{"id":156717,"date":"2016-11-16T08:39:05","date_gmt":"2016-11-16T13:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=156717"},"modified":"2016-11-15T20:09:52","modified_gmt":"2016-11-16T01:09:52","slug":"huffpos-defense-of-abortion-access-puts-cart-before-the-horse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/huffpos-defense-of-abortion-access-puts-cart-before-the-horse\/","title":{"rendered":"HuffPo’s defense of abortion “access” puts the cart before the horse"},"content":{"rendered":"
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President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s recent comments<\/a> that without Roe v. Wade<\/em>, women might have to travel to other states for abortions did not sit well<\/a> with Catherine Pearson of the Huffington Post (a publication so bitterly anti-Trump that it attached<\/a> a disclaimer calling him a \u201cmisogynist,\u201d among a litany of hyperbolic names, to all of its Trump \u201creporting\u201d).<\/p>\n

HuffPo\u2019s \u201cWomen & Parents Senior Reporter,\u201d in a post that most certainly doesn\u2019t sound like reporting, calls Trump’s\u00a0answer \u201cutter BS\u201d and an \u201cabsurd suggestion,\u201d and attempted to explain why \u201cthat is a terrible \u201csolution\u2019\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current lay of the land is that in the northeast and along the west coast \u2015 with a few places in the middle of the country, like Illinois \u2015 access to abortion has been somewhat protected,\u201d Elizabeth Nash, senior state issues manager with the Guttmacher Institute told The Huffington Post. \u201cAround the rest of the country, access is, mostly, much more limited.\u201d\u00a0If\u00a0Roe v. Wade were overturned, and\u00a0if\u00a0certain states banned abortion, the country would have a much more bifurcated system than it already does, she said [\u2026]<\/p>\n

\u201cAn abortion [typically] costs around $500 and many people cannot come up with that kind of money immediately,\u201d said Nash. \u201cIf women have to travel, then they have other issues, like needing to take time off from work and arrange for childcare, because we know that 60 percent of women who have abortions already have a child.\u201d Women may lose wages when they take that time off, she added, and then have to pay for a hotel or a plane\/train ticket on top of the procedure itself.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not mentioned: the part where any of this should bother anyone.<\/p>\n

Tellingly, these are only \u201cbad things\u201d if one presupposes that abortion availability is a good thing. But for the rest of us who are unconvinced of Pearson\u2019s personal beliefs,\u00a0increasing the costs or logistical difficulties of getting one is not a concern, because\u00a0we\u00a0think abortion is unjust for killing babies and ultimately\u00a0harmful to women in the long term<\/a>. This is what should really bother us:<\/p>\n