Practicality, Morality Both Necessary For 'Common Ground' In Abortion Debate, Opinion Piece Says

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 24 Feb 2009 - 3:00 PDT

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To "make a real difference" in the abortion debate, President Obama must "tell two truths that the left and the right don't want to hear: that morality has to be practical and that practicality requires morals," William Saletan -- a Slate national correspondent and the author of "Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War" -- writes in a New York Times opinion piece. Saletan adds, "To prevent abortions, we have to prevent unintended pregnancies," noting that abortion-rights opponents who "tend to show up after a woman is pregnant, imagining that laws and preaching will make her bear a child she doesn't want" are "mistaken" and "too late." He writes, "The conservative answer is abstinence," which is a "worthy aspiration;" however, "as a stand-alone national policy for avoiding pregnancies, it's foolish." According to Saletan, the "liberal answer" of improved contraception availability has "become a second front in the culture wars," as many pharmacists refuse to sell contraception and former President George W. Bush implemented a new policy to increase the "right of refusal" for health workers to not participate in providing services or information that they object to on moral or religious grounds. Saletan writes that Obama discusses family planning "in terms of access and affordability." However, "the principal cause of abortions isn't that we can't get birth control. It's that we don't use it," he says.

Saletan cites a study by the Guttmacher Institute that found that out of more than 10,000 American women who had abortions, nearly half had not used birth control during the month they became pregnant. He writes that the issue is not a shortage of birth control but a "shortage of cultural and personal responsibility" and "a failure to teach, understand, admit or care that unprotected sex can lead to the creation -- and the subsequent killing, through abortion -- of a developing human being." He continues that the "challenge is to put these two issues together." This means that liberals should begin "taking abortion seriously as an argument for contraception." In addition, the abortion rate should be reported as "an index of national health, like poverty or infant mortality;" the president should report the abortion rate in the State of the Union address; and reproductive health counselors should speak "bluntly" to women engaging in sex without contraception. At the same time, conservatives must "face the corollary truth: A culture of life requires an ethic of contraception," Saletan says. He adds that using birth control is "an act of responsibility and respect for life."

Saletan also argues that gay couples who want to marry are "the third front in the culture wars." He adds, "This issue, like birth control, requires both sides to accept the practical and moral importance of responsible choices. Commitment, unlike sexual orientation, is a choice and a virtue." Allowing same-sex marriage "will also be good for the hundreds of thousands of children being raised by same-sex parents," Saletan writes. He continues that Obama is correct that the moral debate surrounding abortion has become "stale and fruitless," concluding, "The reason is that we've pitted morality against practicality. These two principles need each other. Let's marry them" (Saletan, New York Times, 2/22).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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