Q. Aren’t you sentencing women to unsafe abortions?
A. Supporters claim legalized, elective abortion has improved women’s health.8 But history tells a different story. Legalization has only given abortionists the cover of law to continue endangering women and taking the lives of children. Abortion-on-demand has harmed women through substandard care and misinformation.9
For example, in 2013, Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell was convicted of not only murdering infants born after failed abortion attempts, but causing the death of a 41-year-old woman during a procedure in his filthy, run-down clinic.
Gosnell’s “house of horrors” is not an outlier in the abortion industry.10 Abortion clinics across the country are under investigation for dangerous, unsanitary conditions that jeopardize women’s lives and health.11
Q. Doesn’t everyone agree abortion should be legal?
A. Two-thirds of Americans—including nearly 50 percent of Democrats and 70 percent of independents—believe late-term abortion should generally be illegal.12 Eighty one percent oppose abortions in the third trimester—when the child can live outside the womb and women are at greater risk.13 Roughly half of Americans now identify themselves as “pro-life.” An increasing number of Americans oppose abortion because they’ve seen the harm it inflicts on women and realize the brutality of abortion to children.
Q. Don’t you care about women?
A. Part of caring about women’s health and lives includes making sure they’re informed of abortion’s serious risks.
Abortion victimizes both mother and child. Medical evidence shows the significant risks of abortion: Women can suffer from serious infections, depression, and increased risks of premature birth and other dangerous complications in future pregnancies.14
Women have even been injured and died as a result of legal abortion. Tonya Reaves, a 24-year-old single mother, bled to death in 2012, after an injury caused by a botched abortion in a midtown Chicago Planned Parenthood clinic.15
Yet, many women are never told about the negative effects of abortion or what an abortion will do to their child.
Those who care about women’s dignity and health should insist that women have the most accurate counseling and comprehensive care—for themselves and their children.
Q. Do you want to outlaw all abortion? Even in cases of rape? Aren’t your views extreme?
A. Rape is a horrific crime that is never the fault of the victim, who deserves prompt and compassionate care.
Facing a pregnancy caused by rape is a difficult and painful situation. But abortion increases physical and emotional harm to a woman and adds another victim to an already terrible crime.
We should protect the life of every child—regardless of how he or she was conceived.23
What is extreme is using the case of rape to argue abortion should remain legal for any reason—through all nine months of pregnancy. Advocates of abortion argue for abortion-on-demand—even if performed only because the child is a girl, has a disability, or is simply inconvenient. That’s not a view in line with most Americans and only increases the number of women harmed by abortion.
Q. Doesn’t a woman have the right to choose?
A. Many women find themselves in complicated, painful situations that leave them with difficult choices. But when we talk about rights, we have to talk about the rights of all people. Every human being has the right to life—before and after birth. Nothing in the Constitution, rightly understood, prevents the government from protecting that right for everyone.
In fact, government has a duty to protect the most vulnerable in society and recognize the inherent value of all human life. We cannot exclude the youngest children from the precious right to life. We should recognize the dignity of every life by ensuring mothers have accurate information and children are welcomed in life and protected in law.
Q. How does America compare to other nations in terms of abortion law?
A. The United States is one of only a handful of developed countries in which late-term abortions after 20 weeks—5 months—are allowed. At that stage, the child is capable of feeling pain and women are at increased risk for the negative effects of abortion.24 The United States—a country founded to protect unalienable human rights—should not deny those rights to the most vulnerable in our society.
Q. Men don’t know what it’s like to be pregnant. What gives them the right to talk about abortion?
A. Abortion is an issue that affects us all. Men are affected by abortion—by the loss of children, the harm to women they care about, and the loss of their role as fathers.
Abortion-on-demand can serve as a tool for some men to avoid committing to the mothers of their children.
But men who genuinely care about women are concerned about abortion’s threat to women and recognize that both mother and child have a right to life. They acknowledge their responsibility—whether as fathers or concerned community members—to support women during difficult situations.
Q. You supposedly care so much about the fetus before it’s born; why don’t you do anything to help children after they come into this world?
A. Recognizing the inherent dignity of both children and women demands that we care for both people—before and after birth.25
Approximately 2,700 pregnancy centers across the country provide compassionate care to women and their children. These centers offer counseling, material support, community referrals, and medical care.
Most importantly, pregnancy centers empower women by letting them know they have real choices. Women desiring to parent can find support for expectant mothers and fathers. Birthmothers are educated on the beautiful choice of adoption. Pregnancy centers offer information on the many adoption providers who stand ready to connect birthmothers and their children with loving, adoptive families.26
ENDNOTES:
8. “Top 10 Myths About Abortion,” Family Research Council and the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists, 2019.
9 .“Unsafe Abortion: More Information Needed for True Informed Consent,” Charlotte Lozier Institute, March 4, 2013.
10. “Exposing the Pervasiveness of ‘Back Alley’ Abortions,” by Denise M. Burke, Women’s Protection Project, Americans United for Life, 2013.
11. Ibid.
12. “Americans’ Opinions On Abortion, Knights of Columbus/Marist Poll, 2022.
13. “Historical Trends: Abortion,” Gallup.
14. Byron C. Calhoun, M.D. and Mailee Smith, “Significant Potential Harm: Growing medical evidence of abortion’s negative impact on women,” Defending Life 2013: Deconstructing Roe: Abortion’s Negative Impact on Women, Americans United for Life (Washington, D.C.: 2013).
15. Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D. “Batgirl v. Baby Girl,” Defending Life 2013: Deconstructing Roe: Abortion’s Negative Impact on Women, Americans United for Life (Washington, D.C.: 2013).
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23. “The ‘Hard Cases’ of Abortion: A Pro-life Response,” Family Research Council, 2000.
24. “Gestational Limits on Abortion in the United States Compared to International Norms,” The Charlotte Lozier Institute, 2014.
25. Helen Alvaré, Greg Pfundstein, Matthew Schmitz and Ryan T. Anderson, “The Lazy Slander of the Pro-Life Cause,” Public Discourse, January 17, 2011.
26. “Pregnancy Centers Stand the Test of Time,” The Charlotte Lozier Institute, 2020.
