Hello Everyone, welcome to Bad Table Talk, I’m your host Oliver Niehaus and this is the third and final part of our three-part series surrounding the issue of Abortion. This means you should definitely listen to parts 1 and 2 first as they layout preliminary arguments addressing the morality of abortion itself. However, that is not what will be discussed in this segment. For this segment, we will be accepting the premise that abortion is indeed the immoral taking of an innocent human being deserving of all the same rights as you and me and also has a right to the woman’s body unlike any other person does but regardless that’s the premise. Abortion is wrong so therefore our goal should be to lower the number of abortions as much as possible, right? I hope the answer is yes. It would seem odd if that wasn’t the case. So what is the most effective way to decrease the number of abortions? Well I mean for starters, keep doing what we’re doing! I know that may seem outrageous considering how contentious of an issue this currently is, but the number of abortions per year has been consistently decreasing since 1990 and it just so happens that a year later The FDA approved Norplant, which was the first long-acting reversible contraceptive for women. But regardless, the rate has indeed been dropping. In 1990, there were nearly 1.5 million abortions. As of 2016, which is the latest year of CDC records was 623,471. That is a decrease of over 56%. Clearly whatever has been happening since 1991 has been working. So what’s the secret? Well, it’s increasing access to contraception and comprehensive sex education in schools. And guess what? The more accessible the contraception, the lower the rate of unwanted pregnancies and thus the lower rate of abortions. In 2009, Colorado began offering teens free IUDs without parental consent, and within eight years, teen pregnancies dropped 54% and the abortion rate fell by 64%. For every dollar spent on the program, the state saved nearly $6 in labor and delivery costs, child-care assistance, and food stamps, and in total that saved the taxpayers of Colorado nearly $70 million. Despite the initial funding for the program running out in 2016, it has been sustained through programs like Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Wait, the so-called “pro-lifers” are trying to eliminate something that has helped decrease the abortion rate by 64%? (Cardi B clip) Couldn’t have said it better myself! And long-acting reversible contraceptives like IUDs are among the most effective at lowering the abortion rate. This is because they are over 99% effective and don’t require someone to take a pill on a consistent basis which is honestly harder than you may think, given that the 18% of women who use contraception inconsistently—for example, by forgetting to take the pill every day or not using a condom every time they have sex—account for 41% of all unintended pregnancies. Increases in Long-acting reversible contraceptive use likely led to more consistent and effective contraceptive use overall, contributing to the decline in the unintended pregnancy rate. However, the Republicans in the Colorado state legislature have spoken out against this policy And this isn’t just in Colorado. Across the nation, the GOP whose platform dictates them to be against abortion consistently advocates and votes against increased funding to programs that would subsidize the cost of contraception. They have consistently backed Supreme Court decisions such as the Hobby Lobby decisions which allowed employers to be exempt from providing contraception on their healthcare plans despite the ACA explicitly stating that for-profit businesses could not refuse to provide such contraception as is standard with basic healthcare plans. They have criticized past decisions like Griswold v. Connecticut which stated that states could not ban the use of contraception altogether. Those on the right declare those on the left of always wanting free things which is absurd, we just want to benefit from our labor and not have to work 3 jobs just to barely pay our rent while Corporate Executives rake in billions but besides the point, couldn’t it be argued right back at them in this scenario? They want to stop abortions but aren’t willing to put in the work or take the necessary steps that have been proven to achieve those results. Seems like maybe they are the ones who just want “free stuff” or in particular free results with no action. It makes you question how much they really care about stopping abortions. But regardless I could do a whole segment on the hypocrisy of the right but that is definitely for another time. So we’ve established that more accessible contraception leads to lower abortion rates, but what about comprehensive sex education? I’d hope this would be self-evident that when people are more aware of intercourse that they can make better-informed decisions that would decrease the likelihood of unwanted pregnancy but for good measure let’s prove this with data. In 1992, California’s teen pregnancy rate was 157 per 1,000 teens aged 15 to 19 — the highest rate in the nation. To combat the problem, the state launched a three-year abstinence-only sex education effort, only to cancel the program in 1995 when it had absolutely no effect on teens’ decisions to start having sex. In 2003, lawmakers instead passed the California Comprehensive Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS Prevention Education Act. The law forbade classes from promoting religious doctrine or bias against people and said that all sex education programs had to be medically accurate, age-appropriate, and comprehensive. By 2005, California’s teen pregnancy rate was 75 per 1,000 teens ― a more than 50 percent decline that surpassed the corresponding national decline of 37 percent. So it’s abundantly clear that increased access to contraception and comprehensive sex education decreases the number of abortions, but you may argue that you agree with all those things but why must abortion remain legal? Can’t we walk and chew gum at the same time? Well, actually abortion restrictions have little to no effect on the overall abortion rate. One example is El Salvador. In 1988, El Salvador passed a total abortion ban. No exceptions. Not for rape, incest, or even to save the life of the mother. Women and girls found guilty of having an abortion face a prison sentence of two to eight years. Health care providers who assist them face up to 12 years in prison. And if that isn’t enough, women who have had miscarriages have been charged with aggravated homicide, a charge which can bring a sentence of up to 50 years in prison. There have been documented cases by Amnesty International of many women who have been sentenced to decades in prison after having a miscarriage. Just imagine for a second. You are pregnant and actually excited to have a child, only to tragically miscarry. And on top of the grief of that miscarriage, you face a federal investigation to find out whether you were truly at fault for the miscarriage and possibly decades in jail. Is this really the type of treatment we want to subject women? And you may say that the US is fundamentally different than El Salvador and we would never allow women to be jailed for miscarriages. But look no further than the state of Alabama, where Marshae Jones was indicted for manslaughter after being shot in the stomach during an altercation which caused her to miscarry. The State of Georgia passed legislation that allows for women who perform their own abortions outside a formal medical setting to be charged with first-degree murder, which could carry a sentence of up to life in prison or the death penalty. How pro-life of them. So don’t pull the whole “it won’t happen in America” because it already is. And in El Salvador due to the total ban on abortion, clandestine abortions are very common, methods of which include ingesting rat poison or other pesticides, and thrusting knitting needles, pieces of wood and other sharp objects into the cervix, and the use of the ulcer treatment drug misoprostol, which has become widely used to induce abortions. And 11% of women who underwent clandestine abortions died as a result and due to the fact that it is illegal, the figure is likely to be much higher. And not only that, suicide accounts for 57% of the deaths of pregnant females aged 10 to 19 in El Salvador, though it is likely once again that many more cases have gone unreported. And unsurprisingly El Salvador has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates. According to the National Family Health Survey, nearly a quarter of all teenagers aged between 15 and 19 in El Salvador have been pregnant at least once. So higher rates of maternal death whether by suicide or dangerous abortion procedures as well as no statistically significant change in the abortion rate. Is this really what the “Pro-life” community wants to implement in America? So that’s honestly it. That’s the solution to limiting the number of abortions. Increase access to contraceptives as much as possible, and yes that means making them taxpayer-funded, as well as increasing sexual education. The fact is that those who are Pro-life actually don’t care about decreasing abortions or at least aren’t willing to take the necessary steps to do so. Because as soon as you start talking about policies that have been proven to lower the abortion rate, they get real quiet. But let me make it clear that I want to lower the abortion rate. Mostly because preventing unwanted pregnancies is better for women than getting an abortion clearly but also because it’s such a divisive issue. Simply put, abortion makes people sad and I don’t want people to be sad so if we can lower the abortion rate without harming women, I’m all for it. But what if I told you that Republicans don’t actually want to see the reversal of Roe v. Wade and a subsequent ban on abortion? You may find this shocking but it makes complete sense. Abortion is a political issue and a powerful one at that. It has the ability to unite and move entire voter demographics, unlike virtually any other issue. The pro-life movement was founded to unite evangelicals and religious folk around one issue that they could then use to capture their vote. This is abundantly clear due to the fact the pro-life movement wasn’t prominent until the 80s, nearly 10 years after Roe was decided. Evangelical and Political leader Randall Terry used the issue of abortion as a unification movement to rally evangelicals around Republican policies. Fighting abortion is what almost every Republican and conservative have in common so it obviously serves as a unifying factor that keeps them voting for the goal of outlawing abortion, which seems to never come. Why is abortion the issue of choice and not something like increasing access to contraception? Well because being pro-life is easy. It’s easy to tell a woman no. It doesn’t cost any money and you feel good because you have this false reality that you’re saving human lives despite the fact that as I discussed before, you just drive women, majority low income and minority women, to turn to unsafe alternatives that put them in danger and don’t actually lower the abortion rate. They don’t advocate for policies such as increased access to contraceptives, mandatory paid maternity leave so women don’t feel that they are being disenfranchised for having children, universal childcare which allows women and families as a whole to raise their children with less financial hardships, improving the education system which includes sex education as well as universal healthcare which would, which along with many other benefits, would eliminate the insanely high price to give birth. They don’t support those policies because those require time and money and frankly that’s not what interests them. They don’t care about the lives of the unborn, they just want to continue this unification movement that has united evangelicals and conservatives for decades, unlike virtually any other issue. Overturning Roe would end the fight that’s united religious conservatives for decades. Please name me one other policy issue in which the Republicans advocate for saving human lives? Healthcare? No, they’re against universal healthcare, have consistently advocated for cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, as well as tried 70 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act which despite its serious flaws, protects those with pre-existing conditions, and is obviously better than the lack of alternative they have provided. How about Military spending? Nope, they’ve advocated for greater military funding which goes to bombing other countries and creating more terrorists, yes that is indeed a plug to my previous podcast series called Actually Making America Great and specifically the episode of the War on Terrorism which I’ll link down below. How about immigration? Absolutely not as they’ve supported policies like family separation and extended the maximum amount of time people can be held in cages from 72 hours to weeks on end which has resulted in the deaths of 24 migrants during the Trump administration. What about police brutality and racial justice? No, once again as Conservatives never fail to justify the deaths of unarmed black people at the hands of law enforcement. I seriously cannot find one policy that Republicans support that values actual people outside the womb but once again, my email is down below so if you’re screaming at your phone or whatever device you’re listening on, let me know. So why would it be any different with abortion? The answer is it’s not. It’s the easiest issue to unify around and the amount of people who are single-issue voters surrounding abortion is quite high. So if you’re against abortion and support the pro-life movement, I hope you know that they are harnessing your passion around the issue of abortion and using it to exploit your vote and you will never see the illegalization of abortion. And for those of you worried about Roe being overturned, don’t be. Because it’s clear the Republicans are using the issue for votes. The outlawing of abortion would end the movement and therefore that unification that they’ve relied on for decades. Of course, it’s important to fight abortion restrictions as that still leaves the controversy brewing so they can still use it to exploit votes but still ends up seriously hurting women. So if I’m being honest, part of me wants to see Roe overturned. And of course, I’m not actually serious as this would be disastrous for women across the country and lead to similar problems seen in El Salvador, but part of me is curious to see what would happen. Because the Republican Party would be fractured. The easy feel-good issue that united their voters would be no more. It could literally be the downfall of the Republican Party. To go even further than taxpayer funded contraception, let me make the case for taxpayer-funded abortion. I know what you’re thinking, what the hell is he thinking? And hey I get it that seems outrageous but I hope you’ll hear me out. Currently, there is something in place called the Hyde Amendment which prohibits the use of taxpayer funds for abortions and the defense of this is that people’s taxpayer dollars shouldn’t be going to what they believe is the killing of innocent human beings. I think this is a particularly weak argument because under that logic I shouldn’t have to pay taxes towards the military as they use that to senselessly bomb other countries and kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people. The reality is we have to pay taxes towards things we don’t agree with. You don’t just get to opt out of paying taxes towards things you don’t agree with. Now I want to make an empirical case for why taxpayer-funded abortion would lower the rate. Right now Planned Parenthood is a business and if you are against abortion, you would probably say that they are in the business of killing babies which other than the rhetorical choice of words, is correct and as true with any business, their desire is to maximize profit and to sell as much of their product or service which in this case is abortion. And due to nonsensical efforts to defund Planned Parenthood which due to the Hyde Amendment don’t even go towards abortions and just strip funding away from other forms of reproductive care like cancer screenings, contraceptives, and much more, they are forced to make up for that lack of funding somehow and how do they do it? Sell more abortions. It’s their only way of profiting. Therefore it would make more sense that they would be more likely to push women towards abortion rather than counsel the pregnant woman through her options and offer her the many alternatives that they provide. Isn’t that what we want? But due to the Hyde Amendment in place and increased efforts to defund them, Planned Parenthood quite literally has to perform a certain amount of abortions to keep the lights on. Wouldn’t it be great if we removed the profit incentive? Instead of people paying for abortion out of pocket, the entirety of Planned Parenthood would be government-funded. And therefore there would be no incentive to push women towards abortion as they don’t profit from it. They could more easily counsel women through pregnancy and decrease the likelihood they will even turn to abortion in the first place. We know that restrictions don’t work as discussed earlier so could this be a viable alternative? I’ll tell you that countries like Israel that have universal healthcare and taxpayer-funded abortions actually have some of the lowest abortion rates in the developed world. I know it feels wrong. But the more accessible abortion is, the lower the rate. And this makes sense empirically. Imagine you get pregnant unexpectedly in a place where abortion is restricted. You’ll be more likely to get an abortion at any opportunity you can get, out of fear that the opportunity may not present itself later. However, if it’s legal and widely accessible, you’ll take more time to consider your options. You’ll be able to make decisions with the comfort of knowing that the option is there if you really want it. And you may decide to carry that fetus to term and won’t that be great, that the child you end up having is actually wanted. So to recap, the most effective way to lower the number of abortions is to increase the accessibility of contraceptives, particularly long-acting reversible contraceptives, increase comprehensive sex education, and implement policies that assist women so they feel less inclined to turn to abortion, which does include taxpayer-funded abortion. That right there is how we should be viewing pregnancy and abortion. Putting women in a situation that maximizes the likelihood that they will voluntarily give birth to a child surrounded by the resources needed to take care of them. Now that to me sounds like the truly pro-life solution.
Thank you for listening to the third and final episode in this three-part series surrounding the topic of abortion. From Fetal Personhood to Bodily autonomy to discussing the most effective ways to decrease the abortion rate, I hope you discovered a new way to think about this topic. I also hope that I stayed true to what I promised in the intro of every one of these episodes which were to respect everyone’s opinions and make this more of an educational and thought-provoking series rather than the heated emotional debate that seems to be the norm. Now I did go after Republicans a fair share in this episode but I was mainly referring to those who hold political office, not the average republican. Feel free to also email me with your questions, comments, and concerns. If you’re willing, please leave a rating and review in Apple Podcasts and Subscribe for more of these segments. All else aside, regardless of where you stand on this issue, thank you for keeping an open mind and I hope to see you back here for the next segment. Take care
