Life After Roe
For 50 years, both parties politicized abortion to manipulate voters. Our post-Roe America needs a 3rd option between “pro-life” and “pro-choice” — “safe, legal, & rare.”
We’ve just witnessed the end of an era. A half-century ago, 7 unelected judges shunted reproductive rights into a “cold war” where both political parties could endlessly politicize Roe against each other, with few real-world consequences. Republican elites made hollow promises to ban abortion, Democratic elites made hollow promises to codify Roe, and voters got played each time. But today, 6 different unelected judges officially turned that cultural cold war into a political hot war — and women are the casualties. Among the many painful lessons from the fallout is that we should never have left women’s health up to the whims of an unaccountable, black-robed political cabal.
But first, let’s quickly address the elephant in the room. Suffice it to say, I am “afflicted with a congenital lack of uterus.” In other words, I’m a guy — and another dude giving his opinion on abortion isn’t exactly what the world needs most right now. Men’s voices shouldn’t dominate conversations about women’s health, nor do I have a right to dictate women’s bodily autonomy. So I respectfully ask you to hear me out, understanding that it’s women who deserve to be heard on this issue, first and foremost.
That being said: women aren’t a monolith. Most women in my family — my mom included — have complicated feelings about abortion. As pro-life Catholics, they believe in protecting the rights of the unborn. But as both women and mothers, they treat women who choose abortion with empathy, not judgment. My own thoughts on abortion formed in direct response to theirs; specifically how to meet their concerns halfway while still protecting women’s reproductive rights? The answer I kept arriving at was somewhere between absolutely pro-life and absolutely pro-choice — that abortion should be safe, legal, & rare.
Despite falling out of favor with guillotine-wielding Twitter mobs, this moderate position is broadly endorsed by the American public. Even Planned Parenthood’s former president believes in “safe, legal, and rare” abortion through the prevention of accidental pregnancies. Roe itself was a compromise that only protected abortion rights until fetal viability — hence why a majority of Americans supported it from the ‘80s until today. And most people believe abortion should be legal in the 1st-trimester and restricted thereafter, which also happens to be how most of Europe handles abortion rights. (Not coincidentally, 93% of abortions occur in the 1st-trimester.)
Public support for abortion rights throughout the 1st-trimester is totally reasonable given our scientific understanding of fetal development. First off — the very existence of both identical twins and fusion chimeras proves that human life cannot possibly begin at conception, because otherwise identical twins would not be separate human lives and chimeras would be two human lives stuck in one body. Moreover, even the most conservative interpretation of current scientific evidence concludes that 1st-trimester fetuses can neither feel pain nor experience anything whatsoever. Coordinated fetal movements don’t even begin until after the 1st trimester. And even with our most advanced medicine, fetuses cannot survive outside the womb until long after the 1st-trimester. In other words — 1st-trimester fetuses are definitely not human life.
Yet partisan politicians ignored this broad consensus and instead amplified fringe voices to drive primary voters to the polls. And politics aside, another problem with the Roe debate was that pro-life and pro-choice activists argued past each other, not with each other. The pro-life movement believes human life begins at conception and must be protected above all else — which pro-choice arguments ignored. The pro-choice movement believes women’s rights and agency must be protected above all else — which pro-life arguments ignored. I believe a safe, legal, & rare philosophy can square this circle by minimizing accidental pregnancies, supporting motherhood, and protecting abortion rights throughout the 1st-trimester.
So what do we do now? Multiple states are already moving aggressively to outlaw abortion — reason and moderation be damned. Congress must act immediately to protect women’s rights and safeguard “safe, legal, & rare” abortion through these 4 policy pillars:
Minimize accidental pregnancies. The first step in making abortion rare is doing everything we can to make accidental pregnancies rare. We need national comprehensive sex education in high school, to empower young adults to protect their sexual health as they enter the world. We need to fund access to nonhormonal over-the-counter contraceptives like condoms, spermicides, and morning-after pills. We need to normalize and cover hormonal birth control and copper IUDs for all women who want them. Bottom line: the more knowledge and power people (especially women) have over their sexual health, the rarer abortion becomes.
Support motherhood. Despite pro-life rhetoric, America isn’t a pro-family society right now. Our birth rate has crashed below our replacement rate. Most Millennials and Zoomers can’t afford to have kids. And most women abort pregnancies due to difficult financial conditions. If we want to dissuade abortion, we must support motherhood with universal child care. We must reinstate child tax credits. We must help aspiring parents access affordable housing — mothers especially. Bottom line: the more our society supports mothers, the less they need abortions.
1st-trimester abortions must ALWAYS be safe & legal. No matter how rare we make abortion, some women might still need it. Congress must protect women’s right to safe, legal abortion during the 1st-trimester of pregnancy. As we established earlier, there is no human life to worry about during the 1st-trimester other than the mother-to-be’s. Any woman in her 1st-trimester who walks into an abortion clinic needs to be able to get her abortion that same day — no hurdles, no delays, no judgment. Bottom line: states could restrict most abortions thereafter, but they cannot touch the 1st-trimester.
Abortion must always be an option when life is threatened. One moral principle I live by is never judging anyone who is forced to make an impossible choice. Imagine being a woman who discovers her pregnancy is ectopic during her 2nd-trimester and is told by her doctor that she will die unless she aborts. Or imagine being a mother-to-be who learns in her 3rd-trimester that her baby bears a lethal condition like Trisomy 18 or anencephaly that will either result in stillbirth or — at most — inevitable death after a few weeks of hopeless, painful struggle. How can we, in good conscience, dare to tell these women what the right choice is? At any point during pregnancy, a woman who learns her pregnancy will kill her must be able to safely & legally abort. Likewise, at any point during pregnancy, a woman who learns her baby bears a lethal condition must be able to safely & legally abort. (Tragically, that baby will never be able to tell us whether it would rather be brought into the world to experience a short and torturous existence, or would instead have preferred to only ever know peace. Sadly, it is up to the mother to make that impossible choice for her child — and we cannot judge her either way.) Bottom line: if life is threatened at any point during pregnancy, abortion must be an option.
None of this means you must be totally comfortable with abortion as a concept. As I said, most of us have complicated feelings on the subject. And emotions are particularly raw right now. But I hope I’ve outlined a consensus compromise that reasonable people can agree to in good faith; one that fundamentally protects women’s reproductive rights and bodily autonomy while also assuaging concerns about unborn life. And I hope I’ve convinced you that our post-Roe America needs a 3rd option between pro-life and pro-choice — safe, legal, & rare.