Why abortion bans don't work

Why abortion bans don't work - and may have a counter-productive effect

For people who believe that controlling women and keeping them in their place is the key to morality and social order, this is going to painful to hear.

Jesus is a shepherd who GENTLY LEADS THOSE WHO ARE WITH YOUNG (Isaiah 40: 11)

Escalating coercion over women in the child-bearing age group will never bring down abortion rates, because such coercion is in violation of God's heart and the spiritual laws set out for us in Scripture.

In Ezekiel 34, we are warned:

"Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says to them, "See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away, I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered .... they will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from those who enslaved them ... they will live in safety and no one will make them afraid ... You my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are people, and I am the Lord your God, declares the Sovereign Lord."

In verse 14 it says, "they will lie down in good grazing land."

"Lie down" may refer to giving birth as well as to sleeping and resting.

As midwives we understand that for a healthy, progressing pregnancy, safe childbirth and happy adjustment to motherhood, it is vital that women are well-nourished, nurtured, supported, with minimal stress. This is true for all female mammals.

The stresses exerted on adult female humans in the world today are getting worse, if anything. Child-bearing women are facing unprecedented stress, and even (or especially) in developed countries, nutritional status is worse than ever, and food and food production has become increasingly industrialized. Birth trauma rates are likewise increasing as maternity services have become depersonalized and profit-based. USA has the highest maternal mortality rate of any industralized country.

Observe what happened in Romania, the only country to ever successfully implement a 100% total abortion ban. 

Observe what happens when the ability of a government to coerce, control and penalize child-bearing women is escalated:

What Actually Happens When a Country Bans Abortion - Romania under Ceausescu created a dystopian horror of overcrowded, filthy orphanages, and thousands died from back-alley abortions.

The Total Abortion Ban in Nicaragua - women's lives and health endangered, medical professionals criminalized.

Notice how the 8 Recommendations at the end of this report fit with the concept of reducing oppression of child-bearing women in order to reduce abortions - and miscarriage - and infant and maternal mortality:

8 RECOMMENDATIONS

 
Amnesty International urges the Nicaraguan authorities to:

- Repeal Articles 143, 145, 148 and 149 of the Penal Code and decriminalize abortion in
all circumstances. Women and girls must not be subject to criminal sanctions for seeking or
obtaining an abortion under any circumstances;

- Reform legislation to allow for therapeutic abortion in cases of pregnancy resulting from
rape or incest and in circumstances where continuation of pregnancy would put the health or
life of the woman or girl at risk. The reforms must ensure that safe abortion is accessible
without unreasonable restrictions;

- Ensure that medical professionals are not criminally sanctioned for providing safe
abortion services;

- Ensure all institutions promote and strengthen awareness and implementation of the
Obstetric Protocols when treating obstetric complications;

- Remove the legal obligation, and any practical obstacles, that compel women and girls
who are pregnant as a result of rape or incest to continue involuntarily with the pregnancy;

- Undertake immediate law reform to ensure rape victims have access to comprehensive
remedies including counselling, medical care and psycho-social and legal support in line with
World Health Organization guidelines and ensure they are fully supported to make free and
informed decisions on how to manage the consequences of rape, including continuation or
termination of a pregnancy;

- Ensure full investigations into cases of suicide of girls or women of reproductive age to
establish whether unwanted pregnancy was a contributing factor;

- Ensure women and men receive and have access to contraceptive services and
information in order to make informed choices about sex and reproduction, free from
coercion and discrimination;

- Increase the provision of antenatal, maternity and postnatal services and assistance and
support for parenting;

- Ensure human rights defenders and medical professionals campaigning to raise
awareness of the negative impact of the revised law and to promote and defend the human
rights of women and girls are able to carry out their legitimate work without restrictions or
fear of reprisals, in accordance with the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.

Banning abortions is a lazy, quick fix to an issue everyone feels strongly about. Nobody WANTS to end a pregnancy. But then, nobody WANTS unwanted or obligatory sexual contact, either. And nobody WANTS to be so exploited and oppressed that continuing a pregnancy could be the financial tipping point that turns the whole family onto the street and into destitution.


"But can't we just ban abortions and just stop those bad girls and evil women from murdering poor innocent babies?"

The slow, hard, tedious, complex, multi-factorial, exhausting way to reduce abortion right down to a very sadly necessary minimum is the way proven to be most effective: stop beating the ewes. Address structural injustice.  Establish equality, autonomy and safety for child-bearing women. Delete porn and end rape culture. Tackle institutional misogyny and sexism, including within religious creeds and doctrines.

You can try to fix the problem with sweeping laws and righteous sounding rhetoric and sermons. But it won't work. This is proven by international example. This is warned against by every international body of knowledge and experience in child and maternal health.

Most importantly, God shows us in his word that escalating coercion culture over the birthing population is not his heart and not his will.

The slow, complex, tedious way might be the hard way .... but it's the right way.

Do just, love mercy, walk humbly.