We began this week’s articles with an astounding research result that 83% of all Americans, including 80% of those who identify as pro-choice, support the work of pregnancy resource centers.
We concluded that this means there is an important area of common ground where both Right to Choose (RTC) believers and Right to Life (RTL) believers could work together on a common cause for the common good.
After all, based on the results of the research study we analyzed this week, “The Effects of Abortion Decision Rightness and Decision Type on Women’s Satisfaction and Mental Health,” (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37303450/) which revealed that 60% of women who had abortions would have preferred to give birth but needed more emotional support and financial security to do so, it’s no secret what the Right to Choose and Right to Life camps need to work on together.
Women tell us very plainly what they need: more emotional support from others, and more financial security.
Additionally, we saw in the report that 24% of the women who had abortions said that the abortion was unwanted or coerced, and an additional 43% of the women said that their abortions were not consistent with their values or preferences.
We determined that there would be very few Americans who would want to force a woman who would prefer to give birth to have an abortion instead.
Therefore, it is clear that a large majority of Americans would consider it an injustice towards women that 67% of them are terminating their pregnancies when they don’t actually want to.
The question I would like to pose to you today is, since this is a matter of solving an injustice towards women, what role, if any, should the government play?
After all, if we are correct in the belief we developed in yesterday’s article that terminating a pregnancy does not support a woman’s flourishing, uphold her dignity, or foster the common good, it seems to me that if the government’s primary role is to advance the common good of its citizens, then yes, governments should also join with both Right to Choose and Right to Life camps to work on solving this injustice towards women.
Exactly how they should do that is beyond the scope of a short article, but suffice it to say that federal and many state governments have for decades contributed significant funding to organizations and programs that support the Right to Choose camp.
And also, some state governments contribute significant funding to organizations that support the Right to Life camp.
So my suggestion would be that both the federal government and all state governments should be very willing to participate in a joint effort with both Right to Choose and Right to Life believers to fund initiatives that advance a woman’s Right to Support (RTS).
In a woman’s Right to Support we find common ground for all three groups, Right to Choose, Right to Life, and government, to work for a common cause that advances the common good.
Regards,
Brett Attebery