Pro-Choice? Anti-Choice? How About No Choice? Poor women are becoming the face of abortion
When it comes to sex and unplanned pregnancy, a lot of people find it easy to pass judgment.
After all, someone will likely say, we all know how people get pregnant. Condoms are cheaper than child support. And the easiest way to not get knocked up is to not have sex at all.
Oh, so simple, it seems. Yet, according to a study by the Guttmacher Institute, by age 45 half of all American women will have had an unintended pregnancy. So, a lot of that teeth sucking and judging doesn’t quite fit a reality where there’s a good chance the person passing the judgment has either had an unplanned pregnancy, knows someone who has, or was an unplanned pregnancy themselves in their own mother’s womb.
But it’s easy to pass judgment on those who are the most vulnerable. Like the poor and the uninsured – who have become the face of who gets an abortion in this country.
Poor women accounted for 42% of all abortions in 2008, and their abortion rate increased 18% between 2000 and 2008, from 44.4 to 52.2 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44. In comparison, the national abortion rate for 2008 was 19.6 per 1,000, reflecting an 8% decline from a rate of 21.3 in 2000. Abortion rates decreased 18% among African American women in the same period, the largest decline among the four racial and ethnic groups examined. Notwithstanding this decline, the abortion rate among African American women is higher than the rate for both Hispanic and non-Hispanic white women: 40.2 per 1,000, compared with 28.7 and 11.5, respectively.
Reproductive health. Sex. Pregnancy. Money. It’s a part of life. You have to eat to live. Tax time comes every year. People are going to have sex. They’re going to have it unprotected or otherwise, safe or otherwise, consensual or … sadly … otherwise. And you can’t create public health policy based on fantasy or how you might “wish” people would conduct themselves, unless you live in one of the many states here in America that believes birth control is a luxury, women’s health is a “niche” issue and abortion is best if you make so it’s only an option to those who have the best means to reproductive health in the first place – the insured and the wealthy.
Everyone else? You’re on your own. If you’re poor and a woman, you likely don’t have health insurance. Birth control is expensive. You also probably have a hard time getting time off for doctor visits (that you also can’t afford), because your service job won’t allow it. You’d go to Planned Parenthood for reduced birth control, but that’s if there’s one near you, if you have access to transportation, if you can take the time off.
How did you get pregnant? Maybe it was a long-time boyfriend. Maybe it was the father of your child, your husband, or a one-night stand. No matter who it was, you have your reasons why you can’t be pregnant. But if you were lucky and found you were pregnant early, you should be able to get an abortion … if you can afford it. The average cost for a first trimester abortion is $470 and 57 percent of women pay their abortions out-of-pocket. If you get Medicaid, it only covers abortions in the case of rape, incest, or risk to the woman’s life, and only 17 states will pay for the abortions Medicaid won’t cover.
Because you have to pay out-of-pocket you spend a lot of time trying to raise funds for the procedure. And that comes out of your hourly pay … if you can get the time off from work without getting fired. And if you can get there. Is there adequate public transportation? Do you have a car? If you don’t, do you know someone who can give you a ride? Do you feel safe even telling anyone what you need that ride for?
Because 87 percent of U.S. counties don’t have an abortion provider, meaning most women have to travel as much as 50 miles to an abortion provider.
The end result is often women having children they can’t take care of or pursuing unsafe or unreliable means of birth control, of being trapped in a cycle of poverty, getting deeper and deeper into a system of debt and welfare they find near impossible to get out of. And it’s easy to say “personal responsibility.” Until you consider that if you’re a taxpayer, you end up paying anyway. In fact, you pay more when emergency rooms and unwanted children stuck in an inadequate and stressed child welfare system we pay for is the back-up plan.
But by simply having better access to health care, lower cost birth control, and a more understanding workplace that realizes employees – even low wage, service employees – need medical time off, could have solved this. It could have created a situation where a woman didn’t need an abortion, or could deal with her unwanted pregnancy earlier. But instead, we have a system that doesn’t help women make better reproductive choices. It leaves them trapped in them.
And the only advice is “don’t have sex.” And that sounds simple. But statistics say it’s not.
good article Snob
I’m mad you got thumbs down for identifying Danielle by her monicker…
Wow. I read some of these comments and I’m just in awe of the ignorance and simplification of this very complex issue. I think this article had touched on some very important issues. For me when it comes to unplanned pregnancy and abortions I feel that the best way to reduce the numbers is access. Access to education, to contraceptives, and other services, because contrary to popular belief a lot of girls and women don’t have that.
We can’t really say that poor women have higher abortion rates. Take note of the fact that poor people are most likely to get their care at clinics, where abortions are documented. Women of means are able to go to private doctors and get a D&C (dilation and curettage, or uterus scraping) which could be used for any number of medical purposes but which practically function as an abortion if there had been a viable fetus there. The actual abortion rates of the wealthy are not recorded, so the comparison is an estimate at best.
But we know as fact not speculation that 50% of all black pregnancies are aborted. Which is outrageous! So what’s your point?
So, we need to have more babies? What’s your point?
That “half” number, from what I understand, is NOT the ratio of abortions to all pregnancies for African Americans; it’s the ratio of abortions to live births, not taking miscarriages and other factors into account. The abortion-to-overall pregnancy ratio is closer to 30 percent. Is that outrageous? If so why, and compared to what?
I’m not buying it. It would be interesting to compare the unplanned pregnancy, abortion, and unplanned birth rates in socalled third world countries to the U.S. Black rates. How many teenaged, unwed moms are in those countries? How many women have multiple babies with multiple men? That would shed some light on whether this is just a poverty thing or not. I’m guessing that in poor countries the rates are less because the girls and women just don’t have sex as much when they are not married, they abstain. In the past women abstained so it’s not as though it’s impossible. Casual sex has only recently become “the norm” in some countries.
The problem is you have poor UNEDUCATED black women embracing liberals ideology on family (devaluing the importance of marriage, men in the home and the traditional nuclear family while promoting this “New Familial Structure”). You also have poor UNEDUCATED black women embracing the feminist ideology on sex and a woman’s reproductive rights.
The end result is Black Matriarchy and Black Feminism. Black Matriarchy is “I don’t need no man” (to have a family). Black Feminism is quasi or ghetto feminism. The uneducated poor black women want the rights won by white feminist but refuse to accept the accountability and responsibility that comes with having 100% control of reproduction pre and post pregnancy. They want to have sex with who they want, when they want. Abort the kids they don’t want and then turn around and blame the black man “he shoulda used a condom” for the OTHER kids she decides to keep!!! smmfh 60% of never married black baby mamas have multiple baby daddies. White Feminist would roll their eyes or laugh in your face if you explained your pregnancy by saying the boy/man should have used a condom. lol Condoms are good for short term lookups and prevention of STD’s and that’s it. CONDOMS have never worked for any NATION nor race as an exclusive means of birth control. Yet black women are pushing this condoms only narrative and female contraceptives are optional/ not needed. We know it’s a lie. 50% black abortions and 72% illegitmacy confirms it’s a lie. Many of these same women have had an abortion(s) and have unplanned illegitimate kid(s). Yet these Black women want to discount or dismiss the emotional aspect of sex and expect teenagers and young adults to use a condom every time? Something they’ve been unable to do themselves. That is borderline child abuse. IMO I guess failure and misery love comfort. lol We know when trust is built and emotions and feelings are involved the condom is not used or not used as frequently. It’s just a fact of life. So, yes if you’re going to be sexually active, ALWAYS plan on using a condom but if you don’t want to get pregnant you better have a backup plan. If you don’t sooner or later you’re going to get pregnant and have to make the choice of an abortion or 9 months of pregnancy. Per doctors….. 2 options that are much riskier than female contraceptives. A Healthy young woman can get pregnant pretty quickly.
Surely you have a newsletter. I just learned so much about how I should be managing my genitalia. And also that I should say that I am EDUCATED from now on. Brilliance