Setting aside for now the very difficult question of abortion rights, to which I will return later, it should be obvious by to everyone that abortion cannot be abolished as a practical matter. Women have been ending unwanted pregnancies for as long as they have had pregnancies, and they will continue to do so. One can no more end this practice than end unprotected sex in all its forms.
As Eyal Press writes in the most recent edition of The New Yorker, the consequences of this fact are dire if the state suppresses women's access to safe abortion procedures. When skilled, respected doctors are driven from the field by violent protests or tight government restrictions, they resort to unskilled, un-respected practitioners. These people may be unscrupulous or they may just be bad at their jobs, but either way they create hazards for women -- and therefore for children and families, and therefore for all of us -- that would not exist if abortions were treated as ordinary medical treatment. More, not fewer, late-term abortions occur when governments make it difficult for women to get this help.
Stephen Brigham, the incompetent doctor profiled by Press, should not be in business. But the market exists for him because their are not enough better options.This fundamental fact ought to be the government's focus, no matter whether you approve of abortion rights or not.
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