OPINION:
The pro-life movement has been focused from its very beginning on legal reform. It started as a coalition effort to overturn Roe v. Wade. Now, Roe is gone — but abortion remains.
Legal reform is essential, don’t get me wrong. That said, we’re being confronted by the fact that bans just aren’t enough to end abortion on their own.
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Even in states where abortions are banned at 15 weeks, 91 percent of actually-occurring abortions there are still legal. What’s more, less than half of U.S. states have actually passed a “ban” at all. It’s also the case that abortion ban workarounds are quickly on the rise. At-home, chemical abortions are now the majority of all abortions obtained in America — and abortion drugs are easily sent across state borders.
But what if I told you that three out of four abortions were preventable, even without legal restrictions?
You might doubt me. It’s a shocking number. But a Human Coalition poll of women considering abortion showed that 76 percent would prefer to choose life if their circumstances were different.
In other words, 76 percent of abortions might be eliminated if vulnerable mothers had the support they needed.
The next question, of course, is what kind of support they need. Fortunately, their needs are well documented: Overwhelmingly, they need stable income and housing. They need fathers to stand with and for them. They need help obtaining medical care. They need community, guidance, material resources, and physical and emotional safety.
And an important fact, one that the future pro-life movement must reckon with, is that these root causes of abortion are trademarks of the systemic harms Black mothers endure and are clearly linked to the disproportionate abortion rates that have become a commonly recited talking point in abortion debates.
For instance, Black women make about 40 percent less than white men in America, holding true even with the same education level — yet the impact of this injustice is exponential when 80 percent of Black mothers serve as key contributors to their families.
Better than one-third of Black families led by women live in poverty. One in five Black women has undergone or might soon face eviction. One out of five Black households are in a food desert, and about 40 percent of Black women suffer domestic abuse.
In other words: Every single one of the major contributing factors for abortion-minded women is a struggle that disproportionately afflicts Black women.
The post-Roe fight for life isn’t just about the law. It’s about changing hearts, uplifting the hopeless, and alleviating the hardships that cause so many frightened women to seek abortion in the first place. That’s why, to some, it might look radically different from the pro-life movement we’ve known for so long.
Political issues that haven’t been “life issues” for the past 50 years are now, beyond a shadow of a doubt priorities. We need to refocus attention on educational policy, housing policy, labor policy, and family policy which all bear directly on abortion.
Consider the difference a reliable, accessible housing assistance program might make for a new mother who’s been forced to rely on an abusive partner for her material needs. Think about the hope and relief that mother might feel if she knew she’d be able to earn a fair wage for herself, get an education and establish a new life with her preborn child.
She’d think of her child’s future with joy and expectation, rather than fear if the schools in her area were safe and equitable places to receive an education. And this is precisely what we ought to be striving to make a reality: An America of justice, hope, and equity, an America where abortion never remotely seems “necessary.”
And making that happen will require precisely the same determination, devotion and ingenuity that helped the pro-life movement overturn Roe. We need to vote and vote smart. We need to advocate boldly for policies that protect and uplift vulnerable women. We need to volunteer at pregnancy centers, congregate in churches, and lead from pulpits.
The next stage of the pro-life movement, the one I describe in my new book “The New Fight for Life: Roe, Race, and a Pro-Life Commitment to Justice,” is one that must be marked both by sensitivity to injustice and deep, abiding empathy. The end of abortion is inextricably wrapped up with the end of the systemic injustices driving so many women to the desperate, horrific “solution” abortion claims to offer them.
Saving lives starts with changing lives.
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Benjamin Watson is a former NFL player and Super Bowl champion. He is the current vice president of strategic relationships with Human Coalition.
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