PDA / Re-framing the Abortion Issue

[Kevin Spidel]

Re-framing the Abortion Issue
Vol. 2, No. 1--Pre-Summit, January 2005
By Charles McGarry and Laura Bonham
http://pdamerica.org/newsletter/2005-01-PreSummit/reframing-abortion.php

Millions of Americans now routinely vote against their own economic self-interest in favor of Republicans who seek to inflame a culture war against a perceived elite liberal establishment. One primary wedge issue separating these voters from the Democratic Party is abortion. Abortion is widely perceived as an issue dominated by moral purists on which there is no common ground or room to compromise. Centrist Democrats have begun to argue that we should nevertheless compromise on the issue to make the Democratic Party a big tent, while progressives fear that their principles will be jeopardized. This is a false choice. The Democratic Party can win pro-life voters across the heartland without compromising the right to privacy by re-framing the debate.

Democrats and other privacy advocates have made a fatal strategic error by allowing the Religious Right to frame the issue as one in which "pro-life" and "pro-choice" are perceived as mutually exclusive opposites. The logical extension of this position, however, is that "pro-choice" then becomes equated with "pro-abortion" and "anti-life." The current position of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in fact, expressly assumes this equation.

We must reframe the debate to convey the message that support for the constitutional right of privacy does not make Democrats pro-abortion. President Clinton formulated the Democratic position on abortion when he said that it should be "safe, legal and rare." However, Democrats have failed to speak out on how they intend to make abortions rare. We must formulate and advocate a progressive pro-life program that does not infringe on a woman's right to privacy. The key elements of such a program are universal pre-natal and childhood health care, universal access to non-abortifacient birth control methods, subsidized adoptions (including, if needed, homes for expectant mothers), adequate paid family leave from employment and free or affordable day care for working mothers and students.

Such a program would be effective because women who obtain abortions overwhelmingly cite economic and relationship issues for their decision to abort. Offering a home where a woman can give birth in private and place the child for adoption is a realistic alternative for those with family problems. Increased access to birth control, along with a reduction of the cost of having a child is a compassionate way to drastically reduce the number of abortions. In fact, most people are surprised to learn that, while the number of abortions consistently increased under both Ronald Reagan and the first President Bush in a time of recession, the numbers were consistently declining for eight years under President Clinton, only to begin rising again under the current "pro-life" president.

The Republican "pro-life" program, in contrast, focuses on issues, such as "partial birth" abortions, that are almost entirely symbolic, affecting less that one-tenth of one percent of all abortions. Their promise to overturn Roe v. Wade fails to mention that making abortions illegal would probably not reduce the number of abortions in any significant way. Current estimates are that thirty three states would allow abortion if Roe were overturned, so legalized abortion would remain just a bus ride away. Even if abortion were outlawed in all fifty states, studies have shown that there were as many as 829,000 illegal abortions annually in the 1960's. Even now, over 44% of the world's abortions occur in countries where they are illegal, and which represent only 39% of the world's population - meaning that the abortion rate is actually higher in places where it is illegal. And we cannot forget that illegal abortions were also the number one cause of death among young women at one time.

By offering a progressive "pro-life" alternative, Democrats and privacy advocates can dramatically reframe the debate. We would be able to accuse the Republicans of "failing" to achieve any meaningful reduction in the number of abortions, despite 25 years of promises. We would be able to accuse Republicans of "using" the pro-life vote to achieve their regressive economic agenda, while offering those voters nothing but symbolic votes, and a goal that is both unnecessarily destructive of constitutional rights and which would be ineffective if passed. We would also be able to accuse so-called "pro-life" Republicans of hypocrisy, because of their support for the death-penalty as well as an unjust war in Iraq.

We must avoid the temptation to compromise our support of privacy rights by accepting increased restrictions on choice or agreeing to criminalize "some" abortions. At the same time, we cannot expect to win elections if we are perceived to be in favor of death, and that is exactly how we will be perceived as long as we allow "pro-choice" to mean that we are not also "pro-life." A progressive pro-life alternative will bring the heartland home to its Democratic roots.

As the Democratic Party moves to elect a new chairperson, we as progressives must participate in a campaign to ensure that the new chair will support an aggressive pro-life agenda that guarantees safe, legal, and rare abortions. Your state party can supply you with the contact information of your Democratic National Committee persons. Let them know that you support Howard Dean, who believes that the position should be reframed but not at the cost of imperiling choice. Your support of NARAL, NOW, Planned Parenthood, and Emily's List will further aid the preservation of a woman's right to choose.

[Kevin Spidel]

1. PDA / Pro-life vs. Pro-birth

Pro-life vs. Pro-birth
Vol. 2, No. 1--Pre-Summit, January 2005
http://pdamerica.org/newsletter/2005-01-PreSummit/choice-vs-birth.php

PDA is hearing significant outrage from grassroots Democrats on this issue. Both men and women feel abandoned by the Party leadership.

Progressive Democrats can and must help the Party's leadership understand the depth and breadth of support for reproductive choice and also how to articulate the progressive "pro-life" position. We must challenge the Right's narrow focus on birth - to the exclusion of the rest of life, before and after birth.

Progressive Democrats are broadly "pro-life" in a way that is more profound than the anti-abortion zealots. More innocent lives would be spared if America adopted progressive public policies:

Progressive Democrats recognize that children are more likely to be born and reach adulthood as healthy, happy, productive citizens when society honors potential parents' judgment about when best to bring a child into the world. The right to choose abortion must be protected!
Progressive Democrats also know that failure to do what it takes to produce healthy, happy, productive citizens leads to unnecessary physical and mental disease, crime, death, and the transmission of pathologies through the generations.
Thus, progressive Democrats urge support for programs that provide a safety net helping to guarantee the well-being of parents and children before, during and after childbirth. For those who choose to have a child, we support pre-natal nutrition and healthcare programs. After birth, progressives support universal healthcare, Headstart, subsidized quality childcare to allow parents to work, vastly improved public schools, and a national economic and industrial policy that produces quality jobs for American workers. Progressives also support well-funded and supervised foster parent and adoption programs.
Progressives believe strongly in unwanted pregnancy prevention. In addition to the provision of sex education courses, appropriate abstinence encouragement, moral and ethical training of youth, and access to safe and effective birth control and abortion services, progressives support the vast expansion of youth programs that, among other things, build the self-confidence and self-esteem needed for abstinence or the use of birth control.
Progressives support universal access to counseling and mental health programs - "harm reduction support" for all people; such supportive services play an important role in helping young people, especially, to resist peer pressure often involved in unwanted pregnancies.
Progressives also support a vast expansion of drug treatment programs that can help people regain the sobriety necessary for intelligent sexual behavior and reproductive decision-making - as well as to reduce drug-induced infant health problems like premature births, low birth-weight, fetal alcohol syndrome, etc.
Progressives support the education of women and the provision of well-paying jobs, each of which has been shown to reduce unwanted pregnancy.
Taken as a whole, the progressive Democratic position is vastly more "pro-life" than that of the Republican "pro-life" movement as it includes the additional following life-saving policies:
opposition to all but the most clearly defensive wars
a vast decrease in defense spending with funds invested in:
support for vigorous pollution prevention
support for a full-employment economy
support for the elimination of poverty
support for universal health care
You can help educate the Democratic leadership and others in a number of ways:

Contact Democratic Party leaders directly and let them know what you think and how you feel. You can find the contact information for your elected officials.
Support NARAL, NOW, Planned Parenthood, and EMILY's List -- organizations working at the local and national levels to preserve a woman's right to choose.
Learn more about the issue. See the following for details:
http://www.naral.org/facts/index.cfm
http://www.now.org/issues/abortion/index.html
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/pp2/portal/medicalinfo/
Talk to your neighbors, co-workers, friends and family members who may be opposed to reproductive choice. Be respectful, listen to what they say, and practice making arguments broadening the focus from abortion to broader social policies essential for protecting and enhancing human life. Find out what works for you by doing.
Write letters to the editor of your own local newspaper to counter pro-birth/anti-life articles. You can find the appropriate contact information by entering your zip code at http://capwiz.com/pdamerica.home. We've included an example below.
Call in to local and national talk radio shows. Tell people what you think and how you feel about these crucial issues!
EXAMPLE:

Cal Thomas's blatantly anti-choice article, appearing in The Salt Lake Tribune and other national papers, drew the following response from PDAers in Utah:

Are you pro-life or pro-birth?

Cal Thomas' column on December 29 is full of misinformation. For those of us who were of age when Roe vs. Wade was decided, we may remember the untold number of women who either died or were permanently injured due to illegal abortions obtained under unsanitary conditions in order to end their pregnancies.

The legal right to a safe and sanitary procedure was ensured in order to prevent these consequences. Historically, abortions have been around almost as long as pregnancy and whether or not abortions are legal, they are still obtained. It is a false assumption that 40 million babies would have been born. It is far more likely that these abortions would have happened anyway but that a considerable number of women would have been permanently scarred or dead because of it.

There is a remarkable difference between being pro-life and pro-birth. As a society, are we willing to provide services to these young women in the way of parenting classes, child care, and education costs so that they are able to provide for their children? Are we willing to start funding our schools adequately so that all of these children will have equal opportunity, to provide access to quality healthcare for these children and their mothers, housing and nutrition so they can live a happy and productive life out of poverty? Or, do we simply want to force these women to have their babies and forget about them once they are born?

Sincerely,
Laura Bonham
Craig Axford
Co-Chairs, Utah Democratic Progressive Caucus

[Eloriel]

3. A lot of people don't fully realize

For those of us who were of age when Roe vs. Wade was decided, we may remember the untold number of women who either died or were permanently injured due to illegal abortions obtained under unsanitary conditions in order to end their pregnancies.

People don't appreciate the utter desperation that would cause a young woman, or even not-so-young-women, to seek risk her very life to get an illegal abortion. We have removed the social stigma that fed into that level of desperation, but we haven't fixed the economic and other resource/support issues. Nor have we been successful at ensuring that women can prevent the pregnancies to start with, which reminds me of something else a lot of people don't adequately appreciate: all known birth control methods fais some of the time.

And I am old enough to remember those days, as well as something of the fight and controversy over making abortion legal. I remember so much rage on my part about all those MEN who opposed legalizing abortion, and thinking they should all just be made "presents" of the unwanted babies they wanted to force women to bear. Any woman who had to bear a child she didn't want because abortion was illegal should just go deposit those babies on the front doorsteps of those men in state legislators and Congress.

Of course, there are some pretty stiff penalties for actually doing that, but you get the idea.

[brainshrub]

2. Great article!

I'll be at the PD convention in DC this weekend.

[Kevin Spidel]

4. hope to see you there!

[wyldwolf]

5. wow! I was just having this discussion with my wife, and I need some info

My wife has a friend who is Republican ONLY because of the abortion issue and specifically the so-called "partial birth abortion" issue.

I understand that less than 1% of all abortions are performed after 21 weeks. Is that accurate?

Are there any other good points to be made on this issue? Did I read that so-called "partial birth abortions" are already basically illegal in most states except for medical reasons?

Sources on this to help convert an otherwise progressive (pro-gay rights, pro-gun control, pro-helping the little guy) republican?

[Kevin Spidel]

6. some facts for you

http://www.aclu.org/ReproductiveRights/ReproductiveRights.cfm?ID=4998&c=148

http://www.abortionaccess.org/partial-birthabortion.htm

[Maat]

7. Thanks, Kevin.

I'm a retired social worker and an adoptive mother. Our situation has been near perfect. My daughter was placed with me six years ago this month. Still, adoption is not without issues, and people need to realize that. We need more social support for adoptive parents. Too many times we are as 'second best.' Someone here said that ADOPTION should be safe, legal and rare - an adult adoptee. That hurt, but I understand.

I digress. In any case, I know from professional and personal experience, that we need to have a world in which every child born is a wanted child. And the system is darn near in a state of collapse attempting to find adoptive parents for the children taken in by Social Services. One of the reasons lies in the year-long court battle (and with social services) that one has to go through to adopt, during which birthparents are given every right in the book, while the fos-dopt parents are treated like they should feel lucky just to be there. So, it is vital that we preserve reproductive choice, support low-income families, AND support foster-adoptive parents (you're foster before finalization).

Thanks for listening. I'm a PDA member.

[ThorsHammer]

8. Nice article

As a pro-lifer, I do think it is possible for the Democratic Party to attract moderate, open-minded pro-life people (the "pro-birth" crowd will never come) if they are able to reframe the argument away from the GOP. Personally, I'd be happy if the number of abortions went down through sex education, contraception, etc. I'd rather have safe/legal/rare, than unsafe/illegal/common. W/r/t the rare/common part, the Democratic Party can pick up a lot of ground vs. the GOP through better education, an improved economy, healthcare, job skills/training, and so on. Framing it as a pro-life policy by addressing the underlying causes and by finding ways to minimize abortions (they wouldn't have to compromise the pro-choice side either with this) would almost surely be a winning strategy. I do think it will take someone like Dr. Dean, who can reframe the issue and is a good speaker.