My state is having a major vote on November 7 that will have long lasting implications for the moral health of its people. The vote is about whether or not Ohio should add the right for all abortions to the state constitution. The way the amendment is worded, it also opens the door for a number of other things such as removing the requirement for parental consent for minors seeking this and other medical procedures.
I have to be honest and pause here. I hate writing about politics. Politics does nothing but divide people, especially politics in today’s world. I’m not comfortable writing about any of this. It sucks! But this issue is important enough that I must write this post.
I had planned on starting this post with an aggressive statement saying, “Here it is. The post that will get me canceled before I even get my writing career started! But some mountains are worth dying on!” It was a brazen opening. Combative. Ready to fight! I was going to come out swinging! I was going to convince the world that my point of view was the right one!
But then I started researching…
I researched abortion statistics for our country and for each state. I was stunned and utterly horrified by the numbers! The numbers were so much higher than I had ever imagined, and they pointed toward some shocking and sickening revelations I had never before considered.
I researched many of the things I had previously been told about abortion and abortion providers. I found some of the things I had been told were absolutely true while other things I’d been told either didn’t quite tell the whole story, or were selective truths designed to sell a perspective. I even discovered some of what I had previously “known” was nothing more than political maneuvering and manipulation meant to inflame an already incensed population. Infuriatingly that political maneuvering and manipulation was prevalent on both sides of the abortion discussion.
None of it made sense to me. I needed hard, irrefutable facts so I could present an intelligent and logical argument, not a bunch of half-truths politicians and activists throw around for their constituents to eat up!
And then I remembered that no one in the history of the internet has ever won an argument online. It would be pure arrogance for me to think I could possibly be the exception. If I tried to force my opinion and belief system onto others, I would be just as guilty of manipulation as the politicians who sell half-truths and bald faced lies.
So I decided instead that I wanted to understand the other side of the story. I wanted to know what was going on through the minds of those who get abortions. And that is when my compassion finally kicked in, not only for the millions of babies lost to abortion, but also for those who had given those babies up.
I started researching why people get abortions. I read the statistical reasons patients gave the abortion clinics. I read reasons that showcased the most basic of human needs and desire for a better life. I read about desires that my wife and I had ardently discussed, and dreams that my closest friends pursue. I saw hurt and fear in those reasons that their hopes and dreams would be forever lost if they gave birth to that child. And so I started to humanize the women, non-binary individuals, and trans men who made the decision to abort their children.
I began to humanize them, feel compassion for them and their plight. I began to understand their decisions a bit more.
But yet that compassion did nothing to wipe away the cold, hard facts of abortion.
The Guttmacher Institute, a non-profit institution that supports abortion rights, tracks the national abortion statistics. Per their research, nearly 1 million babies are aborted in the United States every year. This makes up a staggering 20 percent of all pregnancies across the country! Twelve years ago and earlier, the numbers were even higher. The year I was born, 30% of all pregnancies ended in abortion, over 1.5 million babies. More than 60 million babies have been aborted in the United States since abortion was legalized.
Those are the horrifying numbers. Are you ready for the sickening one?
Through my research, I discovered there is a massive racial disparity to abortion. Each of these facts can be found by simple Google searches:
- Year after year in New York City, more black babies are aborted than are born
- Black people make up 13-14% of the population of the United States, but they account for 35% of the national abortions
- In my home state of Ohio where the black community makes up 13.3% of our population, a massive 48% of the annual abortions are performed on black women
- In Ohio, nearly a third (31%) of pregnancies within the black community ended in abortion in 2021
In the banking world, there is a term called “disparate impact.” Disparate impact occurs when policies, practices, rules or other systems that are designed or appear to be neutral result in a disproportionate impact of a protected group. When banks have policies that result in disparate impact, whether it be intentional or unintentional, they are punished severely and forced to adjust their policies.
The above numbers showing the impact abortion has on the black community compared to other races are the very definition of disparate impact. If abortion had been neutral, then the black community would only make up 13-14% of all abortions in the nation. Instead, the numbers showcase that the very policy of abortion is at its best unintentionally discriminatory, or at its worst blatantly and predatorily racist.
Why does the racial discrimination aspect of abortion bother me so much? Aside from the fact that I’m not a monster, I serve at the most multi-racial church I’ve ever witnessed. At least 40% of my church community is either black or bi-racial with just about every other race mixed in. At my church, I have taught more black children than I can remember, and I have loved each one of them more than I’ve loved my own life! Each one has left an indelible impact on me!
Yet in my state, one third of black babies never make it to birth! One third of black babies are never given a chance to live! One third will never smile or laugh or love! One third are just gone, and we never even knew them! We never even had the chance to miss them!
And that percentage is far worse in many other states!
I think about all the black children I’ve taught all these years, some of whom have grown into successful adults and powerful young men and women. I think about Skylar, Cullen, Nia, Aniah, Ciarra, Walter, Cayden, Isaiah, Bella, Africana, KB, Iris, Kemonte, Mila, Paul, Hans, Benjamin, the other Benjamin, Christian, Kheri, Jeremiah, Naomi, Mikey, Sykere, Jordan, Darius, Julia, Lincoln, Liberty, and Lyric, just to name a few of them. Each one of them is precious beyond measure! Each one of them is powerful! Each one of them is beautiful! Each one of them has their own struggles. Many of them were born into non-ideal situations. Yet each one of them has the ability to change the world!
I cannot imagine a world without these children in it! But knowing the abortion percentages are as high as they are within the black community, I can’t help but wonder how many precious, powerful, beautiful, flawed yet overcoming world changers I’ve never had the chance to meet simply because abortion was pushed on their mothers harder than it was on mothers of other races. It was presented to their mothers as the most viable option when other mothers were given other options.
I mourn for those children. What’s more, I mourn for those mothers, even if they do not mourn for themselves. And I mourn the situations that caused those mothers to make the decision to abort their children.
Let me take a moment here to be clear: Under no circumstance do I blame the mothers for the abortions they’ve had. Under no circumstance do I judge them or hold them culpable. Under no circumstance do I or will I treat them differently simply because they have a different value system than me or made a different choice than I would have made.
They had a choice to make at a critical part of their lives. The choice they made was completely legal per state and federal laws. I am not their judge or jury, and neither will I be their accuser.
My job, as God has given it to me, is to simply love, honor, and respect all the people he has given me. This mandate was given to me regardless of whether they love, honor, and respect me in return. It is regardless of if they agree with me. Regardless of if they even have the same belief system or code of ethics as me.
So let’s talk about the specifics of why people get abortions.
Oddly enough, the 2 most commonly cited reasons abortion proponents use to defend abortion laws, abortions due to rape or incest, make of less than 1.5% of all abortions. Abortions due to rape or incest are so low in terms of percentage that they are essentially outliers. In the business world, if we saw an issue that made up that low of a percentage, they would qualify as one-offs, meaning we don’t set overarching policy or procedure around them, but we instead deal with them on a case by case basis.
Below is a summation of reasons for abortion as collected by the Guttmacher Institute:
- Fear about how the baby would change their life due to education, jobs, or other children already in their life
- Fear about how they would be able to afford a baby
- Fear about having to raise the child by themselves due to relationship problems
- Fear about having another child so late in life
- Fear of what others will think or do if they found out they had sex or got pregnant
- Fear about their own ability to raise and care for a child
- Fear about health, both their own and the baby’s
- Pressure from others to get an abortion, either from their significant other or their family
The above are the most common reasons for abortion, with “change of life”, financial concerns, and relationship issues taking up the top 3 spots.
I look at the common reasons mothers choose abortion, and I find myself understanding them all too well. The top issue is a MAJOR concern today for many individuals. Having a baby at a critical time of your life can throw your life into chaos. Heck! Having a baby at any time of life will result in chaos and a major change of plans and life strategy! Having a baby at a time when it is least convenient makes it all the more difficult.
I can absolutely relate to the fear of not being able to afford the baby. Babies are EXPENSIVE! When my son was born, my wife and I had a combined income that qualified us for poverty status. When my daughter was born, we had to file for bankruptcy. If it wasn’t for government assistance and others going out of their way to help us, I don’t know how we would have gotten by back then.
Regarding the last item on the list, my wife was very nearly a victim of abortion due to this specific reason. Her birth parents were not mentally fit to care for a child, and so their parents (my wife’s grandparents) strongly encouraged them to abort my wife. I am so beyond grateful my wife’s parents chose otherwise, even though it meant they eventually had to give my wife up for adoption.
While I can’t personally relate to the other reasons listed above, I know many women who have felt these fears. All these fears are normal and natural depending on each individual’s life. These fears are part of human nature. They are a byproduct of human existence. Because of this, I cannot ever condemn anyone who has decided to have an abortion.
For each of these fears, I have also known women who chose to proceed with their pregnancy anyway. They chose to face their fears, and they succeeded in bringing a beautiful new life into the world. And that life brought them abundant joy. Yes, there were times they had to struggle to make things work, but they got through the hard times. They succeeded in providing for their child, in melding that child into their lives and their families. Their lives adapted to the new life that was added to them.
I have a phrase: never make permanent decisions based on temporary emotions or situations. No matter how desperate life is for you, so long as there is life, there is hope. Hope that things will turn around. Hope that life will get better. Hope that your world will improve. Hope that your dreams will still come true. And that hope can remain even with the addition of a new and unexpected child.
And so while I understand why individuals get abortions, and I do not condemn them or think less of them for their decisions, I do not agree with their decisions.
When the polls open on November 7, I will be voting NO against adding abortion to the state constitution. I will be doing this, not because I believe my way is the best way, or because I want to impose my will on millions of women. On the contrary, as a husband to my wife and a father to my daughter, I am a staunch defender of women’s rights because I want to see my wife and daughter be as successful as possible in life!
I will be voting no to the amendment because, even though I understand the dilemma most women are facing when they choose abortion, I cannot in good conscience be a party to the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent children that occur in Ohio every single year. And I cannot in good conscience be a party to a policy that has statistically proven racist intent.
Regardless of a person’s circumstance, there has to be a better way than abortion. We are the United States of America, for goodness sake! We are the most creative, compassionate, technologically advanced, wealthy, powerful, and well-intentioned nation on the planet! We were founded with the core belief that ALL are created equal. My compassion, experience, knowledge, and faith tell me that the unborn fit firmly in the category of ALL.
I believe we as a nation need to do a better job of researching what needs to be done to address the fears and reasons behind abortion. We need to do better at creating viable alternatives to abortion. As a people, we need to do better to help those who are struggling the most and are the most vulnerable among us! We need to find a way to incentivise life over death! Because when a person is debating whether or not their circumstances dictate they should have an abortion, they are literally making a life or death decision.
As I said earlier, I hate writing about politics. While abortion is a highly divisive topic, my prayer is that my words will bring people together in understanding rather than tear them apart. The last thing I want is to cause division among others. Instead I hope to help others see differing viewpoints, to see the people who disagree with them as what they are: humans who deserve love, respect and honor.
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