Throwing the Baby Out with the Bathwater

Groups opposed to abortion rights love to target their ire at Planned Parenthood, so much so that many (if not all; I don't know) Planned Parenthood clinics have been forced to have security to rival a bank's. Do these people not realize that, if their cause is indeed minimizing the number of abortions taking place, hurting Planned Parenthood is one of the worst things they could do?

Planned Parenthood does not advocate abortion. The bulk of Planned Parenthood's services are sexuality education, contraception, and routine gynecologic care, all provided on a sliding-fee scale so that women who can least afford to have an unplanned pregnancy can afford to prevent one. Seems to me that if one wants to minimize abortions, that's great and good work, and anti-abortion groups and individuals ought to be rushing to support this work. If more young women knew how to prevent pregnancy (in the devastatingly impoverished community of East St. Louis, Illinois, for one example, 2 out of 5 babies are born to teenage mothers, according to a report on NPR's All Things Considered today), and could afford to do so, there would be fewer unwanted pregnancies, and therefore a smaller population of people who might potentially seek abortions.

So why aren't anti-abortion organizations rushing to support Planned Parenthood?

Because they do offer abortions, some would say. But only certain of PP's locations perform abortions at all, and those that do, do so with the following caveat:

Abortion services must include information on the nature, consequences, and risks of the procedure, and counseling on the alternatives available to the woman, so as to assure an informed and responsible decision concerning the continuation or termination of pregnancy.

Doesn't sound like they're the eager baby-killers some would paint them as.

In fact, I don't think it's that at all, because many of the same people, particularly conservative religious groups and individuals, who oppose abortion also oppose access to contraception. The only acceptable way to prevent a pregnancy in their view is abstinence. Fair enough, if that's your personal choice. But if they're looking to be the sex police, well, I don't think they're going to have much success. (Do we need to list the high-profile conservatives--evangelical ministers, Republican office-holders, etc.--whose careers have been derailed when their extramarital relationships were revealed? No, I didn't think so.) They can't keep their own trousers zipped, it's rather unfair to assume that everyone else will behave better.

Trousers zipped. Wait...there we have it. This isn't so much about abortion as it is about sex--by which I mean gender, not the sex act. Getting pregnant: the woman's problem. Not keeping the trousers zipped: only the man's problem if he gets caught. Planned Parenthood is providing services that permit women to control their own sexuality. The people who oppose Planned Parenthood aren't doing so in order to minimize abortions--and in fact by harming PP and its educational and contraceptive activities, they may be increasing the number of women seeking abortions--they are trying to restrict women's sexuality.

None of this is news, but it bears repeating: the people who are bludgeoning Planned Parenthood in the name of stopping abortion are actually increasing unwanted pregnancies, babies that mothers can't support, single-parent families, and abortions. Now, tell me again, who are the baby-killers?