Social Workers and Abortion
A.... disgruntled commentor mentioned that I would be a terrible social worker if I thought I should sacrifice the life of a child (unborn) to save its mother.
This shows me what I already knew; that people have no idea what social workers do or what their values are. It’s a pretty versatile profession, which I will admit makes it hard to explain. But let me do my best to help you understand why a Social Worker (a human helper) would support abortion.
Social workers help disadvantaged people overcome barriers that keep them from reaching their potential.
Basically, this means when a social worker is helping an individual, community, or institution, they identify barriers (socioeconomic, health, mental health, etc.) to their client’s success and help the client overcome them.
Again, this is pretty vague. To better understand it, you need to look at social work’s core values. These are applied in every single step of every single situation. You are meant to live, breathe, and eat with these values on your mind.
IF THESE ARE NOT VALUES THAT YOU HOLD, THEN YOU SHOULD NOT BE A SOCIAL WORKER. FULL STOP. END OF STORY. IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE IN THEM, IT IS VERY LIKELY YOU WILL TAKE ACTION DURING THE COURSE OF YOUR CAREER THAT PUTS YOUR LICENSE AT JEAPORDY DUE TO POTENTIAL HARM TO YOUR CLIENT OR SOCIETY. Core Social Work Values:
Service
Social Justice
Dignity and Worth of a Person
Importance of Human Relationships
Integrity
Competence
These ethical principles are woven into everything a social worker does. How does that look in practice? Here are the definitions from the NASW Code of Ethics.
1. Service
There is no other discipline whose licensing board tells you that you must price your services fairly and consider the client’s ability to pay. That’s pretty darn special if you ask me.
“Social workers elevate service to others above self-interest. Social workers draw on their knowledge, values, and skills to help people in need and to address social problems. Social workers are encouraged to volunteer some portion of their professional skills with no expectation of significant financial return (pro bono service).”
2. Social Justice
“Social workers pursue social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups of people. Social workers’ social change efforts are focused primarily on issues of poverty, unemployment, discrimination, and other forms of social injustice. These activities seek to promote sensitivity to and knowledge about oppression and cultural and ethnic diversity. Social workers strive to ensure access to needed information, services, and resources; equality of opportunity; and meaningful participation in decision making for all people.”
3. Dignity and Worth of a Person:
“Social workers treat each person in a caring and respectful fashion, mindful of individual differences and cultural and ethnic diversity. Social workers promote clients’ socially responsible self-determination. Social workers seek to enhance clients’ capacity and opportunity to change and to address their own needs. Social workers are cognizant of their dual responsibility to clients and to the broader society. They seek to resolve conflicts between clients’ interests and the broader society’s interests in a socially responsible manner consistent with the values, ethical principles, and ethical standards of the profession.”
4. Importance of Human Relationships
“Social workers understand that relationships between and among people are an important vehicle for change. Social workers engage people as partners in the helping process. Social workers seek to strengthen relationships among people in a purposeful effort to promote, restore, maintain, and enhance the well-being of individuals, families, social groups, organizations, and communities.”
5. Integrity
“Social workers are continually aware of the profession’s mission, values, ethical principles, and ethical standards and practice in a manner consistent with them. Social workers should take measures to care for themselves professionally and personally. Social workers act honestly and responsibly and promote ethical practices on the part of the organizations with which they are affiliated.”
6. Competence
“Social workers continually strive to increase their professional knowledge and skills and to apply them in practice. Social workers should aspire to contribute to the knowledge base of the profession. “
From here, we branch off to the Ethical Standards section, which is looong. It covers responsibilities to:
Clients
Colleagues
In Practice Settings
As Professionals
The Social Work Profession
The Broader Society
So here’s the thing, social workers believe and don’t believe in things that many people, on BOTH sides of the political aisle, struggle to reconcile. Here are some examples:
Social Workers do not believe in the death penalty no matter what
Social Workers believe in Reproductive Freedom no matter what
Social Workers believe in Marriage Equality no matter what
Social Workers believe in Respecting and Protecting Undocumented People no matter what
Social Workers care about Prisoners no matter what. Yep, even the really super bad ones
Explore NASW’s Website here When Social Workers say they fight against inequality, there are no caveats. Social Workers are not naïve liberal idealists with their heads in the clouds. Their beliefs are evidence based. If significant data supports that something is bad for society (Increases poverty, widens inequality gap, worsens individual outcomes), it is disallowed by the code of ethics. These are not just knee-jerk opinions, they are carefully studied before being added into the code.
So, how does the code of ethics support abortion? Because an individual’s right to choose what happens to their own body is fundamental to what social workers hold dear. Females cannot achieve economic equality if they cannot choose when and if they have a child. Banning abortion strips an individual of their right to bodily autonomy. Therefore, social workers (who are adhering to the code of ethics) not only “accept” abortion, but they see it as a non-negotiable, fundamental human right...
