From one abortion advocate:
“For a woman to give birth… can be a severe handicap in the workplace..… Few women who take maternity leaves are paid full wages for the time they missed; many find their jobs are not held open for them, or discover that they have been shunted to a less demanding and lower status “mommy track.”
Men, of course, are rarely treated this way. Men who start families may worry about how to feed and clothe their children, but their employers do not fire them simply for daring to bring babies into the world. Neither did they force male workers to take unwanted or unneeded time off nor demote them to jobs deemed suitable for employees more interested in raising their children than in taking on interesting and exciting projects at work.
Thus, the right to an abortion is basic. A woman who does not want to fall victim to discrimination and patronizing assumptions about her wishes and desires must have the ability to enter pregnancy.”
This inequality is a genuine problem, but the answer is not to promote abortion. If abortion is seen as the answer to workplace discrimination, what happens to women who want children and choose not to have abortions? Their situation is not made any better. Due to workplace discrimination, and the fact that we allow it to continue, women are pressured into having abortions that they otherwise may not want to have. This is not pro-choice. A woman who aborts under duress may face a lifetime of emotional difficulties. Women deserve better. The solution to women’s unfair treatment in the workplace is to impose and enforce laws to prevent it, not merely to promote abortion and leave the situation the same.
Stephen Currie. Opposing Viewpoints Digests: Abortion (San Diego, California: Greenhaven Press, 2000) 41 to 42
