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Gifts for all occasions in the Galleria! The "What is the Deal?" Deal-of-the-Week: Save 70% on Hotels at LastMinuteTravel.com July 10, 2005 Abortion: Pros and Cons By Jan A. Larson With the resignation of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor from the Supreme Court, both sides in the abortion debate are jockeying for position in an attempt to influence the selection of O'Connor's replacement. The 1973 Roe v. Wade decision is arguably the most controversial decision ever handed down by the Court. Supporters are wringing their hands that a shift in the court might result in Roe being overturned. Opponents are hoping for just that. This missive is an attempt, feeble as it may be, to cut through the rhetoric on both sides of this debate and discuss this issue from an analytical viewpoint. The term abortion, as used here, refers only to those abortions that do not involve pregnancies resulting from rape, incest, etc. or are performed in order to save a woman's life. I refer to those that wish to maintain the status quo as "pro-Roe" and not "pro-choice." I find that term diminishes the gravity of the issue, reducing it to nothing more than a decision akin to plain or peanut. Of course, that is what supporters of that position prefer - promoting the notion that the decision to abort a pregnancy is no different than choosing a flavor of ice cream. Likewise, I will refer to the "pro-life" position as "anti-Roe" as I honestly do not believe anyone is anti-life. I also assert that the anti-Roe side does a disservice to their cause when referring to the other side as "pro-abortion." I will offer that none but the most insensitive, when faced with the decision, eagerly seek to have an abortion. Having no first-hand experience, I can only surmise that doing just about anything would be preferable to a visit to a clinic for the purposes of an abortion. Just what are the pros and cons of legalized abortion? There are of course many cons, paramount of which is the death of a human being before he or she can draw first breath. The pro-Roe supporters argue that a "fetus" is not a human being. This basically comes down to semantics, but I will point out that every one of those supporters was also a fetus at one point in time. There is also little doubt that most women that have abortions, again other than the most selfish and callous, eventually suffer emotional repercussions. Their lives are forever changed. Two lives (at least) are negatively affected by every abortion. Are there positives to legalized abortion? The pro-Roe position is that legalized abortion gives women control over the reproductive decision and fear that a reversal of Roe v. Wade would restrict the right of a woman to choose when she has a child. The problem with this position is that women had the right and ability to choose long before Roe and continue to have that right today. That "choice" is made several months before a woman is faced with the prospect of an abortion, if you know what I mean. Legalized abortion allows a "mistake" that could have been avoided in the first place, to simply be wiped away. No fuss, no muss. In the book Freakonomics, economist Steven D. Levitt makes the case that the legalization of abortion beginning in 1973 has a very strong statistical correlation and may explain the dramatic drop in crime rates in the 1990s. Levitt cites studies that indicate that the women most likely to have abortions post-Roe were the women least likely to be able to provide a secure home environment for a child. It is children that grow up in such environments that are most likely to turn to a life of crime. Levitt's analysis, however, concludes that even if one could assign a value of 100 fetuses to equal the value of one newborn, the annual "cost" of legalized abortion is 15,000 lives, far more than the number of homicides "saved" by legalized abortion. On balance, it would seem that the loss of life and the emotional scars carried by women (and their families) that have abortions outweigh the benefits of reduced crime (if there is a direct cause and effect) and the convenience of "cleaning up a mess" of a poor decision. For all the rhetoric and hyperbole on both sides of this issue, there can never be a middle ground to the abortion debate. Those that believe that abortion is murder will never believe otherwise. Those that believe that having an abortion is a woman's "right" and that a "fetus" is just tissue aren't likely to change their views either, at least not until it is too late. While it is undeniably true that many aborted babies would not be born into situations conducive to a full and productive life, the bottom line is that a society, such as ours, that values life is diminished when life may be terminated so easily. -- Send feedback to the author. The "What is the Deal?" column will appears weekly on the Pie of Knowledge website. Guest submissions are welcome and encouraged. To submit an article to "What is the Deal?" click here. To subscribe to the "What is the Deal?" mailing list and receive early notification when a new column is available, click here. The Pie of Knowledge will never, ever divulge email addresses to any third party for any reason unless so ordered by a court of law. Contributions to the Pie of Knowledge are greatly appreciated. 
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