Pro-life Republicans are also failing on the abortion issue in believing that by overturning Roe v. Wade there will no longer be abortions. To outlaw abortion would only reduce the number of legal abortions, not the total number of abortions. In fact, the countries with the highest abortion rates are predominantly Roman Catholic, where all abortions are illegal, and few social services are available. The two countries with the lowest abortion rates are the relatively secular and liberal countries of the Netherlands and Belgium, where abortions are legal but where society takes very seriously its support for single mothers and the poor.
Let's face it, there will never be zero abortions. Half the women who have an abortion were using birth control already - there are no perfect methods or perfect people. If Roe v. Wade were overturned and states were all to ban the procedure, as many Republicans desire, not only would there still be abortions, but more women would die of complications from poorly performed "back-alley" procedures. Low-income women would be the ones most likely to die, as they are less likely to have access to health care, or the funds necessary to obtain a safe abortion. Making abortions illegal would mean returning to a discriminatory system in which well-off women would have access to safer abortions, and poorer women would not.
So, what should Democrats do to counter the Republicans? Bill Clinton was right in saying that abortions should be "safe, legal, and rare". Democrats should go public with a new platform that sympathizes with the pro-life position, and states a desire to work together across party lines towards abortion prevention while preserving a woman’s right to choose.
Democrats, indeed, should "make every effort that women live in a world where abortions are rare because they have the support they need to prevent most unintended pregnancies, and to carry to term those that do".
Democrats should publicly contrast themselves with those who consider themselves pro-life, and profess their belief in a "culture of life", all the while advocating for the reduction of social services for women to adequately, safely, and healthily carry a pregnancy and raise their usually fatherless child. Yes, ideally, every baby conceived should be a wanted child, but then, ideally, our society must assure that every wanted child has a chance at a decent life.
Democrats should publicly agitate for greater federal and state supports for single mothers. Society must protect women from poverty, inadequate health care, jobs without flexible schedules, lack of affordable daycare, limited access to contraception and sex education, and fathers who don’t take financial and emotional responsibility for their children. Once a single mother decides not to have an abortion, she should be comforted in her decision by knowing that she'll have access to paid maternity leave, health care for her and for her baby, decent housing, quality child care, and a living wage with tax credits to help her and her newborn child have a decent life.
Democrats should publicly push for making adoptions easier, and for making sex education and birth control more available, all the while stressing that sex is best reserved for an adult monogamous relationship. Comprehensive sex education programs that recommend abstinence, stress responsibility, and teach teens how to use contraception have proven effectiveness at delaying the onset of sexual activity in teens, and increasing contraception use when they become sexually active.
The best way to reduce abortions is to reduce unwanted pregnancies. Most Americans have the good common sense to know that preaching abstinence-only has not worked, and will not work. Abortion rates are estimated at half today what they were during the Leave It To Beaver era Republicans idealize, when sex education and talk of contraception was taboo.
Most Americans who oppose abortions also have the good common sense to not actually want abortion criminalized; they just want the numbers reduced, and for the issue to be recognized as important. By recognizing this, Democrats would become the party of common sense.
By first welcoming, and honoring the beliefs of those who believe with all their heart that life begins at conception, those pro-choice can example a willingness to work together across differences to reduce the need and numbers of abortions. Isn’t this what everybody wants?
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