Our Culture of Drive-thru Abortions

In the quest to remove delays for a female to obtain an abortion--more people are becoming aware that intimate partner abuse, child sex abuse, and decisions to abort a pregnancy may have multiple players involved. By bringing down the full force of law to make it not only constitutional to kill one's own child, and to do so as fast as possible--our social mores and social policy are allowing women and girls to be abused in the process.

First, it is well-known that abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood conceal obvious cases of abuse. One study showed that Planned Parenthood and related organizations failed to report a minimum of about 10,000 cases of child sex abuse in Illinois in the year 2000 alone. Yet the law is clear that medical providers are statutorily required to report suspected cases of abuse. When authorities try to investigate child rape, they may be thwarted by abortion providers like Planned Parenthood, who maintain a financial stake in the unaddressed problem. Legally, we call that a "conflict of interest."

Second, some women and girls are coerced into getting abortions. I know this because I'm aware of women who have dealt with this problem. By eliminating even the most sensible restrictions such as parental notification (forget parental consent), a woman can be rushed to have an abortion --no questions asked. This is a boon to those irresponsible partners who don't want to pay child support, don’t want to "lose face" for having a child out-of-wedlock, or want to cover-up for their crimes of impregnating a minor.

Coerced abortions are a problem. But to make matters worse, bills such as HB 5882 in Michigan are a profoundly bad idea. Instead of going after coerced abortions by preventing them, this proposal makes it a crime for a man to even be involved in the decision-making process in any way--except for complete deferral. In essence, it smacks of another attempt to separate men from children.

Current state law says men have no say in the decision to get an abortion. This law says they aren't even allowed to speak on the subject. Considering the current state of child support laws and custody laws, apparently the only thing men can contribute is their paycheck and all other effort is disallowed.

Sure, the law could catch those who engage in coercion. However, how such violations would ever be proven is a problem since it is entirely a "speech crime." Further, "battered woman syndrome" suggests that women most in need of protection are least likely to seek help and the redress that such a law would allow. In short, more innocent men would be prosecuted than true domestic abusers who ought to be nailed to the wall.

The problem is not that there are no laws to punish coercion, there are. The problem is the weight of the Constitution being brought down to rush women through abortion mills without question. Planned Parenthood has no incentive to think twice about killing a child--abortion is a profit-center for them.

Taking the typical image the pro-abortion crowd likes to use--imagine an abused woman (or girl) who has an abusive boyfriend or family. She discovers she is pregnant and she knows her family or boyfriend will be livid once they discover the pregnancy. She is lonely, scared and has no place to turn. In come the knights in crimson-stained armor, Planned Parenthood. They pledge to help this young woman and bring her into their clinic. They conduct the abortion and send the child on her way. The problem is they send her right back into the abusive situation she came from. The problem wasn't the child--the problem was the abusive relationships that remain unaddressed until the next time she gets pregnant and Planned Parenthood wants to make a buck.

It is the failure of social policy that leaves these women prey to abusive and coercive relationships. The solution is not more bad laws, but to rethink the culture of drive-thru abortions.

John Bambenek is the Assistant Politics Editor for Blogcritics and is an academic professional for the University of Illinois. He is a syndicated columnist who blogs at Part-Time Pundit and the executive director of The Tumaini Foundation which helps AIDS orphans and other children in Tanzania to get an education.