistic plan to address poverty and hunger in America.

For the sake of women and babies, I hope you will too.