A Brief Look at a Woman's Right to Abortion

One of our most fundamental rights as women is the right to choose whether and when to have children. Only when we are in control of that choice are we free to be all that we can be for ourselves, for children we already have or may have in the future, for our partners, for our communities. Birth control is the single best tool for implementing this choice, but today, birth control methods are not always effective enough for us to be able always to avoid unwanted pregnancy. And our society's attitudes toward sexuality, sex education and health care make it hard for many of us, especially the very young and the poor, to choose, obtain and use methods of birth control that will work for us. So right now, for many of us, a second indispensable tool for taking control of our fertil­ity is abortion, the termination of a pregnancy by medi­cal means.

The decision to have an abortion is rarely free of con­flict. Even though a pre-twelve-week abortion performed by a trained person takes only 10 to 15 minutes and is medically very safe, most of us would much rather pre­vent a pregnancy than end one. But when an unwanted pregnancy does occur, many of us feel that giving birth to a baby we cannot properly care for would be a greater grief than abortion, both for us and for the child. So we in our collective believe that women must be free to choose abortion. We want all abortions to be legal, inex­pensive (ideally free, as all health care should be), volun­tary and safe, done in a supportive atmosphere with sufficient t information-sharing and counseling.

Abortion is now legal in the United States. In 1973, after several years of research and pressure at all levels by women's groups, family planning organizations and civil liberties groups, the United States Supreme Court legalized abortion performed by doctors up through twenty-four weeks of pregnancy (with minor regulation by the states only after twelve weeks of pregnancy). To­day any of us who so choose should be able to end an unwanted pregnancy with a safe and relatively inexpen­sive abortion in a clinic, hospital or doctor's office. Un­fortunately, this is not always the case. In many parts of the country abortion is still less available than it should be, more expensive than it needs to be, and a more nega­tive experience than it ought to be. And the Supreme Court decision is under attack by a small but powerful anti-abortion movement. We have come a long way from the time of nightmarish illegal abortions, but we also have a long way to go.

We know that a number of women and men believe sincerely that abortion is wrong. To them, abortion vio­lates the "right to life" of an unborn fetus; it "kills" an actual person; it is another unacceptable act of violence in a violent society. We cannot agree with them that an unborn fetus has more rights than the pregnant woman who is carrying it. Further, many of us who choose abor­tion believe that the quality of life we offer our chil­dren-which includes our emotional and situational readiness for a child or another child-is as important as the life itself.

We defend any woman's right not to end a pregnancy if she feels abortion is wrong for her. But some who are against abortion for themselves want to restrict others' freedom. We believe they are wrong to try to impose their beliefs on us.