Catholic Citizenship and the Toxic Dichotomy of the Abortion Debate in the United States: How the Responsible Catholic Citizen Should Approach Abortion

Abstract

Abortion is a hot-button issue in American politics that is widely characterized by the pro-life vs. pro-choice debate. Each side is rooted in a different ethical mentality that leads to irreconcilable conclusions. On one side, pro-life argues against abortion on the moral principle of right to life, and on the other side, pro-choice argues for abortion on the moral principle of respect for individual autonomy. Thus, the abortion debate has become what I call a toxic dichotomy, a state of stagnant political polarization between the pro-life and pro-choice camps, which treats abortion as an (unwinnable) ethical debate. This dichotomy is so ingrained in the public mind that it colors almost every aspect of how we think about abortion both colloquially and in scholarship. However, empirical evidence shows that abortion is an issue of public health and that socioeconomic injustices (such as poverty or lacking adequate access to healthcare) are often the root causes of people needing abortion as an option. In this paper, I develop the notion of the toxic dichotomy to show why the abortion debate is stagnant and how both pro-life and pro-choice contribute to the toxicity. Additionally, I identify this dichotomous framework as the reason previous scholars/scholarship have struggled to resolve the debate or fully capture the issue of abortion. Finally, I explain why Catholics' opinions are so divided on this political issue and argue that the toxic dichotomy is, in part, to blame, because it forces Catholics to pick a side in a debate where either side will lead them to violate core values of their faith. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to show that in order to address abortion meaningfully (i.e. as an issue of public health and socioeconomic injustice), and to understand the Catholic divide and ideal Catholic response regarding this issue, we must re-frame the issue of abortion outside the toxic dichotomy of pro-life vs. pro-choice.