Those opposed to abortion should help with alternatives

THE OLYMPIAN | • Published September 23, 2009

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I have a question for the so-called pro-life people. Where is your money?

Yes, there are places like CareNet that will give women the test, an ultrasound and try to dissuade her from having an abortion. They’ll give her prenatal vitamins, baby supplies, and help with adoption as well. They’re pretty nice people and don’t spend time berating women who have had abortions. They come off a lot better than those people who merely wave horrific pictures and roar with indignation.

But where is the real money? Where is the money to help women who have too much income to get help but not enough to pay for anything?

Consider the plight of a dear friend of mine, a single mother, young child, moderate income. She had to choose between having a home and medical insurance. Her health is adequate, but she has a chronic health condition that could kill her unexpectedly if it flares up and she doesn’t get help pretty immediately and another that would make pregnancy a physical risk. So, of course, unexpectedly, in the face of long previous infertility, she conceives.

My friend hates abortions and frankly, so do I, although we are both determinedly pro-choice. We don’t think we know enough about another woman’s life to judge whether it’s right or not. And I, being the older friend, remember the struggle that led up to Roe v. Wade.

I remember the picture of the bled-out woman sprawled dead in the alley after an illegal abortion. Women have always had abortions and they always will. It’s best to keep abortion safe and legal because criminalizing it never really slowed it down, although illegal procedures regularly claimed women’s lives and fertility.

My friend loves children and wants this baby, but she has a sinking feeling of dread that only increases as she begins to look around for ways to make this happen.

This is what she finds: To have the baby in the hospital, roughly $15,000, no prenatal care. To have the baby with the services of a midwife, $4,000, which does cover prenatal, but not for a high-risk pregnancy. Sensibly, they won’t touch those. Oh, and that’s for a home-birth, thank you. If you need to be transported or give birth in a hospital, you’re diving into the infinite well of expense.

And adoption with the adoptive parents paying costs of such a pregnancy? What couple would want to pay that much money and possibly have it go much higher? She again has too much money to get any help from the state; she’s checked that. She gets too much money for Washington Basic Health. There is no regular health insurance for her; she has preexisting conditions, and the cost would put her and her child on the streets — with another baby on the way.

The abortion cost $650.

So, pro-lifers, where is the money? Where are the people stepping up to really make it possible for mothers to choose to give birth?

Are these the same people who decry the idea of public health insurance, calling it socialism? Are they the same ones protesting abortion? I’m sorry. I’m not impressed.

Tormenting women in the midst of one of the saddest and most difficult times of their lives is not a substitute for stepping forward and proving their love for unborn children is more than just sign-waving and lip service.

Maya North, a member of The Olympian’s Board of Contributors, has gone from street kid to bachelor’s degree; welfare mom to computer programmer with the Department of Labor and Industries. She can be reached at MayaNorth@gmail.com.