Even Wealth and Fame Don't Save Women From Abortion Pressure | Opinion

Even the richest and most famous women in the world aren't safe from pressure to abort.

In her just-released memoir Britney Spears admits she got pregnant at the tender age of 19 while in a relationship with Justin Timberlake. She didn't want to have an abortion. He, as she put it, "didn't want to be a father."

The pregnancy "was a surprise, but for me, it wasn't a tragedy," Spears wrote. "I loved Justin so much. I always expected us to have a family together one day. This would just be much earlier than I'd anticipated. But Justin definitely wasn't happy about the pregnancy. He said we weren'tready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young."

"If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it," the singer continued. "And yet Justin was so sure that he didn't want to be a father."

It was a choice Spears felt pushed into: "To this day, it's one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life."

Britney Spears may feel alone in her pain, but she is far from it. A recent, comprehensive study of women who have had abortions found that the vast majority—two in three—felt pushed or even forced into it.

If Britney Spears, at the time and still to this day one of the most famous women in the world, can feel pushed into an abortion at the father's "insistence" (as Reuters put it), what of ordinary women? And how much greater is the pressure on women who lack the material resources needed to carry and raise a child?

This is arguably the greatest challenge facing the pro-life community in a post-Roe v. Wade era, when the American people once again have a say in abortion policy. How do we enact laws that protect women and babies while also alleviating the very real pressures women feel to abort?

Lynn Fitch, the attorney general for Mississippi who led her state's case before the Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health, has an answer. Her office administers a recently launched program called Mississippi Access to Maternal Assistance (MAMA). MAMA provides access to resources for "health care, food and clothing, safety and shelter, jobs and job training, education, childcare, and much more" for mothers and for women expecting a baby. It's the latest thing to come out of Fitch's "Empowerment Project," a broader initiative to empower moms and families in a post-Roe v. Wade era.

Mississippi's establishment of MAMA follows the state of Texas' move to allocate $100 million dollars to its Alternatives to Abortion initiative, which funds pregnancy centers that offer the two-in-three pregnant women who want to keep their babies but feel pressured to abort supplies and assistance, from diapers to job training.

And the governor of Tennessee recently announced that his state will expand funding for pregnancy centers and programs that provide access to affordable child care and aid victims of domestic violence. "We must provide a safety net for those who are facing unplanned pregnancies," Governor Bill Lee said in his most recent State of the State address.

"Pro-life is much more than defending the lives of the unborn; it's about protecting and promoting human dignity in all its forms," the governor said. "This isn't a matter of politics; this is about recognizing that every life has value and should be treated with respect."

These programs are essential for ending a culture where women feel pressured to abort. But if Spears' story is any indication, women also need encouragement that they can have the babies they want to have. That encouragement costs nothing. As the website for MAMA says, "Remember, Mama, you can do this—and you are not alone!"

These are words, apparently, even a pop star may need to hear.

Ashley McGuire is a Senior Fellow with The Catholic Association, author of Sex Scandal: The Drive to Abolish Male and Female, and co-host of the nationally syndicated radio show, "Conversations with Consequences." Leigh Fitzpatrick Snead is a Fellow for The Catholic Association and co-host of the nationally syndicated radio show Conversations with Consequences.

The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.