Abortion in America (no soap box)

I've often heard these statements from supporters of abortion. "It should be legal, but rare" or "It is always a hard decision to make". I'm not going to argue a point of view in this post, but I do want to point out the disingenuous nature of these two comments. First, if there is nothing wrong with abortion and it is just a clump of cells, why is it a hard choice and why should it be rare? At least the other side of this issue is consistent in their arguments, at least in regards to abortion, although perhaps not in regards to life since many of them also support the death penalty, also disingenuous if you are going to call yourself a Right to lifer. I'd much prefer people to be consistent. Either be against the death penalty and against abortion or don't use right-to-life. In addition, say you are for abortion and for the death penalty or stop claiming you aren't a hypocrite. After all, to be for abortion and against the death penalty seems to suggest that the life of a violent criminal is more important than "potential" life. Nonetheless, I digress. I found some interesting statistics recently. They didn't exactly match, although they were close. Basically, this statistic explain the basic reason why women in the U.S. have abortions.

According to the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform:
1% of all abortions occur because of rape or incest; 6% of abortions occur because of potential health problems regarding either the mother or child, and 93% of all abortions occur for social reasons (i.e. the child is unwanted or inconvenient).

The Central Illinois Right to Life group make the same assertion this way:
The overwhelming majority of all abortions, (95%), are done as a means of birth control.
* Only 1% are performed because of rape or incest;
* 1% because of fetal abnormalities;
* 3% due to the mother's health problems.

And finally, William Robert Johnston makes this case on his website:
Actual percentage of U.S. abortions in "hard cases" are estimated as follows: in cases of rape or incest, 0.3%; in cases of risk to maternal health or life, 1%; and in cases of fetal abnormality, 0.5%. About 98% of abortions in the United States are elective, including socio-economic reasons or for birth control. This includes perhaps 30% for primarily economic reasons.

This is all very interesting in a way. There are many people who do struggle with abortion in cases of rape, incest, fetal abnormality, mother's health, etc. In fact, I know a true story about parents who had two young children at home and had a third on the way. The birth became problematical due to breech and other issues putting the life of the mother in danger. The father was actually asked to choose between the two (a horrible choice if there ever was one) and decided to save the mother, if it came to that. Fortunately, it did not and that third child was born. In addition, bringing a child into this world who might live for a year or two and have little to no quality of life would be a tough decision for anyone, I submit, even the most ardent abortion opponent. However, these are clear moral gray areas. Are there moral gray areas involved in what the statistics above refer to as elective abortions? I'm not going to judge other people's decisions or beliefs. But I think the two opening statements, that it is a hard decision and that it should be rare suggest that even the most ardent abortion supporters find a moral gray area in any abortion. However, with the current number of annual abortions in the U.S. exceeding 1 million, estimated to be between 1.2 and 1.3 million, let's now look at those statistics above. Say we make the claim that the moral gray areas, mother's health, baby's health and rape or incest are to remain legal while we say that using abortion as a means of birth control for unwanted, inconvenient or unaffordable children is no longer legal. What does that do with the overall number.

In the three sets of statistics, the numbers are different, but oddly similar. In reality, thee difference is probably not what one would call statistically significant. The first one gives us a number of 7% (morally gray) and 93% (socio-economic). The second one gives us the number 5% (morally gray) and 95% (socio-economic). The final one lowers it even more with 2% (morally gray) and 98% (socio-economic). So, if we follow the logic above and declare that abortion is not birth control, 1.2 million abortions become: 84000, 60000 and 24000 respectively. So, at the largest number, it would take 14 or more years to equal the number of abortions performed in this country per year. Hmm...

Just food for thought.