We've concluded Trump's first week of presidency, and abortion has been thrust back into the forefront of conversations. An abundance of articles flooded the media on the topic in the past few days, filled with heartbreaking stories and jaw-dropping statistics.
When an individual chooses to make abortion the topic of their social media posts, blogs, or articles, they often have an extremely strong emotional connection to the topic. Even friends and colleagues get into heated debates on abortion, both on its morality and its legality.
We all love facts, but too often abortion is a debate of opinion and emotion. Everybody has a voice on the matter. In fact, according to a poll conducted by Gallup, only 2% of respondents voiced that they had "no opinion" on abortion. Far too commonly, authors of these pieces provide false statistics in hopes of furthering their cause.
Here's the problem with spreading false statistics: in addition to spreading blind propaganda of your own cause, you make it more difficult to measure the progressive changes being made.
Take a look at ten facts that are relevant to abortion's legality:
Myth: Prior to abortion being legalized in 1973, up to 5,000 women died each year from illegal abortion procedures.
1. In 1972, the year before abortion was federally legalized, 63 women in the United States died from illegal abortion (CDC).
Although many pro-choice personnel have depicted this number to be in the thousands, the death toll has not been that high since prior to 1950. Prior to the development of antibiotics, abortion was the leading cause of maternal death in the U.S.
2. Legalization of abortion nearly eliminated risks of death in legal abortion procedures.
By 1997, the death rate in legal abortions had dropped to 0.6 per 100,000 procedures.
Myth: More people have abortions when there are laws protecting the procedure.
3. Abortion rates are steady, whether or not the procedure is legal (World Health Organization).
So, legality aside, women are having the procedure.
Myth: Women will be faced with post-abortion syndrome, and deeply regret terminating the pregnancy.
4. Two years after having an abortion, 72% of women reported being satisfied with their decision.
Although dramatizations are shown by pro-lifers of regretful would-be mothers, the majority of women who undergo an abortion do not regret doing so.
Myth: Men take care of the kids just as much as the mother does.
5. 82.5% of custodial parents are single mothers (U.S. Census Bureau).
Meaning that there are over 11 million single mothers in America.
6. Nearly one-third of single mothers are below the poverty line (U.S. Census Bureau).
In 2014, over three and a half million mothers fell into this category.
7. Nearly two million single mothers brought in less than $15,730 in 2014.
The average cost of raising one child was estimated in 2014 to be $13,630 per year. The amount remaining for the mother is approximately two-fifths of the Federal minimum wage.
That doesn't take into account inflation, however, which raises the annual costs of raising a child to $16,916.
Myth: All women benefit from child support.
8. Only 52.3% of custodial mothers have a child support agreement (U.S. Census Bureau).
Regardless of whether that agreement is formal or informal, only slightly more than half of single mothers have the agreement in place period. This does not account for the men not actually making their payments.
9. The average child support payment has decreased $1,997 over the past decade (U.S. Census Bureau).
Slightly more than half of custodial mothers will receive $3,950 per year in child support.
10. Of those that have child support agreements, less than half received full payment in 2013 (U.S. Census Bureau).
Simply because abortions are legal does not mean that those who are morally opposed to abortions will magically begin having them. The decision to terminate a pregnancy should be agreed upon between both of the parents, but when a disagreement occurs, the choice must be left to the woman. Why?
Because only one in six custodial parents is a male.
Because, 83% of the time, the child is left in the woman's care primarily.
Because, too often, that woman is being left without support from her male counterpart.
And until us men start owning up to our parts as fathers every single time we give a woman a child to take care of, we cannot expect women to birth every single pregnancy we give them.
When my mother was 19, she gave birth to me. She fought tooth and nail to provide for me in the early years, going so far as to sleep on the floor to gift me a place to sleep as a baby.
It was hard on her financially, obviously. Nearly two million American women bring in about $20,000 annually, a mere six thousand more than the cost of raising a child alone. The remainder, by the way, is merely two-fifths of the Federal minimum wage. But when it comes down to it, she was faced with a choice on what to do, and undertook the hardships associated with giving birth to me. And she did succeeded. My mother is the strongest woman that I know, but that doesn't mean every woman can do what she did.
Not every person's story is the same as my own. And although women have the ability to terminate their pregnancies, my mother chose not to.
Despite this being my own story, it's necessary to understand that not everybody's situation replicates your own. Each instance of pregnancy carries its own surrounding factors, and that is why we need to leave it as a decision left up to each mother.
Personal accounts of pregnancy and terminations are emotional. However, we all need to remember to keep the good of the whole in mind, and sometimes the whole doesn't represent your own experience.
