Rising Above Roe v. Wade

Maybe politics isn't the place to start
JANUARY 18, 2011
By WILLIAM MCGURN

Are babies better than abortions?

That's not a question we are accustomed to hearing. For the most part, abortion—America's most divisive issue—plays out as a question of competing rights. So it will be this weekend as pro-life and pro-choice legions each mark the 38th anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade decision on abortion.

Yet a simple figure released earlier this month by the Chiaroscuro Foundation, a private nonprofit organization, provokes a different question. After crunching the latest statistics from New York City's Health Department, the foundation reported that 41% of pregnancies (excluding miscarriage) in New York ended in abortion. That's double the national rate.

So again the question: As a society, does this figure say anything about the choice between a baby and abortion? Even for those who believe the choice for an abortion belongs to a woman alone and ought to be unfettered by city, state or federal law, is there any ratio such a person would say is too high? the rest

On the moral claims and counterclaims on abortion, we have a vast chasm. Yet the moral divide can blind us to the possibilities that exist in all human communities. Might that start with recognizing that a 41% abortion rate means that many pregnant women are not getting the social help and encouragement they need to have their babies?

NYC's bill targeting pregnancy centers: DOA
...Bill No. 371, which mimics ordinances passed in Baltimore and Austin, would force PCCs in New York City to post signage that they do not commit abortions or distribute contraceptives. It would also force them to notify clients if there were no doctor in the house...