In the recent Vice-Presidential Debate, Mike Pence and Tim Kaine battled it out on their abortion stances. They went back in forth in an unproductive exchange of typical pro-life and pro-choice rhetoric, discussing their religious faith and the role of government in women’s personal lives. That’s all fine and dandy, but neither of them acknowledged the systemic root causes of abortion. While Kaine did mention expanding adoption opportunities, he failed to explain his plans to do that for the whole country. The same thing happens in most political debates -- politicians take the extreme opposite of the other party’s view rather than address the societal conditions that cause so many abortions.

Perhaps debating the morality of abortion is useful for women who have to make that decision. But, if you’re not in that situation, it is more urgent to discuss how we can reduce the abortion rate. After all, abortions are bad. Not that they are inherently wrong, but it is a bad situation when a woman has to make that choice. Therefore, the goal of the abortion debate should be to change society so that women do not need to choose to have an abortion. To do this, we must address the systemic root causes.

A key fact that is missing from the debate is that almost half of pregnancies in the US are unintended. A large percentage of abortions could be avoided if people knew how to plan their parenthood. Shockingly, only 43% of females and 57% males aged 15-19 received education on birth control before their first time having sex. That is why all schools should provide comprehensive sex education, which teaches both abstinence and birth control as viable options to plan pregnancies. Additionally, publicly funded family planning services need more support, as they have greatly reduced the amount of unintended pregnancies.

Another commonly ignored aspect of the debate is why women choose to have abortions. The choice to have an abortion is often a complicated one, but there are common themes. According to a BioMed Central study, 73% of women who had abortions reported that they cannot afford to take care of a child. This is not surprising since women are not paid equally with men and children are becoming more expensive to take care of. Moreover, 74% of women said they weren’t ready to make a dramatic change to their lives. Most were busy with work or school, both of which often lack quality childcare facilities, and many were already caring for other children. Another child on top of all their responsibilities was not manageable. Unless we address these societal issues, there will be hundreds of thousands of abortions every year.

As Tim Kaine said, anyone who is pro-life should be pro-adoption, but adoption needs to become much more appealing before we can consider it a solid solution. Putting a baby up for adoption is much more difficult than having an abortion. If they abort their baby, they escape judgment because no one will see them pregnant and avoid the long-term feelings of loss when giving up their born baby. Unless women are guaranteed emotional support during and after pregnancy, most are unlikely to choose adoption.

Just like sex education, the abortion debate should become more comprehensive, dealing with all relevant aspects of the issue. Instead of attacking the other side, we must attack the root causes, but maybe that’s too much to ask of a politician. Even if one side wins the debate, the nationwide abortion crisis won’t end until improvements in society render abortion obsolete.