Note: This is a reaction piece to my fellow Loras grad and content creator Christian Elliot's piece "Toward Better Catholic-Democrat-Speak On Abortion."

As we all know, the country finally ended its guessing game of who Hillary Clinton's vice-presidential pick is. Though he was talked about before the announcement with other contenders, it ended up being Virginia Senator Tim Kaine. One of the most prominent issues regarding has been his mixed history on abortion and related issues, and there are some who aren't happy about it. Further muddying the choice of Kaine as VP is that, despite the Democrats nominating someone who hasn't been afraid to call herself a feminist and the Democrats putting repealing the Hyde Amendment (more on that can be found here) on their platform for the first time, Kaine went in a different direction with the Hyde Amendment.

Perhaps the biggest issue involving Kaine and his history on abortion is how the topic is framed: Kaine being personally opposed to it (Kaine is Catholic) but upholding the law on abortion nonetheless. His spotty record as Governor of Virginia has since turned more pro-choice in the Senate, including a perfect score from Planned Parenthood. Still, this elaborate construction around the issue doesn't make Kaine's case any easier.

With all this whirlwind about abortion (I'm not even gonna touch the anti-abortion side), we need to ask ourselves this one question: Why? Why do we still put on this epic crusade from both sides on abortion? More than 40 years after Roe v. Wade rendered null and void abortion laws that violated due process (but left room for exceptions regarding abortion), the fight rages on even in Dubuque! The tragedy of it all is that it doesn't need to be this way, because two of our European allies have shown how to effectively end the debate on abortion.

Let's start with the United Kingdom. Like the U.S., the U.K. also had strict laws regarding abortion (and Northern Ireland still does), until abortion was made more accessible in the '60s. While there's been some backlash against abortion from some U.K. sources, both musical and political, there are some major differences compared to the U.S. On one side, you can find out how to get an abortion through the NHS, the U.K.'s public universal healthcare system. While there are some requirements before an abortion can be performed, just think about it: taxpayers paying for services that allow women to have abortions! Over here, it was a miracle that the Supreme Court ruled against major parts of Texas' HB 2, which had some extraordinary restrictions against abortion clinics and such (though that drama isn't over just yet). While there are some barriers for women in the U.K., the NHS accessibility to abortion is one area where the two sides of the Atlantic differ greatly.

In the Netherlands, the contrast is also stark. A brief overview of abortion in the Netherlands can be found here. For those who won't click on the link: Although there are some exceptions with getting an abortion, generally, women are widely able to get an abortion. It's important to note that both the U.K. and the Netherlands amended their abortion laws via national legislation, whereas the U.S. Supreme Court decided on the topic of abortion.

Does this mean that the U.S. is worse off because of a court ruling? It depends. There are other factors that complicate the topic when comparing the U.S. to other countries, as evidenced by this United Nations report. (Some choice findings: the U.K. doesn't allow abortion on request, while countries as diverse as Tunisia and China do.) Also, tying back to Tim Kaine and the topic of religion in regards to abortion, one fact is undeniably true: The U.S. has a higher percentage of people who consider religion a very important part of their lives than some other countries (again, diverse: according to this statistic, we're higher on that measure than Mexico, Italy and Israel, among others).

Or maybe we're just unique. After all, we still have fake news hosts devoting at-length pieces about abortion, particularly Texas. In contrast, neither manifesto issued by the Labour or Conservative Parties in the U.K.'s general election last year mention abortion. Not once! For even more contrast, not only is there at least one instance where the call for more abortion access has been made in Ireland, but in some cases, Ireland's draconian restrictions violated the human rights of women, as recently declared by people associated with the U.N. Here's a tip: If your abortion laws are so harsh that the U.N. denounced them, you're doing something wrong. Other examples, such as the forced abortions under China's one-child policy, are extreme in obvious ways, but it's hard to show an example of one country being a model to follow regarding abortion.

The overall point is this: Tim Kaine's threading the needle on abortion is just the latest example of how unbearably frustrating the abortion debate is in the U.S. While personal feelings on the matter can influence where to take the abortion debate, mostly they shouldn't matter. While no debate can be a drawback (considering that abortion isn't either a right or fully legal in the U.K. or the Netherlands, their laws can be better), it also prevents the topic from going into the gutter, like when Marco Rubio sounded off in February. So until we can end the abortion debate in the U.S., we're gonna be subjected to more episodes like the one Tim Kaine provided, and we're all gonna suffer as a result.