Abortion activists are pushing data from a recent study to claim that women need abortions to succeed financially.
On Thursday, the pro-abortion group Progressive Congress is hosting an event in Washington, D.C. to push abortion as a necessary component of women’s economic well-being, according to the Guardian. Their message relies on data from a much talked about pro-abortion study from the University of California San Francisco. The Turnaway Study compared groups of women who had abortions to those who were turned away from abortion clinics and gave birth to their children.
The New York Magazine explains more about the study:
[T]he nonprofit policy group Progressive Congress and the Congressional Progressive Caucus are hosting the event, which will spotlight the fact that although universal access to contraceptives, abortion, and family-planning services has been proved again (and again) to enhance women’s economic prospects, lawmakers continue to sideline the issue of unwanted pregnancies (a major reason why women enter poverty in the first place). …
Abortion access and a woman’s potential wealth are inextricably linked: A recent study [Turnaway Study] of 1,000 women seeking abortions found a “profound” connection between lack of abortion access and the effects on a woman’s life. Forty percent of respondents wanted an abortion for financial reasons, and women who ended up keeping unwanted pregnancies were more likely to live in poverty.
Maggie Jo Buchanan, an associate director at the Center for American Progress, said discussions about economic disparities between women and men should include abortion access, according to the Guardian. She blamed “unwanted pregnancies” for keeping women from achieving the same financial success that many men do.
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“In order for women to be truly equal with men, they need the same opportunities in life,” Buchanan said. “Not only does that include the same financial opportunities—such as equal pay for equal work—but also the ability to have control over their bodies and health care decisions. In order to achieve broad economic security and help women exit and stay out of poverty, policymakers must ensure that women have meaningful access to comprehensive health care—not the limited coverage that is the current Republican agenda.”
In other words, women can never be equal to men unless they have free and easy access to a medical procedure that kills their unborn children.
The messaging fits in with abortion activists’ increasing demands for taxpayer funded abortions. Planned Parenthood and other abortion groups have been focusing their efforts on overturning the Hyde Amendment, which has long protected Americans from funding most abortions. Upheld by the Supreme Court, the Hyde Amendment is now a target of abortion advocates who have moved from pro-choice to pro-abortion — forcing Americans not only to accept unlimited abortions before birth but also to pay for them. Hillary Clinton promised to overturn Hyde and force taxpayers to fund abortions if she is elected president.
The link between poverty and abortion has been a focus of the pro-life movement, too. However, pro-lifers do not believe that killing an unborn baby is a solution to poverty any more than killing a baby outside the womb is. That’s why pregnancy resource centers, adoption agencies, maternity homes and other pro-life organizations work to provide pregnant and parenting women with the resources they need to succeed and raise their children. And unlike the abortion industry, pro-lifers have no financial motives in the effort.
Pro-lifers also are working to educate women about the effects of abortion on their lives. Abortion isn’t a quick and easy solution to their problems, as the abortion industry implies. Even if women overcame poverty because they aborted their child, they are not necessarily successful or happy. Many women who have abortions now deeply regret their decision. For some women, ending their unborn child’s life has led to continuous grief, depression and guilt. Some turn to drugs or even suicide.
But some of the most telling evidence against abortion activists’ argument comes from their own Turnaway Study. The pro-abortion researchers found that just 5 percent of the women who were turned away from abortion clinics still wished they had aborted. That means 95 percent of the women who once considered abortion later were glad they had their babies. That point alone serves as strong evidence that abortion is not a real solution to women’s problems. Abortion does not solve poverty or equality; it kills an unborn child.
