For some reason, I heard a lot of chatter about abortion this week.  Probably due to the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade.  One line of discussion I heard was the disproportionate number of African-Americans choosing abortion over other categories of women.  There was also more discussion about “ownership” (I suppose along the lines that parents “own” their children, thus they can decide whether or not to have them — I’m not sure, I only caught bits and pieces of these discussions).  I suppose that came into play based upon the historical aspect of  slavery and how it impacts the African-American community.  I’m not particularly interested in that line of reasoning.  Here’s why.

Every woman who decides to have an abortion does so for some reason.  In many cases, if the abortion is not legal, the woman will find a way to get the procedure done.  This isn’t speculation — it’s well-documented fact.  Outlawing abortion isn’t the answer.

Ensuring young girls and women find themselves in an environment where they make a choice other than abortion is the answer.  In some cases, a better response would be to raise women who value themselves and their unborn children and know there’s a place for them in the world.  If that place isn’t with the biological mom, then it needs to be with an adoptive family — or the biological dad.

WHY are women getting abortions?  Look deeper than a superficial answer.  Find a preventative solution.  Ideally, women who don’t want to get pregnant should be taking appropriate preventive precautions.  That requires knowledge, availability, and social approval of preventive measures.  Ideally, girls and women not involved in a relationship where children would be a welcome addition to the family unit wouldn’t be having sex — or would be engaging effective preventative measures.

Like outlawing abortion, “just saying no” isn’t really feasible.  Years of evidence indicates abstinence only goes so far — especially in the 12-30+ age range.  It’s nice to say.  It’s admirable to achieve, but it isn’t working for everyone, and social pressure to be abstinent can result in “taking chances” to appear be abstinent.

I mentioned earlier the need for women to value themselves.  Too often, girls and women will let their bodies be used by men who don’t value them either because they think that’s what they’re supposed to do, or they think that’s how they’ll achieve value in the world.  Or, maybe they believe a baby will love them — and people will go to a lot of lengths to be loved.  Of course, someone getting pregnant so a baby will love them is unlikely to abort that baby, so we’re veering a little off topic here.  It’s a related issue, but not relevant to the discussion.

I hypothesize that many women and girls getting abortions believe they’re doing the best thing for the child — and, perhaps for themselves.  They know the world they’re living in doesn’t have a bright future.  They may not have a bright future.  They may not want to be burdened with the responsibility.  There are a lot of variants on the theme, but it boils down to the girl or woman not valuing herself or her unborn child.

If girls and women valued themselves and their unborn children, would they get an abortion?  I suggest far fewer of them would.  So, if we divert the money and effort being expended by all sides to either keep abortion legal or make it illegal toward efforts to create an environment where women and girls didn’t WANT abortion, wouldn’t everyone be better off?