Philip Slater: THE RELATIONSHIP NO ONE WANTS TO TALK ABOUT. Economist Steven D. Levitt has demonstrated conclusively, state by state, and nation by nation, that whenever and wherever abortion is legalized the violent crime rate plummets twenty years later. It's a stunning finding, and one that merits serious discussion. But no one wants to touch it.
It's obvious why the right-wing doesn't want to talk about it. They don't want to be forced to choose between their pet hobby horses. They're always ranting about crime even when the crime rate is falling; and although there's no end to the people anti-abortionists are happy to see killed once they're born--doctors, criminals, foreign babies, children of other religions, and people whose lives would be saved by stem-cell research--there's something about fetuses that turns them into bleeding hearts.
But what about the left? Why are they silent? Is it because most violent criminals are poor? Is this a taboo subject? After all, rich criminals don't need to be violent. White collar criminals who run unsafe mines, get lethal drugs on the market, or sell unsafe products, kill far more people than violent criminals, but are able to do it without weapons. So it's not casting aspersions on the poor and unwanted to say they commit most 'violent' crimes.
Is it because a lot of poor people are black or Latino? So that encouraging poor women to have abortions smacks of racism? Is it the threat that eugenics will rear its ugly head again?
But all this is nonsense. Rich women have always been able to have abortions whenever they felt like it, regardless of the laws--under ideal conditions and in the best hospitals--even in states that used to outlaw the dissemination of birth control information. Roe vs. Wade didn't target poor women, or black women, it simply gave them equal rights to what rich women have always had.
So why can't this be discussed? Is it because there's some ignorant soul left in the United States who still believes we're a classless society with equal opportunity for all?
As Levitt points out, a prospective mother knows better than anyone whether her fetus is likely to have a life worth living. And when the government forces an immature, uneducated girl to bring an unwanted child into an impoverished, violent, alcoholic, or drug-addicted home she can hardly be blamed if her child grows up to be a violent criminal. For we know that the single greatest cause of adult violent behavior is being the victim of violence as a child.
It's not racism or classism to say that poor women should have the same freedom of choice that rich women have. It's not about abortion or the right to life. It's about creating an even playing field.
Liberal politicians may not want to touch the abortion issue in an election year. That's no reason for everyone else to avoid discussing its significant contribution to the decline in the crime rate.
 [The Huffington Post | Full Blog Feed]
12:38:20 PM 
|
