Ross Douthat is right to pick apart Dana Stevens’ strange analysis of abortion-politics ala Judd Appatow’s Knocked Up. And while I think his analysis of the film is pretty spot-on, he’s a bit off the mark here:

Stevens is right that a typical young, upwardly-mobile, apparently-secular female professional who gets pregnant from a one-night stand with a loserish guy is a prime candidate to get an abortion, and the Knocked Up scenario is, in that regard, sociologically unlikely.

Replace “upwardly mobile” and “pregnant from a one-nigh stand with a loserish guy” with “poor and struggling” and “victim of a date rape” and I think you have a clearer candidate.

Had Alison not had the steady, well-paying job, and the in-house support system of her sister and brother-in-law, I’m sure the decision to carry the child to term would have been a lot more agonizing.