{"id":36834,"date":"2024-03-18T09:26:20","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T16:26:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=36834"},"modified":"2024-03-18T09:28:23","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T16:28:23","slug":"36834-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/36834-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Researching the other side of the issue."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cVote Yes on Issue 1.\u201d Last year Ohio lawmakers voted to hold a special election on August 8th<\/sup>; special elections just months earlier had been outlawed unless a government entity faced a fiscal emergency.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 The election had only one measure on the ballot, change Ohio\u2019s Constitution to allow future constitutional changes only if 60% of voters voted in favor of the change as opposed to the current 50% plus 1.[2]<\/a>\u00a0 Why was this measure on the ballot,\u00a0 there were many idea being thrown around, but Chris Quinn, editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, said that the honest lawmakers admitted that\u00a0 it was because a proposed constitutional amendment legalizing abortion would appear on the November ballot.[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Knowing that this special election and the November election were upcoming, I spent some time researching the issue of abortion.<\/p>\n

Bobby Duffy in his book Why We\u2019re Wrong About Nearly Everything<\/em> discusses why we are prone to thinking errors (delusions) and how to deal with our delusions.[4]<\/a>\u00a0 Just reading the title of the book, I immediately felt the contents would be connected to Tim Harford\u2019s How to Make The World Add Up, <\/em>\u00a0Kathyrn Schulz\u2019s Being Wrong,<\/em> and Daniel Kahneman\u2019s Thinking, Fast and Slow<\/em>, and that was one thing \u00a0about which I was not wrong.\u00a0 Duffy references Kahneman throughout the book even including quotes from an interview.\u00a0 I particularly liked that when referencing his acknowledgement of the errors we make with our System 1 and 2 thinking, Kahneman said \u201c\u2019I\u2019ve been studying this stuff for 45 years and I really haven\u2019t improved one bit.\u2019\u201d[5]<\/a>In discussing how strongly we become attached to our ideas he writes \u00a0\u201cOnce we\u2019ve made a decision about an idea . . . we become attached to it.\u00a0 We seek out information that confirms the rightness of our conviction.\u201d\u00a0 This mirrors much of what Schulz writes about in her book, she writes \u201cwe fight over the right to be right, and \u201cit does feel like something to be wrong, it feels like being right.\u201d[6]<\/a>\u00a0 Duffy\u2019s book was full of statistical information about surveys he and others have done and people\u2019s responses to the surveys.\u00a0 Duffy does talk about how presenting facts doesn\u2019t also lead people to changing their minds.\u00a0 Harford says \u201cOne of the reasons facts don\u2019t always change our minds is that we are keen to avoid uncomfortable truths.\u201d [7]<\/a><\/p>\n

I knew that I had to go into researching abortion with an open mind.\u00a0 Duffy writes about Charles Darwin, \u201cWhenever Darwin saw observations that didn\u2019t fit with his theory, he noted them down immediately\u2014and the more correct he thought his theory was, the more actively he sought contradictions.\u201d[8]<\/a>\u00a0 In my mind I saw the average woman who had an abortion to be in her early to mid-twenties, single, never had a child, and did it selfishly to avoid the responsibility of becoming a parent.\u00a0 Why did I have this idea in my mind?\u00a0 As Duffy suggests, it really wasn\u2019t something I gave much thought and I probably heard someone give those \u2018facts\u2019 before.[9]<\/a>\u00a0 I sat down and started to research, I looked at research for the United States.\u00a0 I researched not only the who, but also the why, why get an abortion and why not adoption.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t surprised to find that approximately 70% of abortions are performed on woman aged 20-29 and that only 14% were currently married. What surprised me was that almost 60% had previously given birth.[10]<\/a>\u00a0 I experienced a lot of cognitive dissonance reading that fact, I had to know more.\u00a0 Duffy in his last chapter gives \u201cten ideas for how we can form more accurate views of our world.\u201d[11]<\/a>\u00a0 One of the ideas is using stories \u201cpresenting real examples, with real individuals . . . to change the stereotypical mental image people hold.\u201d[12]<\/a> I found some research studies that involved stories.\u00a0 One study involved an abortion clinic in a Northwest state that provided notebooks in the pre-op and post-op waiting rooms for women to write anything they wanted.\u00a0 The main writings involved explanations as to why the woman was obtaining an abortion with the dominate themes of preventing a child from coming into a chaotic and\/or abusive situation, and a means to keep the current family stable given the woman\u2019s limited resources (emotional, psychological, financial etc.).[13]<\/a> \u00a0Another study examined why women choose abortion over adoption; there was a theme of being fearful of what might happen to their child in an adoptive home and abortion as a way to protect them.[14]<\/a>\u00a0 After reading these and other studies, I realized that the many things I had heard over the years, the pictures that have been painted for me about the women who seek abortions might be wrong.\u00a0 This did not change my views on the sanctity of life.\u00a0 It provided me, however, an empathic, realistic understanding of why a woman might choose to not bring a baby into this world at that specific time in her life.\u00a0 It also reinforced my ideas that we as a church and nation need to do a better job supporting women.\u00a0 We need to create a society where having an abortion should be the last thought a woman has because of all the supports she knows she has if she gives birth.\u00a0 In case you were wondering, Issue 1 failed, and after November\u2019s election abortion became a constitutional right in Ohio.<\/p>\n

Duffy\u2019s last suggestion to address our delusions is creating situations where \u201cbetter and deeper engagement is possible.\u201d\u00a0 He talks about how this is being tried.[15]<\/a>\u00a0 I will be honest, even though Duffy also says \u201cThings are not as bad as we think,\u201d I am somewhat pessimistic about what appears to be a growing polarization of our society.[16]<\/a> But, maybe we can get away from the algorithms that feed our delusions and be willing to listen to other peoples ideas, research and testimonies no matter how uncomfortable they make us feel.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Ohio Revised Code 3501.022.\u00a0 Section 3501.022 – Ohio Revised Code | Ohio Laws<\/a><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Frank LaRose, \u201cState Issue 1,\u201d issuereport.pdf (ohiosos.gov)<\/a><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Chris Quinn \u201c A fiery discussion about why Ohio\u2019s special election is really about gutting democracy in the state.\u00a0 Accessed March 15, 2024.\u00a0 A fiery discussion about why Ohio\u2019s August special election is really about gutting democracy in the state – cleveland.com<\/a><\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Bobby Duffy, Why We\u2019re Wrong About Nearly Everything<\/em>, (New York, NY: Basic Books, 2019),<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Duffy, 225.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Kathryn Schulz, Being Wrong , (New York, NY: Ecco, 2011)\u00a0 8,18.<\/em><\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Tim Harford. How to Make the World Add Up<\/em> (Great Britian: Bridge Street Press, 2020), 264<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Duffy, 64.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Duffy, 3.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Rachel K. Jones, and Jenna Jerman, \u201cPopulation group abortion rates and lifetime incidence of abortion: United States, 2008-2014,\u201d\u00a0 American Journal of Public Health\u00a0 107, 2017.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Duffy, 230.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> Duffy, 239.<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Katie Watson and Kassandra Samuel \u201cMaternal indications: Current or future mothering as a reason for abortion among patients writing in notebooks at one American abortion clinic,\u201d SSM \u2013 Qualitative Research in Health 2, 2022.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> Li za Fuentes, Megan Kavanaugh,\u00a0 Lori Frohwirth,\u00a0 \u00a0Jenna Jerman, &\u00a0 Nakeisha Blades,( \u201cAdoption is just not for me\u201d: How abortion patients in Michigan and New Mexico factor adoption into their pregnancy outcome decisions.\u00a0 Conception X 5, 1-5 , 2023.<\/p>\n

[15]<\/a> Duffy\u00a0 , 239-240.<\/p>\n

[16]<\/a> Duffy, 230.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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