oday is the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States. We are two women who were born in the early 1970's and, like other Americans our age, were raised with the divisions the decision has wrought.
Like our peers, we, too, are divided: We are activists on opposite sides of the abortion issue. While we are both committed to carrying on the work of our predecessors, we also recognize the need to re-examine their tactics. The slogans are old, the battle is tired. Those older than us have said that Americans born after Roe v. Wade cannot truly comprehend what is at stake. Maybe that is so. But we think we have a fresh understanding of how to achieve real progress.
Instead of just focusing on our differences, we need to acknowledge the surprising number of important issues on which we agree. We all believe we should work to reduce unintended pregnancy and abortion. We should recognize, too, that our efforts are succeeding. Over the last seven years the rate of abortions performed in the United States has dropped by 11 percent, according to a 2002 study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit research group.
Whether that has come through better education on contraception or through programs that discourage premarital sex, pro-life and pro-choice advocates should celebrate such an achievement together and acknowledge each other's role in it.
There are times when both movements have missed common-ground opportunities. This past year, advocates should have come together to fight the Florida Adoption Act. The act requires a woman who wants to place a child for adoption to publish newspaper advertisements to try to find the father. In the ads, the woman must disclose her name, as well as her sexual history, including a description of every potential father and the dates they had sex. In short, the law is an attack on women and discourages adoption. Collaboration by the two sides of the abortion movement could have benefited all women in Florida.
There will be other chances to work together and still be true to our missions. For example, many unintended pregnancies could be prevented by ensuring that women have health insurance coverage for the most effective contraception methods. In recent years, pro-life and pro-choice legislators, like those in New York, have worked together to make contraception more accessible to women of all economic backgrounds.
Making the workplace more accommodating to the demands of parenthood is also a common goal. Why does affordable, high-quality child care remain out of reach for the majority of American families? If the pro-choice and pro-life movements work together to support legislation to expand the social safety net for low-income mothers, and to lobby for more family-friendly policies for working parents, their power would be formidable. These are goals that we both share. But, sadly, they are issues that often get lost in the larger debate.
The only way we will have the chance to explore these mutual areas is if we feel comfortable doing so. Both sides must unite publicly against the use of violent measures in the movement and must isolate extremists who employ them. The language we use to argue our positions must change, too. We can no longer tolerate inflammatory terms that serve only to divide us further and create conflict. Doctors who offer safe abortion services are not murderers or butchers. People who engage in peaceful protests against abortion are not fanatics.
We accept that we will never find a solution to the most fundamental disagreements we hold on abortion. And we should never compromise our strongly held beliefs. Outside of them, though, we can find a path to escape this endless cycle of division. We hope the next generation of activists will join us in seeking areas of common ground and merge the power of both movements to serve Americans in a meaningful way.
Cristina Page is program director at the New York affiliate of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. Amanda Peterman is the life media director of Right to Life of Michigan.
