Remember that catchy pro-abortion slogan, safe, legal, and rare? Pro-abortion activists used to chant it all the time, including former President Bill Clinton. Now, though, more and more abortion advocates are speaking out against the “rare” part. Laura Kacere, a pro-abortion feminist, wrote 5 Problems with ‘Keep Abortion Rare’ to show us why abortion should apparently be commonplace.
1. We Can’t ‘Keep Abortion Rare’ Because It Isn’t
Abortion isn’t rare.
1-in-3 women in the United States will have had an abortion by the time she is 45.
This is an experience that a lot of people have had, and it’s far more common than many of us are willing to admit. Thanks to that big awful bubble of stigma, many of us just keep our stories locked up and hidden away in shame.
Kacere is absolutely right: abortion isn’t rare. It’s so commonplace that in some places in New York City, more women are having abortions than they are having babies. But what she seems to not understand is that just because something is common doesn’t make it good.
Know what else is really, really common? Murder. Rape. Robbery. Assault. Drug Abuse. Alcoholism. There are tons of things that happen all the time, but no one argues that rape should be legalized because, gee, it happens all the time anyway! Whether or not something happens frequently isn’t an argument as to whether or not that thing is good.
2. Abortion Isn’t a Bad Thing
So we shouldn’t be talking about it like it is.
… And when people say “keep abortion rare,” they’re promoting a narrative that says abortion is inherently a bad thing.
But abortion isn’t something bad, and it isn’t something to be ashamed of. It can actually be a positive experience for some people and is something that many people are glad that they have access to when they need it.
… The fact is, abortion is a relatively simple medical procedure and should be viewed similarly to other medical procedures in that all those who need or want it should have access to it.
Really? Killing an unborn child isn’t a bad thing? Even if someone is pro-abortion, one thing that needs to be acknowledged when talking about abortion is the reality of what it is. At the moment of conception, the embryo is already living and growing. He or she already has a completely separate and distinct DNA strand from the mother. And, if left alone, the embryo will continue to develop and grow for nine months until he or she is born. Those are the facts about pregnancy. We can’t have a debate on the positives or negatives about abortion while ignoring the scientific facts about pregnancy.
So abortion is legal. Maybe we could even argue that it’s needed sometimes – but does that make it a good thing? People see abortion as a bad thing because it is a bad thing. It is an inherently negative, violent act that in almost all cases stops a beating heart. It takes a living being and kills him. Let’s at least be honest about what’s happening here. And even if abortion were something that society needed, would it not still be a sad, unfortunate situation when a woman has to make that kind of decision? Is Kacere’s case really that abortion is just so wonderful that we shouldn’t strive to make a world where a woman never feels that she has to have an abortion? Surely, not having an abortion is infinitely better than having one.
3. Not Rare, But Accessible
If we need a slogan, why don’t we make it, “Keep Abortion Safe, Legal, and Accessible?” Because that’s our biggest problem today.
With countless women needing abortions and not being able to have them due to legal, geographical, and financial barriers, the number of abortions in the US is, if anything, actually too low.
Interesting – in point number one, Kacere brags about how frequently women have abortions. Now, the number of abortions is too low. So which is it? Do we have lots of abortions, or not enough? And why, exactly, is the number of abortions “too low”? The idea sold to Americans was that abortion needed to be legal for women who found themselves in circumstances where they couldn’t have a baby. It wasn’t an idea of selling abortions, making it something positive, and fighting until every woman in America has an abortion. After all, by Kacere’s own claim, 1 in 3 American women will have an abortion. How many more abortions do there need to be before abortion activists like Kacere are pacified?
4. Who Cares What the Number Is, Anyway?
Why is the number of women who are having abortions really the issue?
And is reducing or altogether stopping the rate of abortion something we really want? Abortions have been happening since the beginning of time, when women used herbs and other methods to self-induce abortions.
Abortions will never not happen – they always have, and they always will.
It kind of seems as if Kacere just can’t make up her mind. First, we have lots of abortions, which is great; next, we’re told that there aren’t enough abortions; and now, it’s that the number of abortions shouldn’t matter anyway. Which is it?
And again, know what else will always happen? Murder, rape, robbery, assault – all kinds of awful, horrible things that have happened throughout the span of history, that have always been recognized for the terrible things that they are. No one would argue that murder should be legal because it happens all the time. Just because people are bound to do something doesn’t mean that we, as a society, should condone it and call it acceptable.
5. We Don’t Need Protection
The sentiment that goes along with “keeping abortion rare” is that abortion is something to be ashamed of.
… TRAP laws, the laws that have been put in place to unfairly target and regulate abortion clinics to the point of causing many of them to close, was supposedly about “keeping people safe,” just as mandatory counseling and ultrasounds laws are supposedly about “keeping us informed.”
Stop with the paternalism already. These laws aren’t about protecting people. They’re about hurting them.
Really? Because plenty of women are injured or killed in abortion clinics, and plenty of abortionists practice in absolutely despicable conditions. Abortion advocates are strangely never that worried about these things. They kept their mouths shut about Kermit Gosnell, and even though the very regulations they rail so strongly against could have saved Karnamaya Mongar, they still fight against them. Who cares if other medical facilities are held to the same standards? Who cares if veterinary clinics are subjected to stricter regulations? Abortion is special, apparently, and women getting abortions don’t need to be forced to have them in clean, safe clinics. It’s mean. And anti-women. Next, maybe we can take on dentists’ offices about how unfair their standards and regulations are.
While Kacere is sort of right that the slogan safe, legal, and rare hurts the abortion movement, it also helps it. Because, see, most Americans aren’t as rabidly pro-abortion as Kacere and her ilk are. In fact, most Americans consider themselves pro-life, and support the evil, horrible laws that Kacere & Company hate so much. If abortion advocates decide to just abandon the pretense that they don’t fanatically love abortion, they’ll just alienate even more Americans. It must be hard to be stuck in such a Catch-22, huh? Either tell the truth now, alienate your pro-abortion buddies, and make everyone else hate you, or continue lying about your true aims, make your pro-abortion buddies furious, and have everyone else hate you later. What to do?
