“Why Can’t You Just Trust Women?”

“Why can’t you just trust women?” asked Tim Kaine at the 2016 vice-presidential debate, while arguing that he personally believes abortion is wrong, but he would not fight for a society that actually discourages it. Here are four reasons the state’s interest is not perfectly aligned with unrestricted private pregnancy termination decisions:

1. 50M plus missing people, aborted in America since 1970. That is somewhere between 200 and 300 aborted children for every 1000 live births. Apparently when we just trust women, there is a lot of abortion. If we believe abortion at the scale of one-fifth of our next generation population it is wrong, why would we not as a society discourage it? Murders by comparison happen in the single digits per 100,000 people.
2. Behind every unborn baby there is also a father. Possibly a father that does not want to get married or pay child support. Possibly a father that does not know. Possibly a father that is pressuring the mother to get an abortion.
3. Pregnant women are vulnerable. They are being asked by their own biology to give up hopes and dreams for a time in order to make room for new life. If possible, important decisions should not be made during a crisis, but beforehand. To “just trust women” at a most vulnerable time is not good planning for anyone.
4. Society’s treatment of the most vulnerable among us is based on a knowledge that we are all vulnerable sometime, and that the quality of our character is measured with the golden rule of treating others as we would be treated ourselves. Of course, we have all already been born. We need to treat all unborn children as if they were ourselves.

There are ways to discourage abortion in the law without punishing the mother or her doctor as murderer. Even pro-life people do not suggest the woman be punished like a murderer. Given the balance that needs to be struck between the woman’s interests and society’s vested interest in continuing life perhaps it is time to take a look at them. An example discouragement might be a financial levy aimed at the father. An example incentive might be universal basic income for moms with young children.