Why Abortion Bans Aren’t Pro-Life

The issue of abortion exploded this week with the leak of a Supreme Court draft ruling to overturn Roe v Wade, so this APV article was updated with new information.

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RELATED VIDEOS

Why Abortion Bans Aren't Pro Life (3:09)

In this short video, Robert Reich reminds us what being forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term actually means:

1. Families are 4x more likely to live below poverty line

2. Parents are 3x less likely to have full-time work

3. Parents are 6x more likely to receive public assistance

Abortion bans aren’t pro-life. They’re pro-poverty. And abortion bans aren't fiscally responsible. They're racist and mean-spirited.

What Happened to the Party of Limited Government? (2:09)

• Republican governors ban mask mandates.

• Republican states outlaw abortions.

• Republican lawmakers prohibit the teaching of our racist past.

• Republican lawmakers force transgender kids to use bathrooms or play sports according to their assigned gender at birth.

• And Republican lawmakers are making it harder for people to vote.

And we’re supposed to believe this is the party of “limited government”? They say they're the party of personal freedoms while denying us freedoms and imposing their own ideology.

And these four recently added videos also add perspective to the SCOTUS leak:

• Politico Reporter on Leaked SCOTUS Draft Opinion Overturning Roe V. Wade (17:58) Includes annotated details of the opinion itself.

• What five conservative justices said about overturning abortion rulings (1:44) In their own words.

• Stephen Colbert: GOP Cowards Afraid To Celebrate Roe v. Wade Ruling (7:00) 'Sampling of late night comedian coverage

• The Abortion Divide PBS FRONTLINE documentary from 2019 (53:17)

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Stare Decisis is Essential to Social Stability.

According to this Washington Post article, the right-wing radical majority on the Supreme Court doesn’t care about precedence. It seems ready to wipe away 50 years of legal history to invoke religion-based tyranny that will disrupt lives. It will further weaken trust in public institutions and induce utter contempt from millions whose lives will need rearranging.

Beyond abortion, an endless list of other freedoms will no longer be protected unless you can point to language in the Constitution expressly guaranteeing those rights, or unless you can convince five Supreme Court justices that they are "deeply rooted in this nation's history and tradition" and "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty." Here's just a starter list:

• A ban on contraception is next, and will government start following menstrual cycles?

• When states also ban the abortion pill, wouldn't they then have to monitor your online purchases or mailbox deliveries? They might just rely on your neighbors to do that and pay a bounty for any conviction, as the Texas law allows?

• What punishment might women face if having an abortion is seen as premeditated murder and they get caught?

• Your right to marry whomever you love is at risk. That could include a ban on gay marriage and interracial marriage. What of their children?

• Will gay or transgender kids be segregated into different classrooms or schools?

• Governor Greg Abbott says Texas could challenge a historic SCOTUS case requiring states to educate all kids. Which kids will be left behind?

• Consider the effect that criminalizing abortion would have on women in the military. Will the military have trouble recruiting women, who are especially critical in scientific and cybersecurity functions? And will our national security be impaired?

• Women in the workforce might need to quit jobs, transfer colleges, relocate their businesses or physically move because the Supreme Court.

• Businesses with workers spread coast-to-coast might face logistical hurdles to providing equal access to health care for workers in Texas vs. California.

• Some companies might struggle to attract new hires to states with abortion bans. Entire parts of the country could be ruled in or out for new development and investment.

• Will businesses have to relocate? Will they face a wave of resignations as women and families reorder their lives?

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Follow the Money

According to an article shared by Public Citizen, many big corporations and consumer brands have been funding anti-abortion political action committees since 2016:

• Amazon: $974,000

• AT&T: $1,472,800

• Citigroup: $685,000

• Coca-Cola: $2,624,000

• Comcast: $1,869,000

• CVS: $1,380,000

• General Motors: $2,406,000

• Google: $525,700

• T-Mobile: $343,400

• Verizon: $901,100

• Walgreens: $496,700

• Walmart: $1,140,000

• Wells Fargo: $471,800

Keep that in mind as you chose who to support, but also know that other companies are helping their female workers get abortions when needed. Some, including Amazon and Citi, seem to be playing both sides of the issue as they struggle to control brand image. According to Financial Post, here are brands supporting their workers:

• Amazon

• Apple

• Citigroup

• GoDaddy

• Levi’s

• Lyft and Uber

• Match.com

• Salesforce

• Yelp

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Why Abortion Bans Aren’t Fiscally Conservative

It seems to me that fiscally conservative public policy would include strategic investments in the improved health, skill sets, and productivity of our nation’s workforce. That's because of the positive benefits to society and the economy. But the GOP seems more driven by fear of “others” and imposing their religious beliefs onto everyone while protecting and growing the wealth of the already wealthy with no concern for the needy. And then there’s social conservatism, which today seems more intent on reversing 50 years of advances that progressives see as progress.

ABORTION ELSEWHERE (from @my-feminism)

"In the Netherlands, abortion is freely available on demand. Yet the Netherlands boasts the lowest abortion rate in the world, about 6 abortions per 1,000 pregnant women per year, and the complication and death rates for abortion are minuscule. [Update: An independent fact check found a problem with the original claim. Although the Netherlands's abortion rate is low, it's not as low as Singapore and Switzerland, the two with the world's lowest.]

"How do they do it? First of all, contraception is widely available and free -- it's covered by the national health insurance plan. Holland also carries out extensive public education on contraception, family planning, and sexuality. An ethic of personal responsibility for one's sexual activity is strongly promoted.

"Of course, some people say that teaching kids about sex and contraception will only encourage them to have lots of sex. But Dutch teenagers tend to have less frequent sex, starting at an older age, than American teenagers, and the Dutch teenage pregnancy rate is 9 times lower than in the U.S."