At the national level, the abortion debate is often discussed only in terms of laws, court decisions, and public controversies. In reality, every one of the million-plus abortions performed in America each year comes as a result of a private decision, often made without concern for public analysis. This point is made abundantly clear in a major article published in the September 18, 2005 edition of The New York Times. In a story titled "Under Din of Abortion Debate, an Experience Shared Quietly," reporter John Leland recounted conversations he experienced during a visit to Little Rock Family Planning Services, an abortion clinic located in the Arkansas capital.
Leland's article is heartbreaking. He takes readers into the lives of the women who have come to the clinic seeking an abortion. Their stories--and the rationales they gave for their abortions--only deepen the sense of tragedy that surrounds the reality of abortion.
Leland opens by introducing four women who arrived at the abortion clinic on the same day, each carefully avoiding making eye contact. Leah is an employee in a clothing boutique. Alicia is a high school student, and Tammy works in an espresso bar. Regina is an army sergeant, recently returned from Iraq. The women are identified only by their first names in order to protect their identities.
Living three decades after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion on demand in the decisions Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, Leland acknowledges that the landscape of the abortion debate has been "altered by shifts in technology, law, demographics and the political climate." Well over forty million abortions have been performed since 1973, and more than 25 million women have experienced abortions. At present, more than one in five pregnancies ends in abortion.
"Often kept secret, even from close friends or family members, the experience [of abortion] cuts across all income levels, religions, races, lifestyles, political parties and marital circumstances," Leland explains. Even as abortion rates have fallen somewhat over the last fifteen years, "abortion remains one of the most common surgical procedures for women in America."
The importance of Leland's article lies in the brutal honesty of the reality he describes. He minces no words in describing the ugliness of the context, and he allows the women to speak for themselves, explaining why they have come to the clinic in order to abort the developing life within them.
Even on the outside, the picture is ugly. Leland describes "the squat, nondescript brick building" that must be guarded by armed security. Visitors enter only after clearing a metal detector and are warned that they must settle their bill before the procedure--cash or credit cards are the only payment options.
At one point, Leland attempts to individualize the abortion issue. "While public conversation about abortion is dominated by advocates with all-or-nothing positions--treating the fetus as a complete person, with full rights, or as a nonentity, with none--most patients at the clinic, like most Americans, found themselves on rockier ground, weighing religious, ethical, practical, sentimental and financial imperatives that were often in conflict."
Of course, by the time these women had made their decision for an abortion, the conflict had been decided in favor of terminating human life.
The stories will truly break your heart. Alexia, a 23-year-old student at Delta State University in Mississippi, came to the Little Rock clinic in order to have her third abortion. "My religion is against it," she acknowledged. "In a way I feel I'm doing wrong, but you can be forgiven, I blame myself. I feel I shouldn't have sex at all." In other words, Alexia seems to believe that having an abortion is a sin, but she has settled in her own mind that this sin can be forgiven, even as it is the focus of her premeditated act.
Venetia Grundler, age 21, decided to go through with the abortion even after she had viewed an ultrasound image of the fetus developing in her womb. According to Leland, Grundler was twelve weeks pregnant when she came to the clinic, and she blamed her pregnancy on the failure of birth control pills.
