Safe, legal and rare

Safe, legal and rare

We have long subscribed to the belief that abortions in the United States should be safe, legal and rare. And so, the news that the number of abortion in Ohio has decreased for the 10th year in a row is welcome on its face.

Not even the most ardent supporters of abortion rights claim that seeking an abortion is without physical and mental consequences for the women. But it should be up to the woman to decide whether to carry an unplanned pregnancy to term. Or to abort a planned pregnancy based on medical circumstances.

Last year 28,123 pregnancies were terminated in Ohio, the lowest level since 1976, when records were first kept. The number has dropped steadily each year since 2000, when the state recorded more than 37,000 abortions.

This is good news to the extent that men and women are practicing safer sex and using more effective birth control. It is good news to the extent that younger women and girls may be choosing abstinence. It is good news to the extent that women are deciding that their families are financially able to support an unexpected or medically challenged child.

All of those reasons and more are possible. But it is also possible that as the state of Ohio makes it more difficult and more expensive for women to have abortions, some women are having children against their will. That would be bad news.

We understand that some people believe that a person exists from the moment of conception. But that is a religious belief, not a scientific fact. And it is not a universally held religious belief. State policy should not be based on religious doctrine, and access to abortion should not be decided by a Legislature that, while it has been elected, does not necessarily reflect the moral or religious beliefs of millions of Ohioans.