In my first post in this “Vote Pro-Life” Series, I explained that the right to life must come before liberty (“freedom to choose”) or the pursuit of happiness–thus we should vote pro-life, first and foremost.
Today, I’d like to focus in on poverty. Specifically, evidence shows that abortion increases poverty rather than reducing it. So anyone supporting abortion is working to increase poverty, rather than working to eliminate it.
Over the next few weeks leading up to the election, I’ll address a number of other reasons why (when a candidate who is against abortion is on the ballot, which is unfortunately not always the case) I believe people should make their decisions based on a candidate’s stance on abortion before considering secondary issues like the economy or health care.
Abortion Is the Root of the Problem
“Pro-choice” politicians often have seemingly excellent stands on eliminating poverty. They seek to lift up the impoverished by offering them welfare, Medicaid, or even socialized health care. Unfortunately, they include abortion on demand in their ideal health care system (both domestically and internationally), ignoring all of the evidence showing that abortion is at the heart of the problem, rather than being the solution.
According to Dr. Thomas Strahan, in his essay “Abortion and the Feminization of Poverty,” published in Consistently Opposing Killing, “researchers have found that the socioeconomic status of women tends to deteriorate as abortion is repeated” (p. 48).
Young women are often told they “need” to have an abortion so they can stay in school, get a good job, and make better money. But half of women having abortions are repeat “customers”. So starting a woman down this path is not only dangerous for her health, it isn’t good from a perspective of decreasing poverty.
This is because women having repeat abortions are more likely than women having their first abortion–or those who never aborted–to be divorced (no husband means less family income), no longer enrolled in school (less education means less income), and more likely to be on welfare, according to a Yale Medical School study (p. 48).
So encouraging women to have an abortion likely begins a cycle that will further impoverish them.
Abortion Breaks Down Families and Increases Alcoholism
As the passionate young woman pointed out to her opponents in this video, abortion has destroyed the black family. This has left many single mothers who cannot make ends meet on one income, forcing them to need programs like welfare. Abortion has made their problems worse, not better. (I’ll return to the topic of the destruction of the family next week.)
Additionally, a World Health Organization report found “that women who have undergone induced abortion tend to consume alcohol more than the general population” (Strahan, p. 51). Obviously alcoholism makes it hard to keep a job, damages the person’s health, and harms any future children she may become pregnant with. All of these problems will increase the welfare and medical costs that must be paid by the government.
Abortion Increases Dependency on the Government
Abortion doesn’t make a woman less likely to depend on government aid—it makes her more likely to be without a good job, without a spouse to help her pay the bills, and thus less likely to be able to make ends meet and to keep herself out of poverty.
