Antiabortion Movement Divided As Some Groups Shift Focus From Banning Abortion To Reducing Procedures

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 19 Nov 2008 - 6:00 PST

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The Washington Post on Tuesday examined how efforts by some antiabortion religious leaders, academics and advocacy groups to shift their focus from outlawing abortion to reducing the number of procedures have created fractures within the movement. According to the Post, some antiabortion groups and leaders are collaborating with abortion-rights advocates to urge Congress to pass legislation that would provide pregnant women with health care, child care and money for education to help encourage them to carry their pregnancies to term.

Rachel Laser -- a spokesperson with abortion-rights think tank Third Way, which is working with the advocates on legislative efforts -- said overturning Roe v. Wade and outlawing abortion "is not going to dramatically reduce the number of abortions in America." She added, "So here is a whole other way that promises to be very productive in terms of their goals, which is reducing the number of abortions, and that also serves the purpose of healing the divide and reasoning together." Similarly, Douglas Kmiec -- a Catholic law professor at Pepperdine University who opposes abortion and endorsed President-elect Barack Obama -- said, "If one strategy has failed and failed over decades, and you have empirical information that tells how you can honor life and encourage women to make that choice by meeting real needs that are existing and tangible, why not do that?" Laser, Kmiec and others who support this view say their efforts "reflect the political reality" that challenges to abortion through the legal system will not be successful, the Post reports.

The Post reports that other advocates involved in the efforts include the groups Sojourners, a progressive evangelical organization; RealAbortionSolutions.org; Catholics United; and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, as well as several prominent pastors and Catholic academics. Although these advocates "insist that they are not retreating from their belief that abortion is immoral and should be outlawed, they argue that a more practical alternative is to try to reduce abortion through other means," according to the Post. Joel Hunter, an evangelical pastor and board member of the National Association of Evangelicals, said they are "not compromising our values, but at the same time we are finding a way we can all accomplish our agenda, or at least a piece of our agenda, together."

Traditional antiabortion groups contend that compromise efforts are disloyal to the movement. Joe Scheidler, founder of the Pro-Life Action League, said, "It's a sellout, as far as we are concerned. We don't think it's really genuine. You don't have to have a lot of social programs to cut down on abortions." According to the Post, a study sponsored by Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good found the abortion rate among women with incomes below the poverty line is more than four times higher than among women with incomes above 300% of the poverty level. The study also showed that economic and social supports have significantly decreased the number of abortions in the U.S. in the past 20 years. Traditional antiabortion groups have questioned the research and disputed claims that social programs can reduce abortion rates. Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said, "It's still to be proven what the connection is between poverty and abortion" (Salmon, Washington Post, 11/18).

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