More good news: Shortage of abortion providers

The abortion industry is dying a natural death. The older generation of "abortion providers" is passing from the scene and the younger generation, it seems, is not picking up the mantle. This is forcing a worried "pro-choice" crowd to come up with some rather outlandish suggestions for recruiting and training young doctors in the art of slaughtering the innocent.

Address the shortage of abortion providers. We all know the drill: the average age of an abortion provider in this country is soaring upwards, and many doctors who deserve to retire and spend their days playing golf stay in the business because there's so many women who need abortions and so few people to provide them. Few counties have abortion providers, and many women have to travel hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles to get one. And it's because younger doctors don't want to perform abortions. They don't have any memories of the horrors of septic abortions (unlike many older doctors), and the harassment they face if they join up seems like too much trouble.

The problem is complex, but not unfixable. We should lobby for stronger protections for abortion clinic workers, so that fear doesn't drive would-be providers away. More importantly, we need to find a way to get people with the right attitudes and the right skills into the business. Programs encouraging bright, young pro-choice people into medical school to train as ob-gyns who perform abortions is a good start. Pushing medical schools not only to teach the procedures for abortion, but also to highlight the dangers of self-abortion would also help. Perhaps a scholarship program for medical students who train to be abortion providers, or a debt forgiveness program for those doctors that provide abortion? There are endless possibilities, and we should undertake them.

If you think this sounds desperate, you're right. A program to encourage "bright, young pro-choice people" will not succeed in the present medical climate because the "bright" and "young" among us do not buy the "pro-choice" argument. Like every lie, it cannot be perpetuated forever. If the number of "abortion providers" is declining due to a lack of interest by a new generation of doctors and other healthcare workers, the best suggestion is not to force medical schools to teach a barbaric procedure or to offer scholarships to those willing to perform it. Rather, the best suggestion is . . .

Let the death industry die!