Abby McCloskey, Politico, June 25, 2022
“I’ll go out on a limb. I don’t think that the Supreme Court decision will reduce the fever pitch around abortion, given the extreme policies that states likely will enact on both sides. Those who see a fetus as a baby with unalienable rights are unlikely to ignore a neighboring state’s widespread abortion access, even if their own state has strict limitations. Nor will those who see abortion access as essential for gender equity and advancement ignore states restricting abortion access at any gestation or without any exceptions, such as those for rape.
But we can reduce the fear and instability and penalties of parenthood. We’ve all seen the surveys, the polling, the child poverty statistics. The fear and cost and insecurity of having a child are visceral right now. Post-Roe children will be born into more difficult circumstances than most. According to the Guttmacher Institute, nearly half of abortions are performed for women living below the poverty line as of 2014 — up from 30 percent in 1987 — meaning that these families who would previously be weighing whether to have an abortion will need help. Red states like mine, Texas — where the strictest abortion restrictions likely will be — are the least likely to have programs that support families such as paid family leave. That’s a bad combination.
Conservatives must urgently embrace a whole-life approach. A party that prides itself on being pro-life and pro-family should be leading the charge to ensure that all infants can spend their first months of life with their parents. There are plenty of economic reasons for this, but for pro-lifers, the moral extension to protect the helpless is essential. Conservatives should embrace childcare support, home visitation services and other policies that help both children and parents to thrive. Conservatives should be on the cutting edge of family planning to ensure that people are ready to start their families when the time is right and have access to the best medical care when they do. It’s not just government; it’s civil society too. Pregnancy clinics and churches who no longer need to steer patients away from abortion may well adjust their programming and charity to more robust postpartum and child-based supports.
This decision on Roe is unlikely to change minds on abortion. But we can create more space for joy, optimism and opportunity for all families to flourish, irrespective of the state a child is born into or their parents’ political orientations. This decision underscores the need to do just that.”