To the Editor:
Re “The Missing Middle in the Abortion Debate,” by Zaid Jilani (Opinion guest essay, June 15):
Mr. Jilani’s argument that abortion rights supporters should embrace “nuance” by accepting abortion bans ignores the complexities and actual nuances that exist for people who need abortion care.
Abortion bans do not reflect “compromise,” and no six-week or 24-week cutoff was designed with patients in mind. These are political lines drawn by abortion opponents and lawmakers.
Research has shown that people seek abortions later in pregnancy mainly because they receive new information (a fetal diagnosis or late discovery of the pregnancy) or they face barriers that delay access to care (cost, travel or a shortage of providers, whom the bans have put out of reach). That’s the human reality that political compromise tries to obscure.
What is missing from this conversation is not a misguided new set of restrictions dressed up as compromise, as Mr. Jilani suggests. It’s honesty about what these restrictions do to abortion patients, providers and the broken health care system they are trying to navigate.
While Mr. Jilani points to decades-old views on abortion care and access from politicians, I’ll remind him that today, Americans in the middle are not looking for more bans — a majority of Americans think abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
It’s past time to put an end to antiquated views that put our reproductive lives and our country’s public health at risk.
Brittany Fonteno
Washington
The writer is the president and chief executive of the National Abortion Federation.
To the Editor:
Like many pundits before him, Zaid Jilani makes the mistake of disconnecting the politics of abortion from its place in our everyday lives. We don’t need to speculate about the implications of his ideas — just look at the many states in which abortion is banned (20 states where abortion is banned before 20 weeks) to see this “middle” approach in action. The reality of these “compromises” after Roe v. Wade was overturned is alarming: Women are dying, maternity care is harder to get, and doctors are leaving. For voters, abortion is not merely an issue. It’s health care, and the consequences of being denied that care are real.
Beyond the hubris of dictating people’s health based on one’s personal feelings, it’s mind-boggling to demand that Democrats cede ground on an issue where they’ve built a durable, party-spanning coalition of support.
Abortion is powerful and popular. Candidates are winning elections in red and blue districts because they’re champions of abortion rights. Voters keep choosing to protect abortion access. No one wins when Democrats start by compromising on the simple belief that all people deserve to make their own decisions about their bodies.
There is a middle ground when it comes to abortion care. It’s the grim reality we’re living right now — and it’s not something most people are eager to expand.
Angela Vasquez-Giroux
Lansing, Mich.
The writer is the vice president for communications for Planned Parenthood Votes.
To the Editor:
Zaid Jilani is right that Democrats have abandoned nuance on abortion. But the nuance worth embracing isn’t a retreat to gestational limits; it’s admitting that the Democrats already own the most effective abortion-reduction agenda in American politics. They just don’t say so, because whatever stigma is attached to the idea of reducing abortions is taboo to modern progressives.
Free contraception, like that delivered by Obamacare (arguably the most effective abortion-prevention program in U.S. history), has been shown to significantly reduce abortion rates. Paid family leave, affordable child care, expanded child tax credits, housing support, comprehensive sex education — every pro-child, pro-woman, pro-family policy that research identifies as reducing the demand for abortion is a Democratic platform priority.
Meanwhile, Republicans have spent 50 years trying to ban abortion. But following an initial drop after Roe v. Wade was overturned, the abortion rate in the country has actually increased in the past two years.
Bans don’t reduce abortions. They shift abortion services online and across state lines, drive doctors out of rural hospitals, leave women facing sepsis in emergency rooms, drive up maternal mortality and make women subject to criminal investigations for even a miscarriage.
It is only when women have full autonomy in their lives and access to a broader range of real, life-affirming choices that they will be less likely to choose abortion.
Democrats don’t need to compromise on abortion. They need to stand up to the progressives in their own party and tell the truth about what their policies can do.
Frank Z. Riely Jr.
Chapel Hill, N.C.
