John Tsitrian, 2-26: Abortion law ignores reality

By John Tsitrian, Journal columnist | Monday, February 27, 2006

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The abortion brouhaha in the South Dakota Legislature is still unresolved as I write this, but even if it doesn't clear the hurdle this year, chances seem good that we'll be revisiting this issue on a regular basis for a long time to come.

The implications of this proposal are pretty huge, given that data from the Center for Disease Control (2001 was the latest I could find) show that in the United States there are 246 legally induced abortions per 1,000 live births. There was no distinction in the report between abortions performed solely due to the mother's health and those obtained because the baby was unwanted, but the ratio has to be an eye-opener when you consider that if a substantial number of those abortions were to become illegal, the birth rate in this country would leap and that as many as a quarter of the people born every year were in reality unwanted by their mothers.

Can you say "social time bomb waiting to happen?" I can.

I generally oppose anti-abortion legislation because I don't think the government has any business getting involved with a woman's reproductive apparatus. That's a general extension of my conservative/libertarian nature, but the more pressing, practical realities make the prospects of going back to a Pre-Roe vs. Wade era even more abhorrent.

For one thing, how many of those abortions cited in the CDC data are likely to come to full term if abortion were made illegal in this country? It's probably impossible to say, but in a neighboring part of the world, where abortion is uniformly illegal the numbers are significant. According to a World Health Organization study released in 2003, about four million Latin American women have an illegal abortion every year, and participants at a conference on the subject in Mexico City that year estimated that deaths and serious injuries number in the hundreds of thousands as a result.

I doubt that anybody can transpose those numbers to the United States with any accuracy, but it stands to reason that sections of this country, and South Dakota, where poverty, lack of education, poor sanitation and just plain ignorance are endemic, are likely to see an increase in illegal and dangerous abortions, regardless of the well-intentioned counseling and social services that are available.

In the meantime, those women who choose to stay legal will be forced to deal with the emotional and physical issues of carrying babies they don't want, probably creating personal and financial hardships for themselves and their families for the rest of their lives. Sure, adoption is an alternative, but women who want to go that route can do so already.

As to the sanctity of life, I don't argue with those who believe a fetus is a living soul because the debate about it will probably rage forever. They have their beliefs, I have mine.

And because their beliefs are driven by faith and Christian imperatives, I hold them in respect - but must insist on keeping them out of the lives of those of us who don't share the same creed when it comes to legislating abortion. There are a lot of things about this country that I don't like and wish were against the law - but that I accept as the consequence of living in a free society.

And there are a lot of countries in this world where a religiously derived set of values makes the laws - including so many of the societies that are now our avowed enemies. More to the point, they are the enemies of those in their own communities who yearn for the freedoms that come with a democracy and all the sometimes conflicting components that a free society sustains.

A woman who becomes pregnant during a moment of passion or duress or contraceptive miscalculation shouldn't be forced to deal with the consequences of that moment for the better part of a year, and it shouldn't surprise anybody who supports this legislation if that woman turns to the underground abortion community to terminate her pregnancy. A law that would suddenly criminalize that which has been legally sanctioned for decades wouldn't stop her.

Millions of desperate Latin American women every year make that point, and the 20 percent of American pregnancies that are now legally terminated by abortion suggest that this country is capable of putting up some significant illegal abortion numbers if the law tries to make them out of reach.

Religious and philosophical ideals are often a wonder to behold - but as the basis for making laws that are guaranteed to be flouted, they remain just that: ideals.

Reality bites, and when it comes to legislating against abortions, it'll bite hard.

John Tsitrian is a Rapid City businessman, writer and commentator. Write to tsitrian@gwtc.net.