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Point Of View! with Barb
Sumner Burstyn
The Abortion Bonus - Point of View with
Barb Sumner Burstyn - May 3 2002
 In
a similar way to the economic upside that is now being attached
to divorce - that it doubles the market - researchers are now
redefining the economic and social consequences of abortion.
Abortion used to be a purely moral issue with the debate surrounding
termination cantered on the individuals right to choose. But perhaps
the moral equation has at last reached its use-by date. Recent research
in the United States has come up with a unique angle. Becoming known
as the 'abortion bonus', the research centres on the direct correlation
between abortion rates and the startling drop in crime in major
cities across the United States. Abortion may account for as much
as half of the decreases in the US crime rate say researchers Steven
Levitt, a University of Chicago economist and John Donahue of Stanford
University law school. They add that the 1973 Roe v' s Wade ruling,
which legalized abortion throughout the United States, means that
many people who might have become crooks in the 1990's were never
born.
The Levitt-Donahue theory holds that a high proportion of the women
who received legal abortions after 1973 were women who might otherwise
have given birth to unwanted, economically deprived children raised
in single-parent or dysfunctional families - the type of background
that often produces delinquents. The researchers noted that it was
when children born after 1973 had just reached the trouble-prone
age that crime started it's downturn. Five states had legalized
abortion in 1970, three years before the rest. Interestingly the
researchers discovered that these were the first states to register
crime decreases.
Another theorist stated recently that abortions (or at least the
legal ones) really became a birth control option in the late 1970's,
perhaps explaining the reasonably flat population growth and subsequent
modest numbers of people now in their mid-20's and younger. And
while I have no sociological studies to back me up, it would seem
safe to assume that many women who sought these abortions would
in fact be - as Levitt and Donahue found - poorly educated and economically
disadvantaged. Possibly that would help explain why the abortion
boom has arrived despite widespread sex-education programs such
as those run by the Family Planning Association, school boards and
other community organizations.
So perhaps the American researchers are suggesting that as a species
we are spontaneously controlling the quality of our populations
via termination. Or maybe there really is a surreptitious conspiracy
to manipulate entire populations? Either way we moderns are in good
company. After all Mein Kampf was predicated on control of the gene
pool, Plato's philosophy was that bad elements should not be allowed
to reproduce, and limpieza de sangre - the purity of blood - was
the justification for the Inquisition.
Extrapolating the concept of abortion as a population control tool,
whether conscious or otherwise, sparks a number of interesting ideas.
On one side it removes a cast of people who are traditionally economically
dependent on the state, draining tax reserves without replenishing
the wider community in an economically tangible way. Downstream
this removal releases resources from such areas as policing, incarceration
services, and education and frees them up to be used in effective
community creation. Perhaps abortion is not solely a sign of moral
decline but an example of the momentum towards upscaling and improvement.
A morphic desire by the general population to create a better population.
But one thing doesn't quite make sense. If the Levit-Donahue theory
is sound then surely abortion could legitimately be seen as a population
control tool and exactly the kind of device conservatives world
wide are looking for. After all it ensures that white, upwardly
mobile, stable, well-mannered and well-behaved taxpayers will prevail.
But earlier this year on the 29th anniversary of the Supreme Court
decision legalizing abortion President Bush renewed his opposition
to the procedure cutting off federal funding to international agencies
which support women seeking an abortion. He went on to say that
the promises of the Declaration of Independence should apply to
everyone, not just the healthy or the strong or the powerful." Conveniently
forgetting that, if the Levitt Donohue theory holds any weight,
those seeking abortion, are often anything but.
So whether rampant abortion is a bonus or a hindrance to the development
of society the latest findings will enliven and perhaps revive a
debate that has been mired in simplistic notions of right and wrong,
for decades. We all live in a moral conundrum that will challenge
many of us on a personal level at some time in our reproductive
shelf lives. Personally I'm like most people, a situationist. Neither
pro nor anti abortion. In truth we get pregnant and we make a decision
based on a range of reasons primarily motivated by our own personal
situation, advancement and goals rather than idealist factors such
as the greater social good. The abortion dilemma; coming soon to
a family like yours.
© Barbara Sumner Burstyn April
2002.
P.O.V. with Barbara Sumner Burstyn @ http://www.spectator.co.nz/POV
Send your comments to:
Barb Sumner Burstyn.
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