I think it is a pressing political issue. And I am very concerned that we have allowed the Republican party alone to define the pro-life position.
The Democrats have not understood where evangelicals are coming from. They would be able to get a great deal of support from the evangelicals if they would propagate what they know to be true: 72% of all abortions in America are driven by economic forces. That is to say, it is young women who are pregnant, working at a minimum wage, with no health insurance or possibility for daycare, with no pre-natal or post-natal help, and who knows that if she has the baby it’s going to cost her thousands of dollars for hospital care.
So we have to begin to ask, “What’s this woman going to do?†Seventy-two percent of the people who’ve had abortions were driven by economic forces and when asked by the Guttmacher Institute, which is a pro-choice organization, “Would you have an abortion if it wasn’t for these economic choices?†would say, “No, we wouldn’t have had the abortion.â€
My question is: how can we as evangelicals call ourselves pro-life if all we are anxious to do is to make abortion illegal? If we are not dealing with the economic forces that are driving people to have abortions?
Tony Campolo on abortion
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First I would like to know how the 72% was calculated.
Second no one that I know is ONLY interested in stopping abortions — most want everyone to have an abundant life, without poverty. Most conservatives feel the best way to fight poverty is with good jobs, by creating an environment where good jobs are normal (as opposed to taking money from some and giving it to others).
Finally, has the “war on poverty” worked? Your answer will depend on how you define “worked?’ In my opinion existing programs have only kept the poor, poor with small percent moving to the middle class.
A Google search shows that the Guttmacher Institute did a survey in 2004 of 1209 women and they discovered that:
I don’t doubt that people are interested in doing more than just stopping abortions but that is the battle cry of most. I’m positive that no one would complain if you created good jobs for low-income single moms. So far very little has worked (including capitalism’s free market) to bring large numbers of people out of poverty. We continue to have very few moving from one economic class to another.
The situation requires more than government handouts, more than just non-profits working on their own and more than just free-market capitalism. It requires all these groups working together to improve the situations of many. Which is why I’m a big fan of the Clinton Global Initiative, which works to bring together all of these groups.
The situation also requires the blessed of us to be willing to help the rest of us.
However training a person in necessary skills takes time and investment which is often something that low-income, under-resourced pregnant women have little of. So in the midst of their situation a helping hand (which most often from the government) is the best thing to keep them on their feet until they can get a hand-up.