A Woman's Right to Choose is a Kitchen Table Issue

 A Misleading Distinction

A recent article in the New York Times made a distinction between the abortion issue and “kitchen table issues.” The latter are economic issues like inflation, taxes, the minimum wage or the cost of living. The article dealt with the attitudes of Hispanic men toward a woman's right to choose and said that the idea that a woman should be able to choose for herself is being used successfully to appeal to Hispanic male voters. However, the article suggested that a woman’s right to choose should not be emphasized too heavily because Hispanic men are more concerned about kitchen table issues.

This distinction indicates a failure to see the economic aspect of the abortion issue for working-class Americans. Abortion bans mostly effect working-class women. Rich women have always been able to obtain abortions, and that will not change. Rich women in states where abortions are illegal will be able to travel to other states or to foreign countries, but working-class women will often be unable to do so. Thus, prohibiting abortions affects mainly working-class women.

A Woman's Right to Choose is Especially Important to Working-Class Families

A young working-class woman with no children may have an opportunity to acquire skills and improve her economic situation, but an unwanted pregnancy condemns her to poverty because caring for a child and working to support it leave her no time to improve her skills through education. In contrast, a young woman from a rich family may simply take a semester off from college and then go on to become a lawyer or an accountant.

An unwanted pregnancy affects not only the economic prospects of a working-class woman but also those of her whole family. If she is a single parent, the economic effect of an unwanted pregnancy is obvious, but if she is married and her family loses her income, the effect will still be serious. Thus, the question of a woman's right to choose is clearly a kitchen table issue. Her choice affects the economic well-being of her whole family. 

A Woman's Right to Choose is Especially Important to Immigrant Families

The economic advantage of being able to choose to terminate a pregnancy is particularly important to immigrants and to the children of immigrants are who trying to make a better life for themselves here. They struggle hard against difficult odds to build lives in our country. In one immigrant family I know, the husband works as an auto mechanic, and the wife cleans houses and offices. They have a daughter who recently graduated from high school and has a plan for earning a good living and for using the opportunity offered by our local community college to receive training in her chosen trade.

Her plan is a good one, but an unwanted pregnancy would make it much more difficult to execute. In a family where all of the members are doing all that they can do to get ahead, someone would have to leave work to care for the baby. At best, the young woman’s plan for success would have to be delayed for years. At worst, she might never reach her goal. Thus, the young woman’s decision will have an enormous economic impact on her life and on the lives of all of the members of her family.

A Woman's Right to Choose is a Kitchen Table Issue

So, it makes no sense to separate “kitchen table issues” from the issue of a woman’s right to choose. That right is a kitchen table issue, and we should treat it as such.