With the election of a pro-choice president and little chance of Roe v. Wade being overturned in the near future, some members of the anti-abortion front have turned their attention to reducing the number of abortions rather than eliminating them altogether. The Washington Post reports that this new strategy advocates creating programs to aid pregnant women in areas like health care, education and employment so that they are more likely to continue their pregnancies. Two bills related to the initiative, the Pregnant Women’s Support Act and the Reducing the Need for Abortion and Supporting Parents Act, are currently in the House.
While the idea is backed by the likes of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and Joel Hunter, pastor of Florida’s Northland church, other abortion opponents say it undermines their beliefs and strikes a blow to the movement. Hunter disagrees, saying, “We are not compromising our values, but at the same time we are finding a way we can all accomplish our agenda, or at least a piece of our agenda, together.”
In 2004, the number of abortions performed in the U.S. decreased 1.1 percent from the previous year. Women who were unmarried, white and under 25 had the highest reported percentages of abortions.