Some people believe that the right way to decrease the number of abortions is to make abortion illegal. Does that really work, or is there a better way to decrease the number of abortions?

Looking at the number of abortions per person in America, the number has been declining since the late 1980s. The number of abortions per capita is now less than half of what it was in late 1980s. The question is how do we keep this number declining?
Will making abortion more difficult decrease the number of abortions? This does not seem likely. To decrease the number of abortions we need to eliminate the reasons that women use when they decide to abort.

There has been some research about the reasons stated by women for having abortions. One of the largest reasons for abortion (21%) said they were not ready for the responsibility. A second reason (also 21%) said that they cannot afford a baby now. The third largest reason (16%) were concerned about how the child will change their life. The fourth largest reason (12%) was to avoid possible single parenthood. The fifth largest reason (11%) was that they are too young for a child. The sixth largest reason (8%) was that the woman had all the children that she wanted.

Some of these reasons, such as too young for a child and concern about how a baby will change their life are best eliminated through family planning and birth control that prevents pregnancy. Preventative birth control is not immoral and it prevents abortion. We need to encourage junior high school, high school, and college aged women to use birth control to avoid pregnancy until they are ready. This could prevent somewhere between 32% and 48% of abortions. These results about reasons for abortion also show that between 33% and 49% of women abort because they do not believe that they will be able to raise their child. This is an amazing result. It shows that more than two thirds of abortions could be eliminated by providing affordable contraception and improving the lives of child-bearing aged women.

To decrease abortions by improving the lives of women, we need to show child-bearing women, that they will have the income, the child care, the health care, and the education they need for their children.

How do we show women that they will have the income that they need to raise their child?. They need to know that the minimum wage will be a living wage for a woman and her child. In Fannin and Grayson Counties, Texas the living wage for a single woman are $9.43 and $9.61 an hour for a woman working 40 hours a week, respectively. The living wage for a woman with a child are $20.72 and  $21.18 an hour, respectively. What do we mean by “living wage”? This is a conservative view of what is enough money to pay for food, child care, medical expense, housing, transportation, and taxes. You cannot live in dignity without any of these. So the minimum wage needs to go up substantially to decrease the number of abortions.

If a woman is going to work and not abort her child, she needs to know that she can find affordable child-care. What does this mean? It means that a woman can find affordable child care where her child will be safe from accidental injury, safe from perverse harm, where the child will be happy and loved, and will receive appropriate nutrition and education. So Texas needs a well regulated, licensed child-care system that a person on a living wage can afford.

All mothers want their children to be healthy. Why would a woman considering an abortion be any different? Children get sick and need health care. Our current health care system in America is broken. Even families with income above a living wage cannot afford health care. We have to fix this. We have to fix this before we can expect to see a substantial decline in the number of abortions. This is a difficult problem. There are disagreements about the solution. We have to get on with it. Every woman and every family has to have affordable health care if we want them to raise their children instead of aborting them.

Finally we have to do something about education. Every mother, every family in America wants to see their children do better than they have done. The children of Americans with incomes below a living wage do not prosper. As adults most will not do better than their parents. This is true in part because schools in poor neighborhoods do not provide a quality education for poor children. We Americans can argue about this, but in the end we need to make sure that every school in America is excellent. When a woman is considering an abortion, the prospect of an excellent education for her child will help her to say no.

So if we want to prevent a woman from having an abortion, we need to put our money where our mouths are. The best approach is to provide affordable family planning and contraception, and to make sure that she has the income, health care, child-care, and education she needs so that she can say no to abortion. Or else we should expect her to abort, or abandon her child. Then we can pay for a foster care system that doesn’t serve the child well and does not serve America well. It is better to support income, child-care, health care, and education for women and their children. If you think the life of an unborn child has to be saved, then you should step forward and help pay the cost to decrease the number of abortions.