White House Hopes for Common Ground on Abortion Reduction
In an effort find “common ground” on policies to prevent teen pregnancies and reduce the need for abortion, the White House has begun a series of discussions among a diverse group of abortion-rights supporters and opponents. According to the Wall Street Journal, the initial meetings, which began a month ago and are being led by domestic policy advisor Melody Barnes, have revealed areas of potential compromise as well as stark disagreements.
From the start, the polarizing question of whether abortion should be legal was taken off the table. Instead, the discussion has centered on issues surrounding sex education, responsible use of contraception, maternal and child health, pregnancy discrimination, and adoption. The Wall Street Journal reports:
Participants say that suggestions included: improving education about use of contraception; better access to emergency contraception (which can be used after sex); improving education about sex, relationships and the “sacredness of sex”; stamping out employment discrimination against pregnant women; improving family-leave policies; and encouraging adoption.
However, the WSJ notes that even without the hot-button topic of abortion, there are some major divergences in priorities and approach between the two sides: “Participants said that abortion opponents tended to focus on efforts to help pregnant women keep their babies, while the abortion-rights camp focused on preventing unwanted pregnancy.”
Consequently, many abortion-rights opponents support more funding for “pregnancy crisis centers,” which discourage women from having abortions by posing as women’s health clinics and giving out inaccurate information. Clearly not something the abortion-rights community is going to get behind anytime soon.
And while abortion-rights advocates want more support for contraception, some opponents are “unenthusiastic” about that. In fact, as Judy Berman points out in a good analysis on Salon, that’s a bit of an understatement. Many anti-choice activists are downright antagonistic towards efforts to increase access to birth control and emergency contraception.
Furthermore, given the overlap between the anti-choice movement and the abstinence-only camp, odds are good that some additional conflicts over sex education will crop up eventually.
Any earnest effort to reduce the need for abortion must include comprehensive sex education and better access to contraception. So long as a large segment of the anti-choice movement also happens to be opposed to these very things, the search for common ground could be more difficult than the White House anticipated.
By Maya Dusenbery