Abortions will be reduced

The argument

The argument connects the cost of contraception to the number of abortions through a chain of intermediate steps rather than asserting a direct relationship. Access to birth control prevents unwanted pregnancy; fewer unwanted pregnancies likely means fewer abortions, since an unwanted pregnancy is the circumstance in which the question of abortion arises at all. If the number of such pregnancies falls, the number of decisions about whether to end them falls with it. The evidence offered for the first link is a study from the Washington University School of Medicine, which reported that women given free access to birth control methods were significantly less likely to have an unwanted pregnancy or induce an abortion, and were more likely to be adherent to treatment. Proponents draw attention to that last finding in particular, because it identifies the mechanism. Contraception only prevents pregnancy if it is used consistently, and consistency is precisely what cost interferes with: a method that has to be paid for repeatedly is a method that lapses when money is short. The second half of the argument concerns why the reduction is worth pursuing. Fewer abortions is presented as beneficial to the overall mental and physical health of women, on the view that choosing abortion takes a terrible toll on the person who has to make the choice. The claim is not about the permissibility of the procedure but about the desirability of reducing the number of situations in which anyone faces that decision. The conclusion is framed in terms of habit rather than of single episodes. Removing the barriers between women and birth control instils patterns of use that last far into adulthood, so the effect compounds over a reproductive lifetime rather than applying to one prescription. What free provision buys, on this account, is the ability for a woman to choose whether she has children and, if so, when.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Access to free birth control doesn't mean that people will use it. We cannot guarantee that the responsibility of users will increase with the removal of barriers between them and birth control.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P2] We cannot know that this is the case.