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Opinion

Deterring abortions is worth the price

Ursula Hawkiins
Opinion Columnist

The Texas Legislature will vote on a bill that will give women seeking an abortion the option to receive $500 to have their baby and give it up for adoption. This bill is a great way to encourage pregnant women who do not wish to be mothers to preserve their baby's life and give another parent or couple the opportunity to be parents. 

However, if advocates of this bill really want to make a difference in the number of abortions that are performed each year in Texas, then they must consider increasing the amount of money proposed from $500 to almost double that amount. $500 is simply not enough money. 

If you divide $500 into the nine months it takes to actually give birth to a child, it boils down to a whopping $55 a month. That is nowhere near enough money for women to buy the extra food, clothes and other necessities they will encounter throughout their pregnancy. 

Money does not stretch as far as it did in the past, and the advocates of this bill should take into consideration all the things that women endure during a full nine month pregnancy, such as weight gain, mood swings and fatigue. 

To many of these women, $500 will not seem like a big enough incentive to go through with the pregnancy. 

Despite the fact that $500 is not a huge amount of money, if this bill is passed by the Texas Legislature there will be some women who decide against having an abortion, and that means lives saved. 

CNN reported that 75,000 abortions are performed in Texas each year. Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Texas, said "If this incentive would give pause and change the mind of 5 percent of those women, that's 3,000 lives. That's almost as many people as we've lost in Iraq". 

Also, if this bill were put into effect, other states might follow Texas' plan, which could help reduce abortions all across America.

It really does not matter whether someone is for or against abortion in regards to this issue. Although the bill encourages women not to have abortions, at the end of the day, it is still up to the women to make the choice, so the bill would not be a real threat to either side of the abortion disagreement. 

There are some critics who claim that giving women the option to take money in return for giving up their baby for adoption is going against child purchasing laws, but technically another person would not be giving money for the baby. The actual check would come from the state of Texas, not another person. 

Regardless of what the critics see as faults in this proposed bill, and although $500 is not much money to offer, if passed the bill could be the start of something big. It has the potential to save the lives of many children in the future, all of whom would owe their life to this piece of legislation. 

Hawkins, a communication/Spanish sophomore, 
can be reached via dccampus@mail.uh.edu