I saw a post the other day – I’m sorry I can’t remember the author – which bemoaned this new Supreme Court justice in the USA, who I’ve also heard describes as ultra-conservative. One of their beefs was that abortion would become more restricted.
Let me tell you what happened in Ireland.
For years, Ireland banned abortion. It was only made legal – following a staggeringly one-sided referendum – in 2018. Even now, it is not particularly “available”. But at least, not illegal.
The result of it being banned was that “rich” people travelled to England to have their abortions, where it has been legal since the late 1960s. Not “rich” exactly, but people who could afford to travel. People who were unable to afford the fare had to stay home and have their babies. Tough.
If you restrict abortion in the USA, rich people will go out-of-state, or disappear to Mexico or especially Canada for a few days, and still get their abortions. Poor people will not be able to travel and will end up having unwanted babies.
Make no mistake, this is about penalising poverty, not choice.
Mister Bump 
You are absolutely correct. I suspect many of the anti-abortion protestors have no clue about the consequences of what they are advocating.
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Exactly. And where are those people when the cost of raising a child for at least 18 years overwhelms the parent, or they mentally can’t handle it? In their homes refusing welfare benefits to the poor.
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I think the thing for me is that if you make rules, and people don’t like them, then the world is a big enough place that they will sidestep them. So not abortion, per se. I mean, look at Amazon and Starbucks and their taxes. They pay very little here, I presume it’s the same there.
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I don’t think well over stop big business from being that way. It got out of hand. The land of good and plenty is for the rich
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Absolutely we can stop them. Governments have the power to allow these people to trade or not.
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You are correct. The concern for me is the return of back street abortionists, which is where the poor are likely to turn.
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People will inevitably offer “solutiuons” for those unable to travel. That’s another thing – by restricting you are deregulating – anything goes. It’s like the argument that legalising drugs would make the quality better.
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The thing I find most ironic is that the ‘pro-lifers’ [sic] are often also those who are most vocal about how we’re “creating a generation of low-life welfare addicts”
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Exactly. Everyone wants these unwanted babies born to be born but then won’t provide funds to take care of them. Sometimes birth control doesn’t work and then what? You can’t have one without providing solutions. It is a woman’s choice not to be decided by wealthy old men.
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Reblogged this on Mister Bump and commented:
I wrote a post last week with a theoretical account of why I think it is an equality issue.
I was reminded too of a post I wrote back in 2020, which dealt with the more practical aspects.
I think that, before legislators pass any law, they should consider “can we enforce it?” If the answer to that is ‘no’, then why waste your time?
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There is more than one meaning of Choice about abortion; the dark side of legal abortion is women being pressurised by family or partner to abort a baby because it’s the wrong sex or they just don’t want it. I think abortion can be too easy, but we certainly do not want to go back to the dark days. As you say, whatever decisions have to be made it is always harder for the poor or those who have no voice.
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Well, I think abortion can certainly be too easy – for the father.
Your argument about pressure could apply every bit as much to keeping a baby as aborting it. There will always be pressure. I don’t think that pressure goes away when you restrict abortions’ availability. The thrust of my post is that you just increase pressure to travel and to get your abortion somewhere else. Nothing to do with whether somebody actually has an abortion or not.
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