{"id":261892,"date":"2022-02-03T14:42:40","date_gmt":"2022-02-03T20:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=261892"},"modified":"2022-02-06T22:12:35","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T04:12:35","slug":"roe-v-wade-incentives-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/roe-v-wade-incentives-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"How Roe v. Wade created structural incentives for abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

What kind of world did Roe v. Wade<\/em> create? To Tish Harrison Warren, an Anglican priest who wrote a recent op-ed in the New York Times<\/a>, 49 years of legalized abortion have left us with systemic realities that push women to choose abortion over life-affirming alternatives.<\/p>\n

Roe v. Wade<\/em> incentivizes the choice of abortion<\/h3>\n

According to Warren, Roe v. Wade<\/em> created systemic incentives that make abortion the expected choice<\/em> for women who have unintended pregnancies. Indeed, pressure to end the lives of preborn babies<\/a> is an all-too-common factor for the women choosing to have nearly 900,000 abortions<\/a>\u00a0annually \u2013 many of whom later profoundly regret their decision. \u201cA culture that embraces abortion on demand will end up, however unintentionally, incentivizing that choice,\u201d Warren argued. \u201cThis has downstream consequences for women deciding whether to continue with a pregnancy.\u201d<\/p>\n

One California woman\u2019s experience<\/a> resembles that of many women:<\/p>\n

\u201cI found out I was pregnant. Like most other college-age women in my situation, I felt alone, scared, unsure of my future and incredibly underprepared. I visited a local Planned Parenthood, where a counselor tried to convince me that I was irresponsible, that I wasn\u2019t ready to be a mom and that abortion was my only option.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Female athletes<\/a> have reported being under extreme pressure to abort their children, as Olympian Sanya Richards-Ross noted in an interview<\/a> with Sports Illustrated Now. \u201cI literally don\u2019t know another female track athlete who hasn\u2019t had an abortion…” she said, “and that\u2019s sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Women are told they must choose success or motherhood, but that they cannot have both. Mothers like Briana Williams<\/a>, a 24-year-old Harvard Law School graduate, show how difficult it can be to persevere in the face of these systemic realities. \u201cThere were many days that I\u2019d go into a depression because I felt overwhelmed and let the pressure of what I was trying to do get to me,\u201d William said, according to Live Action News. \u201cI suppose I just did what I had to do, regardless of how I felt on the inside, because I did not want people to be able to say that I had to choose between motherhood and success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even Warren herself has not been exempt from pressure to abort. When an ultrasound revealed her baby had possible fetal abnormalities, Warren was rushed to further diagnostic testing. \u201c[The nurse] told me that we should find out as soon as possible if the baby had a disorder in case we wanted to end the pregnancy,\u201d Warren wrote. \u201cWe assured her that whatever the results, we would not end the pregnancy. In pedantic tones she repeatedly told us, \u2018You may change your mind.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n