REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM
A woman’s right to choose how to manage her reproductive life rests upon the most fundamental right of all – the right of each person to exclusive ownership of his or her body. But genuine reproductive freedom requires more. No woman should have to make choices under compulsion, by situations she would not have chosen. To protect against this every woman should have free access to contraception and the day-after pill, as well as the opportunity for free and safe abortions (in-clinic or using the abortion pill), to be administered in privacy and without intervention.
Furthermore, every woman should have the economic resources to support the children she would like to have. This includes paid family and parental leave, free day care and elder care, child allowances of $900 per month per child and guaranteed jobs at a fair wage.
By reducing unwanted pregnancies to a minimum and enabling parents to have the children they want, these measures for achieving genuine reproductive freedom end up diminishing the need for abortions as much as is humanly possible.
Banning abortion only drives it underground, endangering the lives of women, and especially of poor women who cannot afford proper medical care. By contrast, acheiving genuine reproductive freedom ends up being more pro-life than any anti-abortion polices.