What drives women to have abortions?

“The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.” — Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr

It can cost $30,000 USD to have a baby, not the kind of money a crisis pregnancy organisation would necessary have lying around to persuade an expectant mother to not have an abortion. Unfortunately in the West we’ve made cost of living expensive through big government. What big government has also done is destroy traditional family and community support. Big government replaces big family, thereby forcing women into feeling abortion is their only option. We’ve failed women as a society.

To make matters worse, here in Australia, adoption laws are too restrictive. Again, thank big gov. The US healthcare system is pretty ordinary even though they have one of the highest healthcare expenditures in the world. Medical debt is the number one reason people go bankrupt in the US. In any case, we should never criticise the women who have abortions. We should however heavily criticise the circumstances society has created for these women.

We need better and more pervasive sex ed in our schools and subsidised opt-in contraceptive options that’s safe, effective and long-term to reduce unwanted pregnancies. Men also need to be held more accountable — I’ve heard guys in the past gloat about how it feels better to not wear a condom. ‘Abstinence only’ will only lead to more abortions. I think criminalising/legalising early-term abortions will only drive those abortions underground (backyard abortions). We need to foster a culture of life, and get society on board with that. Only freedom, not authoritarianism, can give people their dignity.

Why is it good public policy to promote parenthood and bigger families? It’d bring back a sense of human personal community, thereby doing away with big government. You’d want big society, small government. As for parenthood, let’s move towards setting up a domestic abortion-adoption trading scheme, and that will address a lot of issues associated with abortion, IVF, surrogacy, overseas adoption etc.