Making abortion illegal won't solve problem

We know it is an election season, if abortion is back in the news. Recently, a member of the Catholic Church ran an inflammatory piece in the Daily Herald, calling their opponents a "culture of death" and including conservative slogans like "bring America back." How does that help?

Later, another hateful letter called for the criminalization of abortion. Make abortion illegal, dump it on the police, and somehow that will help. Our collective Christian consciences will be clear.

That is so false and wrong.

Three facts need to be remembered about abortion:

First, there have been plenty of years since abortion was legalized that Republicans have had majorities in both houses of Congress as well as a Republican president. If the Republicans had wanted to criminalize abortion, thinking the jails alone would solve this problem, they have had plenty of time to pass such laws.

Instead they have passed things like tax breaks for the rich. It should be obvious to all that Republicans would rather pander for the votes from the "single issue" abortion foe voters than actually solve the problem.

Second, according to Wikipedia, abortion rates are statistically similar between countries whether abortion is legal or not. Really, go look it up. In fact, what did change when abortion was legalized in South Africa in 1996 was that abortion-related deaths declined by over 90 percent. That is significant.

Finally, stop with the insults. Nobody is "pro-abortion." Some people who sincerely care also realize how wrong it would be to throw pregnant teenagers (and well-intentioned doctors) in jail. We do not want to return to a "prohibition era" style of underground abortion shops.

Any sincere Christian solution to the problem of abortion should not try to just dump the problem on the police.

Philip Graf

Rolling Meadows