The abortion straw man arguments

Women's rights aren’t under attack, potential life and ordered liberty are.

“Note to everyone: In order to get an abortion, you have to get banged,” tweeted Christian Walker, son of Herschel Walker, after a draft decision to overturn Roe v Wade by Justice Samuel Alito was leaked to the press. Granted, a bit crass but a reminder nonetheless that sex and pregnancy involve multiple parties. The SCOTUS has articulated that abortion involves two interests: the woman and as Roe and Casey acknowledged and termed - the “fetal and potential life.”  There’s also the man in all this.

Pro-abortion advocates narrowly focus on a woman’s right to the exclusion of the others. That doesn’t seem fair.

Yet after the leak, the shouts for women’s rights rang loud from, ironically, the party that won’t define the word “woman.” Kamala Harris said Roe v Wade “at its root, protects the fundamental right to privacy." President Biden declared that “a women’s right to choose is fundamental” based on the 14th Amendment’s concept of personal liberty. Nancy Pelosi warned the decision would “inflict the greatest restriction of rights in the past fifty years.” MSNBC’s Joy Reid said Republicans are waging “war on women’s bodies” which “are no longer their own, but state properties.” Stacey Abrams, who’s running for Governor of Georgia, said women have the “right to choose, the right to dignity, welfare and our health” and the “moral certainty is you’re talking about women’s lives.”  

These righteous claims cast pro-life advocates and Republicans as evil suppressors stripping away a woman's constitutional right to privacy. It is the left’s biggest justification but also a flawed straw man argument. A straw man argument is a rhetorical misrepresentation of an opponent’s position so it’s easier to attack and stir emotion with fervent statements, like VP Harris’ words evoking Greta Thunberg: “How dare you!” 

How dare conservatives be so cruel to women?! How dare they force a woman who’s been raped to carry that child as a constant reminder of the torment? How dare they force a teenage girl to have a child and take away her youth?! Tough and painful situations no doubt, though it’s not guaranteed the births of those babies will ultimately be a curse. 

I’m anti-abortion, and I don’t view this decision as gutting woman’s rights. We need to consider the decision in the context of all the parties involved. There’s a name for this. It’s called “ordered liberty,” which Alito’s decision makes clear has been stripped from the people.  

“Ordered liberty sets limits and defines the boundary between competing interests,” Alito wrote. While Roe and Casey in their cases balanced the rights between the woman and “potential life,” Alito pointed out so accurately that “the people of the various states may evaluate those interests differently.”

Indeed they will as 26 states “expressly asked this Court to overrule Roe and Casey and allow the States to regulate or prohibit pre-viability abortions,” wrote Alito.

State power is the heart of the democratic process

The court is giving this issue back to the legislature, initially at the state level and maybe in time at the federal level. Taking abortion power away from unelected judges and returning them to the legislative bodies is nothing but democratic. It enhances civic engagement and encourages people to vote. And clearly that process is at work.

Abortion will very likely remain available in at least half the country, and in the states already conducting much of the abortion procedures. Of the top dozen states where abortions are most frequenty, at least seven are preparing or have already set in motion laws to protect it. 

About 15% of the nation’s abortions are performed in California, a state that represents 12% of the population. California is working to become a sanctuary state for those seeking abortions. The state’s abortion count is much higher than New York, according to  Guttmacher, an advocate for abortion rights. For its part, New York topped the list of states that submitted abortion data in 2019, according to the CDC. Those states include: Illinois, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. 

In 2019, New York became the first state to codify the right to abortion and end the ban on abortion after 24 weeks. Connecticut Governor Lamont on May 5, 2022 signed laws protecting those providing and receiving abortions in their state and for those fleeing other states. Illinois’ Governor JB Pritzker signed a law keeping abortion legal should Roe v Wade be overturned. In Nevada, Governor Steve Sisolak said abortion would remain legal until 24 weeks of pregnancy should Roe be overturned. In Massachusetts, the state Senate codified abortion access into law in 2020. In NJ, Governor Phil Murphy signed a law in early 2022 making abortions legal. Two things are notable in all these moves, the first is that this is the legislature at work and although I don’t agree with the policy, it is the current will of the people as expressed by the people they’ve elected - if the people want change they can vote them out! The second notable is how many people clearly expected Roe to be overturned! It clearly wasn’t going to hold forever, and at least now we can get on with the post-Roe world we all knew was coming.

Half ofstates will have restrictions, like Florida, where abortion will be banned after 15 weeks starting July 2022. It may also be the case that bans continue to narrow the allowable time frame to six or even five weeks as science advances and our perspective on “potential life” becomes increasingly refined. But restrictive abortion policy doesn’t mean zero opportunities, just parameters to keep it, as Bill Clinton once said, “rare.”

I think most Americans would prefer it if abortions were “rare.”

Most Americans support a ban after 5 weeks! 

Some 58% of Americans want to ban abortions after a heartbeat can be detected, which is around five to six weeks, according to a 2021 Gallup poll. Importantly, more people have consistently believed abortion to be morally wrong every year since 2000. 

Pro-abortionists like to mislead popular opinion by amplifying stats that 80% of Americans support abortion and that 58% don’t want Roe v Wade to be overturned. But a closer look at the 80% show more than half, or 48%, want to limit abortion to only certain circumstances while 19% want to ban abortion altogether. 

A WSJ poll shows that 50% of voters want bans on abortion after 15 weeks, or essentially limited to the first trimester. These numbers do not showcase a country overwhelmingly for all types of abortion. In fact, despite the establishment of Roe v Wade, 66% of respondents in the Gallup poll said they were somewhat or very dissatisfied with the nation’s policies regarding abortion, suggesting abortion remains contentious despite the existence of Roe as federal law.  

Regardless of where decisions fall at the state level, laws will never comport with everyone’s view of what’s right or fair.

Reasonable people argue that abortion puts women and men on the same biological playing field. Men have the choice to walk away from pregnancy and have consequenceless sex . There are countless anecdotal stories of men who neglect their duties as fathers. It’s no wonder the number of abortions of unmarried women is eight times greater than married ones. Too many men abdicate their responsibilities, isn’t it only fair that women have the same right and ability to make independent choices?

Phrased in that way, it seems the answer is yes. But it is a vindictive way of looking at a problem. In other words, if men can disown their responsibility shouldn't women have the right to shirk that duty as well?

By making this particular choice solely a burden for a woman to bear, society distances men from the very obligations women want them to honor. When men walk away from commitment (for economic and/or lifestyle reasons), they’re largely displaying the worst versions of themselves. Unfortunately, abortion does the same for women, which is why these decisions are heart wrenching and painful. Underneath it all women know they’re abandoning some trust and killing a part of themselves. 

 Sadly, many women ignore the truth that a life is destroyed during an abortion. They provide harrowing reasons why their position is justified even though these situations are rare. Less than 3% of abortions are conducted to save a woman’s life; less than 1% are due to rape; and less than 1% of babies are stillborn. The vast majority, or about 75% of the time for the mainly 20-30 yr old demographic aborting kids, the reasons are economic and lifestyle: lacking finances, readiness and a partner. 

The second straw man

Politicians meanwhile ignore the truth about life to make yet another straw man argument that reversing Roe puts all past progressive decisions on a slippery slope, a poor attempt to distract attention from the weakness of Roe itself. 

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said: [The court] isn’t just coming for abortion – they’re coming for the right to privacy Roe rests on, which includes gay marriage and civil rights.” 

She’s wrong.  Alito differentiates interracial marriage, contraceptives, consensual sex, same-sex marriage because abortion “destroys what those decisions called ‘fetal life’” whereas the others, such as marriage involve two consenting parties and the freedom of those individuals to pursue happiness. Ironically, the very life the left wants to ignore is the very one that protects the other rights.

Abortion has been an answer for some people and it will continue to be available. Maybe making it a little harder isn’t such a bad thing if it means society will start having broader discussions and asking the right questions: How do we get men to be more responsible? How do we teach sex to be something a little more sacred? How do we prevent unintended pregnancies in the first place? How do we provide economic and societal support to women who need it? 

Restrictions are the basis for many laws and it limits the broadening of individual rights. Ordered liberty prevents one person from acting on the basis of their own beliefs to the exclusion of other parties involved. Attacking that liberty and “potential life” by shouting “My body! My choice!” won’t lift women’s burdens, it will just leave them alone and make their burden heavier.