False Choices
On July 12th, my wife and I watched Liz Benjamin’s interview with Katie Wilson on Capital Tonight.
What I found to be interesting about this interview was the discussion between Ms. Benjamin and Ms. Wilson about what it meant to be a Democrat.
At one point, Ms. Benjamin asked Katie Wilson, essentially, what kind of Democrat she would be. Ms. Wilson answered, “a North Country Democrat.” Ms. Benjamin, not knowing what that meant and seemingly trying to stick to a a traditional, easy to understand framework, she turned to a checklist.
Guns? Abortion?
The choice of these two issues, I think, is telling and demonstrates how the media tends to oversimplify very complex issues so that it can fit within a television segment. Meanwhile, the actual issues that matter to people in the district are ignored. A question about how to generate jobs? A question about improving infrastructure? Questions on social mobility and education? No — let’s return to guns and abortion, because it’s easy to fit everyone into one of two camps on those issues. There is often little room for nuance. And, the media hates nuance because details get in the way of headlines.

Let’s walk through a more nuanced way to approach the abortion debate.
Let’s start with my basic position: Health decisions must be between women and their doctors. There is a right to privacy and a right to control one’s own body. From those rights, derives another right: a woman has the right to terminate a pregnancy. In cases when her life is at stake, that right extends throughout the pregnancy. In cases when health and life of mother are not at stake, then some balance of rights between the mother’s right to control her body and the rights of the fetus / baby must be reconciled. For me, viability (or perhaps a bit longer than 20 weeks) would be the dividing line.
But, it is obviously not a simple matter. It touches on the political, the theological, the philosophical, and the biological. Questions of when life begins, of when personhood starts, of when ensoulment occurs, and of when a fetus obtains rights are not easy to answer. In fact, such questions may not just be difficult to answer, but are actually impossible to answer in a factual and objective way.
Since becoming a father, I’ve become more interested in policies that can empower mothers and strengthen families. Compared to many countries, we provide very little support to new mothers and fathers. I would argue that greater support would not only have many benefits for the family and for society, but would also have an additional benefit: reducing the number of abortions (without actually outlawing the practice).
My wife and I love our son deeply. From the time we met him during the first ultrasound, we loved him. If we had lost him during the pregnancy, even during the early weeks, we would have mourned and the loss would have been heavy and hard to bear. His life, even at that young age, had value and meaning.
I wish that abortions happened with less frequency. I wish that we as a society did more to support mothers. I wish that people found themselves in circumstances and with sufficient support from the community such that they would not have to choose to have an abortion. Right now — we do not live in that world.
But, we could do more. As a first step, we might try shifting the way that we treat mothers (or mothers to be). Perhaps, instead of discussing ways to punish mothers and doctors or to outlaw abortion (which will drive the procedures into the dangerous world of black market abortions), let’s outline policies that will reduce the number of abortions by reducing the need for terminating pregnancies. Policies that control the factors that lead one to choose an abortion, rather than outlawing abortions, might be a common ground way of approaching this complex and emotion problem, while also providing greater support generally to women, mothers, and families.
It’s not hard to come up with a common sense list of measures that could help:
- Universal prenatal health care will help to ensure healthy moms and healthy pregnancies
- Universal access to contraception can help reduce unintended pregnancies
- More expansive sex education that expands beyond just abstinence only, which will hopefully reduce unintended pregnancies
- Stronger investments in adoption infrastructure and pro-adoption policies that will encourage women, who find themselves in an unwanted pregnancy but that aren’t ready to be a mother, to have a reasonable and stable option for their baby
- Paid maternity (and paternity) leave would allow greater economic security to young families and reduce the burden of carrying a pregnancy to term
- Prioritize education and support for breastfeeding over formula feeding. Nursing is less expensive than formula feeding, leads to better nutrition, reduces sickness, encourages bonding and development. Formula has its place and is important, but we should not allow undue burden and corporate interests to unfairly skew outcomes toward formula feeding
- Universal postnatal coverage, including home visits in first few days after returning home with infant to ensure a safe sleeping space, good nutrition, nursing support, etc. Ensuring that women know that they won’t be alone and that the community will offer services to help them reduces the fear of motherhood and would reduce the number of abortions
- Universal Pre-K would help to lower childcare costs and introduce children at an earlier age to a structured learning environment. This would also allow mothers to concentrate on younger children or to return to work sooner, should they so choose. It would also reduce childcare costs.
- Extended school years to ensure that our children are more competitive relative to the rest of the world from an education perspective, but also to eliminate the burden or disruption to working families
This is only a partial list and could be easily expanded. There is common ground to be found where we (pro-choice and pro-life) can do a great deal together to reduce the overall number of abortions and strengthen families. Being pro-life cannot just be solely focused on outlawing abortions. Pro-life must mean being pro-life and pro-mother from conception, through labor, through early childhood and development. There are ways, through building up and supporting mothers and young families, that we can reduce abortions without resorting to legal threats and fear. Compassion can do more than force.
Unfortunately, Liz Benjamin’s program and her questions would not have allowed for this type of answer. Gray areas with nuance had no place. And, unfortunately, Katie Wilson only had the opportunity to say: “I’m pro-choice all the way.” It’s probably the best answer that she could offer given the constraints of the program. I can’t blame her for the short response.
But, as Democrats, we need to embrace nuance and resist overly simplistic categorizations, especially those that try to bucket everyone into one of two groups. If we are to find a set of common sense policies that are targeted enough to address the actual problems of this district, we’ll need to avoid these false choices. We need to own the nuance and own the details. It’s the only way we are going to deliver real solutions for the problems facing this district.