Rare…
January 7, 2011, 10:25 am
Posted by Margaret O'Brien Steinfels
In Friday’s Times (1/7/10) : “Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York joined other local religious leaders on Thursday in calling for a new effort to reduce the number of abortions in the city. The annual figure has averaged 90,000 in recent years, or about 40 percent of all pregnancies, twice the national rate….
“But while holding to the conviction that abortion is morally wrong, Archbishop Dolan and the others said they were adopting a more pragmatic goal for New York than abolishing abortion: “Let’s see to it that abortion is rare,” he said. Read it here
The direct link to the news story is here. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/nyregion/07abortion.html?_r=1&ref=timothymdolan
That number of 41% is unbelievable. Now I need to try to figure out what it is in Chicago …
Sorry, forgot to add: the pragmatic goal of making abortion rare suggests, contrary to what is sometimes claimed in these precincts, that the church is not just working on the problem of abortion through lawmaking and court challenges, but on the ground as well – hopefully, person by person.
Those politicians, especially Catholic politicians, who claim that legalized abortion is a lesser evil than illegal abortions should be at the forefront of those trying to make abortion are both through political and personal efforts.
But I have noticed in my pro-life work in pregnancy centers that I have never encountered a volunteer who thinks that abortion should be legal.
Also, some politicians are trying to make the work of pro-life pregnancy centers as difficult as possible. In Baltimore City, the locals Democrats want to force pregnancy centers to advertise that they do not provide abortions.
Somehow, I think that some politicians see abortion as a positive good which should be encouraged as much as possible. The more common abortion is , the less anguish people will feel about it, and the easier the job of the politicians will be.
The American Papist also has a write-up of the event:
http://www.catholicvote.org/discuss/index.php?p=12692
…And neither there nor in the NYT did I see any mention of what the religious leaders propose by way of solutions. There seems to be only denunciation of the rate. Well, okay…
So what to do? That seems to be the vexing question.
The Dish linked to a comparison of the US and the Netherlands in terms of contraceptive use and sexual activity and abortion:
Then you get into lesser evils and other ethical Voldemorts. So what to do?
David: The Times story reported that Archbishop Dolan pointed to adoption services at Catholic Charities. Not necessarily direct help during pregnancy but it is one solution for women who can’t care for a child.
We will likely hear more from pro-life groups on what they do to help pregnant women and my impression is that many of them do quite a lot–even if the story doesn’t mention anything other than adoption.
I was struck by the word, “rare,” because back in the days of Clinton’s declaration of “safe, legal, and rare,” Commonweal published a sympathetic editorial (withdrawn when he vetoed the partial-birth abortion legislation) surrounded by the weeping women!
We who criticize the bishops’ one-note treatment of the subject, should be ready to applaud an effort to be realistic about the issue (not that I think they will drop their opposition to Roe v. Wade).
Peggy, I applaud realism very much. I just want to know what realistic steps they are proposing or backing. I’m not sure I’d expect to hear anything from pro-life groups now since there’s really been nothing for years. Why do you think things are different now? What sorts of efforts would you like to see?
“not that I think they [the bishops] will drop their opposition to Roe v. Wade”
Unclear: do you think the bishops SHOULD drop their opposition to Roe v Wade?
No, I do not think the bishops should drop their opposition to Roe v. Wade; it was a bad decision.
Some of them have become “one-note Johnnies” on the subject to the detriment of the whole body of Catholic moral teaching, including its social justice teaching. Hence, my appeciation for Archbishop Dolan (and apparently Bishop DeMarzio of Brooklyn) for joining with other religious leaders in thinking about ways to reduce abortions. I will point out that not all of the religious leaders in this group necessarily oppose Roe V. Wade or want to make abortions illegal.
At First Things, Wesley Smith suggests peer pressure — convincing teens not to have sex — is a good option:
http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/01/07/abortion-shameful-39-rate-in-nyc/
Just say no? Anything else?
Aren’t there many very obvious ways to reduce abortions, it’s just that we as a people aren’t willing to commit to them? Like the link above discusses, public health resources to educate and encourage people to effectively use contraceptives would certainly reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies. (Let parents teach young people to “just say no”. The public health system’s responsibility is to teach them to be safe). And what about women who do find themselves in unplanned pregnancies? We can at least make sure that it’s not a financial catastrophe: we can ensure that no woman loses her job because she’s pregnant, we can provide financial support to families to ensure no child grows up in poverty, we can provide universal access to health care and to quality daycare.
We can do all of these things, but we don’t want to. Why? Is there some financial calculus to this? The prolife movement would like to prevent abortion as long as it won’t cost too much?
And regarding the NYC numbers, the rate of abortion is highest in the Bronx, where I live. 27.3% of Bronx residents live in poverty. Coincidence?
The answer to the crisis is simple: make having a child not a life-crushing but life- celebrating event! The young women who find themselve pregnant are still maligned, scorned, and left to fend for themselves without family or community or church support.
Several years ago, one of my seniors in our high school youth group became pregnant. She continued to come to almost all of the youth group activities and at our bacculareate Mass, she processed in along with her classmates in their cap and gowns fully showing herself being nearly 8 months along. She received an acclamation and many hugs that day from congregation members who definitely showed her both love and support, telling her how proud they were of her and her dedication to her unborn child.
How often do we see this level of joy expressed when even a happily married woman shows up in church with a pregnancy? Do we even pray for her by name in our liturgies? Or do we toss our heads and cluck our tongues like so many pharisees? We need a ritual approach that sanctifies and blesses pregnancy, that supports and acclaims the women who dedicate themselves to being good mothers, both during gestation and later up bringing! Finally, how many liturgies do we have that are really “family friendly?’
I suspect that many parents of today’s teens really don’t think that sex outside of marriage is all that bad. They probably practiced it themselves. Boomers are of the generation that chucked so many social and religious constraints and “did their own thing.”
We have seen a sense awkwardness demonstrated in TV ads directed at parents dealing with their kids’ used of drugs. I suspect that ditto might be the case when it comes to pre-marital sex. It’s not too hard for kids to determine the time between birth and marriage dates of the first in the family.
As my dad told me well over 50 years ago: the first one can come any time; the second one takes 9 months. He knew from the painful personal experience of his own birth.
“(Let parents teach young people to “just say no”. The public health system’s responsibility is to teach them to be safe).”
Sorry, Irene, but I don’t understand this at all. Are you claiming that there is something that is *un*safe about children just saying no? Is there anything that is contrary to the public health interest, or the public interest in general, in teens abstaining from sex?
Why *wouldn’t* we want abstinence to be the preferred policy of schools, public health officials and other government bodies?
It is a positive step to see a US prelate finally agree to policies that promote “fewer” abortions as being preferable to labeling pregnant women and doctors “murders.”
Some sunshine, some rain.
I will be a lot more sanguine about the bishops’ abortion politics when I see Dolan and his brother bishops committing the Catholic community to full financial support and complete health care for women with unwanted pregnancies (not just lip service in liturgies), and committing Catholic families (especially those with just one or two children) to adopt most, if not all, these children who are brought to term.
Those steps alone would be reason for me to support the church with my charitable donations.
Catholic bishops will not be taken really seriously in this debate until they discard their male chauvinist ideology, adopt a new understanding of human sexuality beyond just procreation, and promote the use of birth control and competent sex education to really reduce abortion to the category of a “rare” event.
Here is an interesting article about abortion providers. What stands out is how because of threats to Physicians abortions have largely gone out of hospitals to clinics. Also Cost effectiveness may well be a reason for facilities concentrating in urban centers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/magazine/18abortion-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
“And regarding the NYC numbers, the rate of abortion is highest in the Bronx, where I live. 27.3% of Bronx residents live in poverty. Coincidence?”
Irene, if it isn’t coincidence, then what is it? Cause and effect? If so, which is cause and which is effect?
If you’re claiming that bearing children out of wedlock is one of the best *causes* of poverty – I wholeheartedly agree. I assist single moms all the time, and am very familiar with their circumstances.
If you think it works the other way somehow … you’ll have to connect the dots for me.
“And what about women who do find themselves in unplanned pregnancies? We can at least make sure that it’s not a financial catastrophe: we can ensure that no woman loses her job because she’s pregnant,”
I’m certain there are laws already that prohibit this. In addition, women (and men) are entitled to weeks of protected employment while on leave to care for newborns. (cf. Family Leave Act).
” we can provide financial support to families to ensure no child grows up in poverty, ”
There are already multiple programs, from Medicaid to Social Security to CHIP to WIC to school lunch subsidies to Section 8 housing to a plethora of state, county and local programs to provide financial assistance for families with children who live in poverty. You may argue that this is a hodge-podge of laws with numerous gaps and overlaps, and I wouldn’t disagree, but that’s not the same as implying that we’re doing nothing. We spend many billions of dollars every year already on assistance for the children of poor families.
“we can provide universal access to health care”
Of course, this is the promise of ObamaCare, so this would seem to be addressed already – and even before ObamaCare completely takes effect, there are programs to provide prenatal care to pregnant women who are unable to pay for their own care.
and to quality daycare.”
There are already various forms of daycare support, including subsidies, tax credits and employer-provided benefits such as discounts and on-site daycare. In addition, day care is a service/ministry provided by many local churches, including Catholic parishes, who tend to be very understanding of the financial struggles of single moms.
I’m not arguing that these programs don’t need to be strengthened and improved. Let’s acknowledge that we’re not starting from scratch, though.
Jim- I think that of course poor women (married or single) are under substantial added pressure to get an abortion, when they aren’t able to support the family they already have. I also believe that, for my neighbors who have marginal, under the table jobs, “maternity leave” is not an option; even unpaid leave (which they can’t afford to take, anyway) is not available. Miss work, lose the job. Small business owners in NYC went crazy a few months back when our City Council tried to require them to provide workers with a few sick days each year; the legislation didn’t pass.
“I just want to know what realistic steps they are proposing or backing. I’m not sure I’d expect to hear anything from pro-life groups now since there’s really been nothing for years.”
Nothing? What about:
* Crisis pregnancy centers
* Education and awareness
* Street counseling
* Direct financial and donation-of-goods assistance
* Adoption assistance
* Prayer
Doesn’t any of that amount to something?
Here is NARAL’s response” http://www.prochoiceny.org/news/press/201101061.shtml
Irene, fair enough.
Poverty corrodes the family environment that’s a prerequisite for raising healthy, well-functioning children. In that sense, nobody should be surprised that abortion rates are higher in poor areas.
We’ve learned for two generations now that throwing government money at the problem doesn’t solve it. (Nor, apparently, does making free or cheap contraception available).
I think it’s time to try other approaches.
Also, Jim, each of the programs you cite are a huge distance from meeting the need. I won’t go through each one, but for daycare, in NYC, our Agency for Children’s Services estimated back in 2008 that there were enough resources available to serve less than 1/3 of low-income children eligible for subsidized daycare or head start. As to welfare programs, since 27% of our Bronx families are living in poverty, they are obviously not working very well. Family Leave Act only covers larger businesses, not small ones (and it is unpaid leave).
I think that if people are serious about reducing abortions, they need to greatly expand the safety net.
Sorry, Jim, our e-mails are missing each other over the internet.
Ok, Irene, now we’re getting somewhere.
There is an organization that is lobbying your state government in Albany, and mine in Springfield, RIGHT NOW, to strengthen all of the programs you cite: daycare, head start, public aid and so on. In my state, it’s called the Catholic Conference of Illinois. In yours, it’s called the NY State Catholic Conference.
A quick visit to the NY site shows that it is calling on Catholics to take action to prevent cuts in TANF funds and prevent the elimination of state funding for the Maternity and Early Childhood Foundation, “a private foundation that funds programs that provide critical services to young low-income pregnant and parenting women to promote proper prenatal care, optimal child health and positive parenting skills. MECF represents the only alternative-to-abortion funding stream in state government. Last year, it received a mere $1.2 million, a relatively small amount of money that did a tremendous amount of good. By contrast, the state budget allows unlimited funding (averaging $45 million a year) for taxpayer-funded abortions. “
Re: Joe K’s link to Naral….For all of their activities, doesn’t sound like they’re preventing abortions either.
I don’t think “Welfare To Work” constituted “throwing money”(a least favorite semantic) at the issue of poverty.
I think the teen pregnancy issue needs realistic and not just talking ideals solutions.
If NYC has a big abortion problem (nice to know the source of the statistic and how it compares to other large urban centers), how well was the Gospel of Life preached there?
If there are far more single mothers across income levels and age levels, not to mention just teen mothers,, should the major (only?) focus be on poverty?
Pro-choicers and pro-lifers tend to talk at each other, in my experience, addressing each other’s points to boost their own — and the actual people in question get overlooked.
I don’t think Irene Baldwin or Jim Pauwels are overlooking the actual people
“I don’t think Irene Baldwin or Jim Pauwels are overlooking the actual people.”
I in no way implied that they were and can’t for the life of me understand where you’d come up with such a line, Peggy.
“Pro-choicers and pro-lifers tend to talk at each other, in my experience, addressing each other’s points to boost their own — and the actual people in question get overlooked.”
Must have been the other David Gibson…
Huh? Does Irene work for NARAL or something? I’m sorry I don’t know the ins and outs of the all the crowd here. I was simply stating an observation about pro-choice and pro-life groups that seems true to me, in that they tend to have pre-set agendas and talking points and rarely veer from them. I have no idea how that pertains to Irene B and Jim P, but you know more than I do, Peggy.
PS: Above all, I think Jim and Irene are having a good discussion above and I in no way wanted to castigate them or even appear to do so, and if that’s how it came across I apologize.
Meanwhile one of the biggest wars in history, still going on, shows at 3,800,00 killed and possibly 5,400,000. This is the Second Congo War in the Democratic Republic of the Congo 1998 2003.
How much do you hear Dolan and the bishops talking, let alone doing something about it. Certainly Catholic Relief Services is out there being the Magnificat. But the fact that we don’t talk about it shows the absurdity of our focus. There are all these stories out there but little said. The words are about abortion, homosexuality, same sex marriage dominate and we add to the mismatch.
http://crs.org/democratic-republic-of-congo/stories/
A month before the 2010 election, the New York State bishops put out a statement that told Catholics to vote based on a candidate’s opposition to abortion. There was no discussion of evaluating candidates who might have a plan to make it rare rather than seek to outlaw it. Here is what they said:
“The inalienable right to life of every innocent human person outweighs other concerns where Catholics may use prudential judgment, such as how best to meet the needs of the poor or to increase access to health care for all.
“The right to life is the right through which all others flow. To the extent candidates reject this fundamental right by supporting an objective evil, such as legal abortion, euthanasia or embryonic stem cell research, Catholics should consider them less acceptable for public office.”
Carl Paladino would be governor of New York today if Catholic New Yorkers heeded the bishops. If the bishops of New York are going for the more practical approach of making abortion “rare” rather than focusing efforts on the unlikely event that abortion would be outlawed in New York State, it really calls for different criteria than those seen in their recent guidelines for voters, which focused heavily on the legality of abortion and little on the services that would help make abortion rare. (The guidelines are at
http://www.nyscatholic.org/pages/news/show_newsDetails.asp?id=523 . )
With the abortion rate so high in a city that is around 40 percent Catholic, it is clear that the church’s message against abortion is not as effective as one would hope. Perhaps a more practical approach – connected to an actual program and not just a press conference – could make a difference. If this is the beginning of a new direction that applies some prudential judgment, it could be significant. But, lacking specifics, I can’t say that it is.
“young women who find themselves pregnant”.
Oh come off it, you guys. This is the second reference in this thread to women “finding themselves pregnant’. There might be a few extremely unfortunate little girls who out of ignorance “find themselves pregnsnt’, but I venture to say not a single woman has done so..
Isn’t it time to start using adult language and to start talking about the responsibilities of adults for the consequences of their own sexual activities? YEs, there are undoubtedly some women who are pressured into having sex sho can’t afford to have a child or another child, but I dare say most abortions are not about such cases. It’s time for a lot of American women — and men — to grow up.
“Fine themselves pregnant”, indeed.
Bill M-
Your comments are so tiresome. Some could raise a topic on floridation of the water and you would bring up the fact that there are wars raging somewhere. Yes, wars are waging somewhere and humanity being the way it is, they will be waged to the end of time. We do live in this valley of tears. Yes, we should resist war and work for peace but that does not mean that at times we shouldn’t discuss other topics.
I wonder what other Protestant leaders were here? Was the Episcopal bishop of New York here? dotcommonwealers love the Episcopal church but I guess the leaders of this church are too busy to worry about abortion. Or maybe they are afraid to say anything that is not PC and possibly alienate their flock.
Another thing ==
You can talk yourselves blue in the face about the relationship between abortion and poverty, and you’ll be right. There IS a strong relationship. But social services and welfare are not the way out for these girls and young women. The ONLY way out permanently is to provide the education that not only their *children* need but also the education the *single mothers* need.
And that will be extremely expensive because it would add a whole adjunct educational system to what we already have. But. as I see it, it is a matter of social justice — the poor are just as entitled to decent educations as the middle class. So let’s spread the blame some — until we’re willing to pay teachers salaries comparable to other professionals, the American public grammar and high school systems will remain crummyy in poor neighborhoods especially. And poor kids will drop out of school out of boredom, and, yes, have sex out of boredom as well because it is terribly, terribly boring being poor and uneducated. Abortion will be a neverending disgrace in this country until we get serious about public education..
Complexity, complexity.
Throwing more money at public schools is not the answer. The change has to happen in the home. Zuckerberg is giving $100m to Newark public schools. Anyone want to wager if ten years from now the kids in these schools will be any better off? The culture of the inner-city has to change.
John S. –
I’m from New Orleans. Since Katrina huge amounts of money and volunteer help has been poured into the chronically awful public school system here, and a great deal of highly competent professional hep from places like Yale on down. The innovation has not all been successful, but much of it is working. No, not all of the schools and not all of the children are succeeding, but many of them are. I’m frankly amazed at how well they’re doing, knowing how bad the schools were before Katrina.
What is happening here is being carefully studied to see what works and what doesn’t, especially with poor kids. (The middle-class schools are not the problem.) So in another 5-8 years the country should be getting a lot of good data from here. By the way, one thing that seems absolutely necessary is to give these kids a sense of confidence, a hope that they too can succeed after all. (No surprise, I’d say.) Another thing they need is self-discipline. (No surprise there either.)
You can say the solution begins in the home. That’s true — but only to the extent that the ignorant single mothers (and fathers in some cases) themselves must be educated. And in New Orleans now we don’t have such a special program, though parents in the most successful schools are being encouraged to become involved in what is going on in their kids’ schools.. But not all of the schools have been successful in doing that. This means that there will remain some kids who stay behing.
What I”m saying is really too simple, but I think these are the most basic changes needed.
David, Margaret, I didn’t take David’s earlier comments to be directed at me or at anyone personally. No need to apologize.
Jim- I subscribe to the Catholic Advocacy Network run by the NY Catholic Conference, they post legislative alerts on all of the issues you described. I think it’s great they have a social justice agenda and that there are similar campaigns in other states.
But who are the women having abortions and why? Wouldn’t that be important to know if we’re trying to figure out why there are so many abortions? All over the internet there are these references to young single mothers, but I wonder whether that’s really the profile. Does anybody know? I just googled around a little and didn’t see much that was useful, but did see an AP article from 2008 that said:
“Half of the roughly 1.2 million U.S. women who have abortions each year are 25 or older. Only about 17% are teens. About 60% have given birth to least one child prior to getting an abortion. … A disproportionately high number are black or Hispanic. And regardless of race, high abortion rates are linked to hard times. ”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-01-20-abortion_N.htm
John Sterckx-
If you are reading my posts as you tiresomely allege you will notice that I do not object to talking about abortion but doing it 24/7 while the wars go on with nowhere near the protests as we do on abortion. Your non sequitors while perhaps not yet tiresome are startling. Commonwealers in no way love the Episcopal church. What are you talking about? So tire me out John with talk about the Magnificat!
Margaret says Rare; but I say Well Done.
Bill-
Who is talking about abortion 24/7? It is my impression that Dolan speaks out on a lot of different issues. And let’s be realistic. Dolan or another American religious leader might have a bit more influence on abortions in this country than on wars that are raging in sub-Saharan Africa. The UN has shown itself to be mostly impotent to bringing peace there. What power might an American bishop have?
“How much do you hear Dolan and the bishops talking, let alone doing something about it. ”
Good point. The Archbishop should stop wasting his time with his multiple visits to Haiti and join the MONUC.
Irene Baldwin (“who are the women having abortions”),
For the NYC statistics go to pp. 84-88 of the report mentioned in the NYT story (it’s at the “statistics showing” link). One table (p. 88) shows that 83.6% of the NY abortions occur among the unmarried, 14.2% among the married. I can’t think of any feasible government program that could address that situation.
BTW, this post, based on the NYT article, seems to assume there has been some significant change from principled opposition to pragmatic opposition on the part of religious leaders in NY.
Here are the brief remarks of Archbishop Dolan:
http://www.archny.org/news-events/news-press-releases/index.cfm?i=18692
The only statement that could support the view that there is now a new approach to abortion is this: “I invite all to come together to make abortion rare, a goal even those who work to expand the abortion license tell us they share.” It seems to me that’s a rather weak foundation for the article’s conclusion that ”Archbishop Dolan and the others said they were adopting a more pragmatic goal for New York than abolishing abortion.”
It’s quite a stretch to see anything new here.
Serious question: why do WE talk about abortion so much? Of what ‘ailment’ is it a symptom?
It is interesting that no one has made mention that Gov. Andrew Cuomo felt the need to voice, yet again, his support of abortion rights. According to the NYT, it was reported that Cuomo supports even the expansion of abortion rights (though I did not see the full text of his speech). Should I not be surprised that the official bloggers here made no mention of this? But then again a lot of water gets carried here for the Democratic Party.
Patrick Molloy, thank you for finding the info. If more than 80% of abortions in NY were among unmarried women, I have to think that financial reasons contribute to at least some of those numbers. In the Bronx, our minimum wage income is about $13,000, and our per capita income is about $17,500. Even if Dad pays his 17% child support (a couple of thousand dollars based on the per capita income), the cheapest form of daycare in NY State-family daycare providers- runs about $10,000 a year. If you’re not one of the lucky few to get subsidized daycare, I don’t see how you can make these numbers work.
The AP report I saw said that the rate of abortions among women living in poverty was four times that of middle class women. I don’t pretend that all or even most abortions are financially motivated, but I would bet a big chunk certainly are.
And as Mr. Evans pointed out, we do not live in a family friendly culture. I was able to deduct a whopping $5,000 a year from my taxes for my $18,000 daycare bill. Forget about paid leave, I was not even legally entitled to any unpaid leave when I had my babies, though my employer generously provided it (I was the Executive Director, so I had a little leverage there). And if your child is sick a lot and you need to stay home with her, not all bosses are going to feel your pain. And how many parents have enough vacation time combined to cover the three months or so when your children are out of school?
I won’t bore people with a litany of how hard it is to manage work and family, I’m sure most of you have been there and know it even better than I do. But I find it repellent that our culture gives so much lip service to family values and does so little to embody them.
John S,
I knew you were a partisan Republican. So why can’t you get the Catholic Supreme court justices to overturn Roe vs Wade?
Good for Archbishop Dolan. I think the open invitation for any woman who needs help to turn to the Church is a very, very, good message.
Bill-
You knew? Wow. Are you a clairvoyant? Actually I am a registered independent. Check your antennae.
We live in hope that the Court will overturn Roe v Wade. I don’t care if it is Catholics, Jews or Mormons who do it
Step one: Baring valid threat to the mother’s health, THE LINE for disallowing abortions should not be conception, it should be when the fetus starts felling pain. Avoiding pain and suffering and pursuing pleasure and happiness is the basis of the entire programming placed in us all by God. Such is our ENTIRE pursuit. Step two: Making poor people richer; eliminating the “no husband” disgrace; and making effective birth control more allowable, accessible, and advisable, are the three major factors in preventing abortions. Ignoring these relevant factors makes a person one of the real killers! Fact three: Most all people who advocate the “sanctity of life” are liars deep down, or all would also be vegetarians. Plus, most all pro-life people would quickly become pro-choice if their daughter came home pregnant after being raped, especially if it was by a black man. Such are only against abortions for another artificial salvation cop-out, trying to fool God that they are strong golden rule people, which Jesus said one has to be in Matt. 25:31-46. So, lack of (true) ethics and lack of realistic intelligence are both key problems concerning optimizing the abortion issue.
The Goldenrule Name