Upcoming FOX News Documentary on Abortion

On October 27, FOX News will air a documentary that "profiles three women to explore the abortion issue by following their agonizing decisions to have their babies or terminate their pregnancies."  According to FOX News, "[the] documentary ... does not touch at all on the political debate or legal analysis surrounding abortion."  It's hard to imagine FOX presenting the issue in a balanced way, but we'll see. 

While I have no doubt that some women agonize over their decisions for purely personal reasons, surely it cannot help that society stands so ready to accuse women seeking abortion of irresponsibility or selfishness.  When watching a film like this, it's important to remember that, at current rates, more than one third of women in the U.S. will have had an abortion by age 45.  And that number would not be less if abortion were made illegal.  See this post for more on that.  If we want women to stop agonizing over abortion we should do two things: (1) work harder on preventing unintended pregnancy; (2) stop stigmatizing abortion.