Even More Basic Q & A

Even More Basic Q&A

Shouldn't women have control over their own bodies - that is, have reproductive rights?

For women who demand complete control of their body, control should include preventing the risk of unwanted pregnancy through the responsible use of contraception or abstinence.

The statement, "It's my body and I can do what I want with it" is simply not true. In fact, all women AND men are already held responsible for using and controlling their bodies lawfully. Since we live in a physical world, almost all laws involve the control and use of our bodies in one way or another. Nobody is completely free to use their body any way they want. The use of our body is ALWAYS governed by its effect on others - especially harmful effects.

If someone wants to use their body in a way that harms others, our laws are especially restrictive in this regard and they are not free to do so. And if they do, shouldn't they be held responsible? Or were they simply exercising their 'right' to control and use their own body the way they wanted to? When a woman gets pregnant, it’s not just about her body anymore – it’s about her body AND the unborn child's body.

Also, 99% of all abortions are on pregnancies resulting from consensual sex, not forcible rape. Both the man and the woman clearly knew a pregnancy could result from sexual intercourse. Our public schools have all but guaranteed our children have this information through sex education classes at an early age - that sexual intercourse can result in a pregnancy - even when using contraceptives - and that teen pregnancies are extremely common. By having consensual sex, both the man and woman knowingly and willingly took an active part in causing an unborn child to stand in need of her body. They willingly involved themselves in becoming a part of a new child's life.

We should give women their due respect by acknowledging she had complete control of her body when she got pregnant and entered as a co-equal partner with a man in bringing a new life into this world. Likewise, men who don't want to share in the responsibility for their own children should also be acknowledged for their part - through the strict enforcement of child-support laws.

Ironically, many women report feeling a 'loss of control over their body' while on the operating table for an abortion. Post-abortive women have described their abortions as being similar to a rape and have even used the term "medical rape". Abortion involves the painful intrusion into a woman’s sexual organs by a masked stranger/abortionist who invades her body. Once she is on the operating table, she loses control over her body. Even if she protests and asks the abortionist to stop, chances are she will either be ignored or told that it’s too late to stop the abortion. (See http://www.lifenews.com/2010/04/05/nat-6223/).

NancyJo Mann experienced complications from infection and bleeding following her abortion which eventually led to a hysterectomy (surgical removal of her uterus). Recalling her experience, she said: "Beforehand, I liked myself. I had never entertained the idea of abortion. But the minute that needle went through my abdomen, I hated it, because I knew it could not be reversed. I wanted to scream, ‘Don’t do this to me!"

Isn't abstinence from sex or the use of contraception to avoid an unwanted pregnancy an unreasonable expectation?

Is it unreasonable to expect someone who is HIV positive to abstain from having sex with someone they love and want to protect? Many nations already have laws restricting the criminal transmission of HIV (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_transmission_of_HIV).

We also have other laws restricting sexual behavior - for example, an adult having sex with a minor (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statutory_rape). These laws are necessary to protect the helpless in our society from those who want total and unrestricted sexual freedom.

On the other hand, a U.S. President recently promoted sex without consequences. In 2008, while discussing the future sex lives of his two under-age daughters, Barack Obama said: "I’ve got two daughters, 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby."

By this remark, one must wonder if Mr. Obama feels his own children are a "punishment" to him. In any case, he gave his daughters his full approval to have his own future grandchildren killed by abortion. Is this the type of "values and morals" we want our children to hear from the leader of our country?

Would you take away a woman's right to choose abortion?

Once again, whatever rationale used for an unborn child ought to apply to those already born and vice versa. There is no morally relevant difference between those born and unborn. Since there is no justification for killing a child already born, there is no justification for killing an unborn child merely because they haven't passed through the birth canal of a woman.

The question is also improperly phrased and needs to be rephrased: "Do you think it's completely 'fine' to kill an innocent human being just because it's in the way and can't defend itself?"

If someone objects to that characterization, it would be fair to respond, "Which one of those terms is inaccurate? Kill? Innocent? Human being? Defenseless? In the way?"

As for the right to choose, abortion clinics routinely use deception to prevent the right to choose. Former abortionist Dr. Randall said: "They [pregnant women] are never allowed to look at the ultrasound because we knew that if they so much as heard the heartbeat, they wouldn’t want to have an abortion." (David Kuperlain and Mark Masters, "Pro-Choice 1990: Skeletons in the Closet", Oct "New Dimensions" magazine).

"It [the unborn child] is a form of life...This has to be killing...The question then becomes "Is this kind of killing justifiable? In my own mind, it is justifiable, but only with the informed consent of the mother" (Abortionist quoted in "Democrat and Chronicle" 7/5/92)

Having a choice in abortion promotes personal freedoms in our society

The word "choice" implies freedom. But for whom? Slave owners, both past and present, have always considered it their "choice" to exploit and even kill their slaves. If they couldn't manipulate the legal system to victimize their slaves lawfully, they still maintained it was a personal, private matter and continued to hold and exploit slaves in secret.

Almost all wide-scale acts of cruelty by humans upon other humans have used "choice" as their justification for their actions. However, if we desire true freedom in our society, humans must be free to live out their natural lives rather than have their lives cut short by others. Abortion intentionally cuts short the lives of human beings and all of the potential that their lives contained.

Does “Choice” imply the freedom to make a personal choice or criminal choice?

The word "choice" also implies the freedom to make "bad" or "poor" choices. This seems reasonably neutral and innocuous on the surface except this simple view omits making any distinction between "poor" choices and "criminal" choices. "Poor" choices may have detrimental effects on oneself but "criminal" choices have a detrimental effect on others - in this case, the pre-born child. Furthermore, the ultimate criminal choice one human can make over another is to take their life.

"I wanted to be the world's best abortionist, for the good of my patients. If I was going to do this, met each patient, reviewed the medical information gathered by my nurse, examined the patient and performed the abortion, I would then carefully sift through the remains to be sure all the parts were accounted for. I had to find four extremities (two arms and two legs) a spine, a skull, and the placenta, or my patient would suffer later from an incomplete abortion...My attention was so focused on my perceived patient (the pregnant woman) that I managed to deny that there were, in fact, two patients involved- the expectant mother AND a very small child...I had to wonder, how can having a child be so wrong for some people that they will pay me to end its life?" (Former abortionist Dr. McMillan, "How One Doctor Changed Her Mind About Abortion" Focus on the Family, Colorado Springs)

"It was at this point that I began to have nightmares. In my nightmares, I would deliver a healthy newborn baby. And I would take that healthy newborn baby, and I would hold it up. And I would face a jury of faceless people and ask them to tell me what to do with this baby. They were to go thumbs up or thumbs down, and if they made a thumbs down indication, then I was to drop the baby into a bucket of water which was present. I never did reach the point of dropping the baby into the bucket, because I’d always wake up at that point” (Former abortionist McArthur Hill, who has told of how he would try to save premature babies and then find that the babies he’d aborted were bigger than the premature ones he had saved; Prolife Action League, 1989)

Should men have a right to be pro-life?

Certainly, the woman carries the vast majority of the 'burden' of the pregnancy but men have a rightful say on the well-being of their unborn child - just as they do after the child is born. This is shown legally today where the man is held responsible to pay for child support if the two parents separate.

Also, just because someone is not directly affected by a certain situation does not mean they have no say or responsibility in that situation. Any injustice, whether it is racism or other unfair treatment of an individual or group, must become the responsibility of those who see the injustice and care enough to come to the aide of the innocent and helpless in our society.

Should young women be the only ones allowed to speak out against sex-trafficking?

It is also a common ploy by those who victimize others to make the claim that others have no say in the situation. Slave owners, even dictators of foreign countries, routinely tell those who seek justice for the victims to "stop interfering". However, this is nothing more than a dishonest claim by criminals to have sole rights over their victims. Those of us who have knowledge of an unjust situation, and have the means to bring relief to the helpless, are responsible to do so. And in the case of abortion, allowing others to dismember and kill their unborn children is nothing short of turning a blind eye to a massive injustice.

Doesn't legalization of abortion promote freedom of the individual?

Those who choose abortions are often minors or young women who subsequently report being coerced by their parents or boyfriends into having abortions - the ANTITHESIS of 'choice' and ‘freedom’. Coercion is NOT freedom of choice.

Some studies show 64% of women who abort, for all age groups combined, report being coerced into having the abortion. In teenagers and young women, experiences with coercion are much higher. If free and uncoerced 'choice' is such a high priority for pro-choice groups, they should actively work toward preventing the coercion of young women into having abortions, but ironically, they don't - not even workers in abortion clinics who claim to be 'patient advocates'. But pro-choice groups insist they're promoting 'choice' - but apparently ONLY the choice that's politically expedient for them.

No one, women or men, should ever be used as political pawns - for any reason. Coercion can also escalate to violence or even HOMICIDE - the #1 killer of pregnant women (see http://www.theunchoice.com/intro.htm).

What about post-abortive women who claim they're "not sorry" about their abortion?

Any statement by someone who had an abortion and is “not sorry” is merely a personal opinion and has no moral relevance. Being "sorry" for having their unborn child killed simply shows they have a tender and working conscience. On the other hand, being "not sorry" for having their unborn child killed, that is - burned, poisoned, or dismembered alive - shows they are in denial, are playing the bravado card, or have a dead and nonfunctional conscience.

Dismembering and killing an innocent, helpless human being, is blatant murder. Being sorry or not is irrelevant in that it is still murder. Many criminals found guilty in court are not sorry for their crimes. Many dictators guilty of mass murder are not sorry. Their unrepentant attitude proves nothing regarding moral relevancy.

Here is a testimony from a woman in Florida, USA who was "not sorry" until she found healing and resolution: "I remember that at first I was debating whether I should have the abortion because part of me didn't feel right about it. My mom told a woman this at Planned Parenthood, and she told me that she had once had an abortion and that she now has kids. She said, ‘I don't regret my abortion at all. I don't even think about it.’

With all of this pressure to have an abortion and no one encouraging me to keep my baby, I caved and had the procedure around 8 weeks. I did not feel informed during my visit to the clinic and felt very suspicious when the woman doing the sonogram didn't show me what was inside of me (if it really was just a blob of tissue why wasn't I allowed to see it?) However, the procedure was very professional and quick. I felt no immediate pain when I woke up from the sedation but was loopy and tired.

Within a short period of time I began to wonder if I had done the right thing, especially when the topic of pro-life vs. pro-choice came up. I sort of spiraled out of control emotionally, becoming very outspoken about abortion and how I supported it, justifying my decision. I began to hate Christians and those who stood vigil at abortion clinics, thinking they had no idea what it felt like to make a choice to terminate a pregnancy. I became an alcoholic and an addict to numb the deep pain and regret that I felt, but I would not admit it to myself or anyone else. I went through a dark time of doubting the existence of God, though I had heard the Gospel as a teen. I couldn't comprehend a God who could love but still allow such evil in the world, specifically my evil.

I found healing when I finally accepted a friend's invitation to a nondenominational church over 2 years later. All that I had ever heard about Jesus came alive in my heart and my mind when I heard a pastor share about his past which consisted of drug addiction and suicide attempts. I realized that if Christ could love this pastor, He could love me, and that was the best epiphany I've ever had! It was then that I finally accepted the love of Christ and since then I have been following after Him.

A few months after that experience, I was in a Jiffy Lube reading my Bible when a man sitting across from me asked me if I was reading the Bible. I told him yes, and we began talking about what I was reading. He told me he was a pastor and we spoke until my car was ready. I told him I was interested in using worship to reach the lost, and he gave me contact information for a woman who works at a women's help center in Jacksonville. When I contacted her, I confessed to her about my previous abortion, and she encouraged me to come to a healing workshop at the center.

I went to the workshop and received the forgiveness from Jesus that I was struggling to receive for my abortion. I thought I was over my abortion because I had ultimately been forgiven at the cross, but I realized that I needed to seek specific healing for the abortion because there was so much unresolved guilt.

Still to this day the abortion is an emotional scar on my heart, and I know that it will always be there because that was my child. But through Christ I can face the topic of abortion with courage and compassion, knowing that my sin has been erased by my Savior."

Isn't Abortion Rights All About Women's Rights?
The modern pro-choice movement would have us believe the pro-choice position is a noble pro-woman cause. But is it? Ironically, their biggest threat comes from women’s groups such as The Silent No More Awareness Campaign - women who stand with their "I regret my abortion" signs (http://www.silentnomoreawareness.org) and Feminists for Life who say, "Abortion is a reflection that we have not met the needs of women" and "Women deserve better than abortion." (http://www.feministsforlife.org).

Because of such a great need, there are literally thousands of support groups for women who regret their abortions. By contrast, there are no known support groups for women who regret NOT having an abortion.

Post-abortive women are coming forward in ever greater numbers to speak out about how abortion was not an act of empowerment but the result of abandonment, betrayal, coercion, and desperation, and how it has negatively affected their lives. www.afterabortion.com was established by a post-abortive woman to provide a place for other women to help each other cope with the aftermath of their abortions. There are nearly 2.5 million posts.

They tell personal stories of how they were coerced into aborting their children by boyfriends, husbands, friends, and family… and mislead by their abortion clinic ‘counselors’. They describe how abortion was far from being a choice or an act of 'freedom'. They speak of overwhelming guilt, nightmares, excessive drinking, drug abuse, promiscuity, an inability to form or maintain relationships, difficulty bonding with later children, and other ways in which they are suffering. Are these hardships the so-called legal 'rights' that women should have to endure?

“For the question remains, do women want abortion? Not like she wants a Porsche or an ice cream cone. Like an animal caught in a trap, trying to gnaw off its own leg, a woman who seeks abortion is trying to escape a desperate situation by an act of violence and self-loss. Abortion is not a sign that women are free, but a sign that they are desperate.” (Frederica Mathewes-Green, “Abortion: Women’s Rights…and Wrongs”, Sisterlife, 1994)

Were America’s pioneer feminists pro-choice or pro-life?

American history includes America's first feminists, all of whom opposed abortion. Chief among them was Susan B. Anthony, who not only led the fight for the right of women to own property, to be able to vote, and obtain an equal education, but also spoke out against abortion.

Susan B. Anthony's newspaper, The Revolution, called abortion "child murder" and "infanticide." (The Revolution, April 9, 1868). In 1869, Susan B. Anthony said: "No matter what the motive, love of ease or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; but oh, thrice guilty is he who drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime!"

Another feminist pioneer, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, spoke on abortion and said: "When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we wish."

Alice Paul, who drafted the original version of the Equal Rights Amendment, said : “Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women".

Many modern feminists today have come to see the personal tragedy of abortion and have become pro-life. As Feminists for Life says, 'Women deserve better than abortion'.

Germaine Greer, British feminist and author of The Whole Woman (1999), said: “Whether you feel that the creation and wastage of so many embryos is an important issue or not, you must see that the cynical deception of millions of women by selling abortifacients as if they were contraceptives is incompatible with the respect due to women as human beings. You must also see that expecting women to be grateful for the opportunity to have inserted into their bodies instruments for sucking and scraping out the products of avoidable conception shows them as much contempt… What women don’t know does hurt them. If we ask ourselves whether we would have any hope of imposing upon men the duty to protect women’s fertility and their health, and avoid the abortions that occur in their uncounted millions every day, we will see in a blinding light how unfree women are.”

Pro-woman/pro-life women’s' groups are uncovering the old lie - the 'baby vs. woman' dichotomy - which is nothing more than political manipulation of women for the sake of profit. Women and children are not natural enemies, and it was a perversion of feminism which brought about this false dichotomy in the first place. To be pro-life is to embrace non-violence and equal justice for all -- the true feminism heralded by America's first feminists.

Without abortion, won't the large number of unplanned pregnancies result in the high 'social and economic cost' of unwanted children born to unwilling mothers?

Firstly, with over 2 million Americans wanting to adopt a child, there is no such thing as an 'unwanted' child.

Secondly, many aborted children were indeed wanted by their mothers who were coerced into having an abortion by their boyfriends, the mother's parents, etc… So it would be costly, especially for those boyfriends who don't want to pay for child support. But most men don't mention this concern and would rather cloak their pro-choice stance upon women’s' rights - a decidedly more noble sentiment.

In his book, 'Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World'; (2008), David B. Davis spoke about the social cost of ending slavery and said, "If Parliament had not outlawed the British slave trade in 1807, the British West Indian plantations...would have produced much greater wealth, the kind of productivity and wealth later enjoyed for many decades by slave-importing Cuba and Brazil."

He continues, "In 1977, Seymour Drescher's hard-hitting book 'Econocide: British Slavery in the Era of Abolition' argued that abolition of the slave trade was comparable to committing suicide for the major part of Britain's economy." So there was a cost. But Great Britain had the integrity to pay the high cost which justice demanded. Ultimately, justice must prevail over economic concerns.

Isn't abortion the best option for pregnant teenagers?

Studies show teenagers who had children were as well or better adjusted than teens that did not have children. Teenage mothers had fewer mental disorders, reported less stress, were less dependent on social support and reported greater satisfaction with the support they did receive. These studies contradict the popular notion that abortion benefits women in general and teens in particular. Studies on teens also show abortion increases the risk of subsequent psychological problems, including a six fold higher risk of substance abuse and suicide (see http://www.theunchoice.com/suicide.htm).

Also, giving a child up for adoption is a loving and life-saving alternative to abortion.

What about coerced abortion and its impact on women? How frequently does it occur in the U.S.?
"Coerced abortion is explicitly recognized as a violation of basic rights and principles." (United Nations, from UNFPA Conference Position Statement).

The majority of women who choose abortion do so under duress and heavy social pressure from friends, family, boyfriends, husbands, and even employment supervisors. And although the intolerant attitude toward teen pregnancies has waned in recent years, forced abortions using coercion and deception remains very high in the U.S.

The Elliot Institute (http://www.unfairchoice.info/intro.htm), a pro-life organization which promotes anti-coercion and anti-maternal abuse legislation, offers the following evidence-based information about unwanted abortions and post-abortion risks - including maternal abuse, trauma, injury and deaths before, during and after abortion.

Before an abortion:

64% felt pressured and coerced by others to abort.

84% said they did not receive adequate counseling.

52% felt rushed and 67% received NO COUNSELING AT ALL (a common illegal practice in the U.S.).

79% were not told of available alternatives.

Personal and expert pressure often comes from all sides.

Coercion escalating to violence or threats of violence.

Homicide - the leading killer of pregnant women.

After an abortion:

65% higher risk of clinical depression compared to women who give birth.

65% reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, which they attributed to their abortions.

14% reported all the symptoms necessary for a clinical diagnosis of abortion-induced PTSD.

60% said they felt “part of me died.”

Post-abortion women were more than twice as likely as delivering women to be subsequently hospitalized for psychiatric illness within six months.

Post-abortion women required significantly more treatments for psychiatric illness through outpatient care.

Eight weeks after abortion:

44% reported nervous disorders

36% experienced sleep disturbances

31% had regrets about their decision

11% had been prescribed psychotropic medicine by their family doctor.

Are you being coerced into having an abortion?

Don't let anyone pressure you into having an abortion. You have rights too! Don't let others violate your personal boundaries and tell you how to make this most important decision in YOUR life! You are carrying YOUR baby, in YOUR body. They aren't. So don't give in! Only YOU can make this decision for yourself. If someone tries to pressure you, your baby and your conscience are at stake. Maintain your boundaries, listen to your conscience, and remain resolute in keeping your baby. You and your baby are much more important than someone else's meager opinion.

If someone is harassing or trying to coerce you, please look at these:

Here is a letter written by The Justice Foundation to your parent or family member:

http://thejusticefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Dear-Parent-Oct2010.pdf

Here is a letter written by The Justice Foundation to the father of your child:

http://thejusticefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/DEAR-FATHER-LETTER.pdf

For more information and help regarding forced abortions:

www.TheUnchoice.com offers resources to those who are considering abortion and/or are being coerced into having an abortion. Simply click on "Help and Healing", then select from a number of resources listed.

http://theJusticeFoundation.org/ : The Justice Foundation’s Center Against Forced Abortions (CAFA) was created to provide legal resources to mothers who are being forced or coerced into an unwanted abortion. Click on the top menu titled "Forced Abortions".

www.SilentNoMoreAwareness.org was created to reach out to people hurt by abortion, to break the silence, to offer hope, and to make resources such as abortion after-care programs available. Go to "Stories" at the top menu, click on "Testimonials", and then click the box "Coerced Abortion".

Here are a few testimonials from women who were coerced into having an abortion against their will:

Jennifer O’Neale (Tennessee, USA):

“Craig’s* marriage proposal and our engagement gave me a sense of being respected, along with that came an emotional security that freed me from the dark mistrust that had haunted me with men. Even though the marriage was on hold until his divorce was finalized, I was content just knowing his intentions meant forever. As far as having a child together, I had made it very clear to Craig when we had first become involved, that due to recurrent health problems and the removal of my breast tumor a few years earlier, I could not take any kind of birth control (every method had side effects or dangers for me). He was well aware of how deeply I wanted more children, so it was understood that the contraception issue was his to care for. And so it had been.

Following his proposal, our time together was better than ever, Craig took no precautions to prevent pregnancy. I talked to my therapist about my fiancé’s new behavior, and the doctor suggested that sometimes people want something but don’t want to admit it; their actions might cause them to actually bring about their repressed desire. If that was the case with Craig, it meant that he really wanted everything with me—marriage and children! This notion filled me with hope, and when I found out I was pregnant, I was ecstatic. I confirmed the good news with my gynecologist, and even asked him write a note on his stationary stating that I was due in the spring, so I could surprise Craig with the good news. I jumped in a cab and met him at his office.

Laying the note from the doctor on his desk, I could barely contain my grin as I waited for Craig’s response—but when he looked up, I didn’t recognize the expression on his face. Who is this person you’re standing in front of? Why is he glowering over the letter saying we’re expecting a baby?! This can’t be the man you love, Jennifer. The man who asked you to marry him … WHAT”S WRONG!?!

His words were precise and unequivocal, his eyes cold and lifeless, “I don’t want it. You’re not going to have a baby. You’re going to have an abortion.”

Over the next several weeks, my life spiraled down to its lowest ebb so far. At first I told Craig that I absolutely refused to have an abortion as he had so ruthlessly ordered; I was prepared to have the baby on my own. And with that, he shed layers of his former pleasant–personality exposing less and less compassion as he searched for just the right method or threat that would successfully coerce me into following his demand. Still, I wouldn’t budge, hoping he would come around—hoping he really did love me and that he would love our baby. I went to my parents for advice, and they told me to comply with his wishes. “After all,” Mom said, “you don’t want to have a baby with a father who refuses it. Craig is a good man. Marry him, and I’m sure he’ll change his mind later. You can always have another baby when the time’s right.…”

“… Besides, Jennifer, it’s not even a baby yet.”

When all of Craig’s objections failed to convince me, the man pulled out the big guns. His eyes never flickered. His body language was frightening enough, but his chosen words sealed his threat with a promise I knew he could and would keep. “I am going to do everything in my power to get you to abort this thing, but if you insist on having my baby, I promise you, the moment it’s born, I will take it away from you and make sure you will never have anything to do with it. I give you my word that I will prove you unfit and emotionally unstable. I will bury you. Do you understand me?!”

And with that, I knew his past professions of love belonged to a prior life and time …I also knew nothing would stop the man from getting his way.

I was inconsolable as I lay waiting on the surgical table for the doctor to begin the abortion “procedure.”

My doctor knew how much I wanted my baby, so he offered to speak to Craig on my behalf “before it’s too late to turn back.” He didn’t understand why things couldn’t be worked out. When the doctor returned from talking to Craig in his office, his expression was grim. It took him a few beats to find the right words before he told me that he was so sorry, but he had never met anyone so unswayable in their decision to abort as Craig was.

And then the life growing in me was torn apart, and I watched as it was sucked out of my body along a tube and dumped into the trash.

In 1974, I was told that my pregnancy was just a blob of tissue in my uterus, up to three months gestation. “Abortion is like passing a heavy period, that’s all.” “It’s not a real baby or individual.” “It’s just a mistake, an inconvenience.” “There are too many people in the world as it is.” “One has no moral responsibility to a blob of tissue.” “It’s just a microscopic entity without a name or a face.” “It’s nobody.”

Ignorance on my part about the statements was a weak excuse, but at the time, an accurate one. Despite all the overwhelming pressure from Craig, I was pitiful in my inability to stand up against someone else’s reasoning, no matter how powerful he happened to be. Bottom line, I buckled in fear. I didn’t know where to find the strength necessary to defend my baby or my heart. Deep down, I knew my abortion was wrong, even when everyone was saying it was legal and moral. I hated myself, no question … I hated myself in a way I knew I wouldn’t recover from.

And nothing was understood, grieved or healed.

Following the procedure, after a week of hoping my relationship with Craig could survive such betrayal, I moved back to my own apartment with my daughter from my first marriage. I told my agents I was ready to go to work, but the truth was, all I felt ready for was to curl up in some corner and disappear.

For years, abortion remained a dark place within me, an indefinable root of my pain because its consequences “didn’t exist” according to those “helping me’ with my bouts of depression, etc... Unbelievably, abortion was never brought up on any level by my doctors as a possible negative experience in my life, let alone the lynch-pin to my pain. The despair I felt when I had my abortion was “nothing”, according to the therapists, and according to a society that accepts abortion as a legitimate answer to pregnancy. There was no grieving for me because the baby I was carrying was just “a blob of tissue,” “a mass,” “a cluster of cells” that, in my case, was adamantly unwanted by the father.

Healing, peace and forgiveness came through Jesus Christ and Rachel’s Vineyard.”

*Name changed for privacy

From a woman in Ontario, Canada:

"Today, my children would be 35 and 33. At 15 I became pregnant. I was afraid to face my parents' disappointment and anger. Finding out, my mother took me to our fatherly family doctor. He scheduled a D & C; the word abortion was never mentioned. He said it was just a clump of cells, an unhealthy growth. I was afraid to do it and afraid not to. There was no sense of being comforted, only one of necessity. I did as I was told. After the abortion, I had heavy bleeding and bad cramps. We never spoke about it again. Inside there was a new aloneness and extra emptiness.

At age 17, I got pregnant again, trying to fill the hole that the first abortion had left in me. Afraid, I waited until I was 16 weeks before telling my mother. I knew that in Ontario you couldn't have an abortion in hospital beyond 12 weeks. It never occurred to me that I could be sent somewhere else. My mom arranged for me to go to New York City. Vulnerable, I felt paralyzed to say or do anything except what I was told. I flew to NYC by myself and took a cab to a doctor's office on Park Ave. Taken into a small room and told to change into a gown, I lay on a table with my feet in stirrups, and was given a local anesthetic. I felt everything. I remember the scraping feeling; the feeling of the vacuuming; the feeling of the baby fighting against the abortion. I cried out. The doctor told me to be quiet, so the other patients wouldn’t hear me. There was nothing kind or caring about it. I flew home and my mom picked me up. It was as if nothing had happened. That night I went out with my friends and got drunk.

I felt lonely and so guilty - worthless. After all, who kills or allows to be killed not one but two of their babies? My drug and alcohol use increased dramatically. I sought love and approval from men the only way I knew how, with sex. All I had ever wanted was to be a wife and a mother. Now, who could possibly want me? I suffered and still do from depression. I had constant gynecological problems. When I finally did have a baby, I felt inadequate and unworthy as a mother. The sight of babies was hard for me. Their total helplessness and vulnerability were a constant reproach to me.

My healing began when I turned back to God and to His Holy Church. I will be Silent No More because of the loss that cannot be replaced and the violence that cannot be undone."

From a woman in Ohio, United States:

"I had my first abortion because I was in a very abusive relationship with a guy from age 15 to 22. He wasn't abusive at all in the first two years. Then suddenly he was, and I remember exactly when it started because it was so traumatic and blew my mind. I was raised in a Christian home and got saved at 7 years old. I knew that having sex with my boyfriend was wrong, but my hormones got the best of me. I first slept with him at 16 and got pregnant for the first time at 19.

My parents and I were in a rocky place because they didn't like him, and I was in a headstrong "I’ll show you" stage, so they'd taken all my things to his mother's one bedroom apt and dropped me off. I lived there with them for about a year. In that time was when I got pregnant and when I was beaten most severely.

When I found out I was pregnant, his mother already knew. She said she could just tell. I’d had morning sickness so bad then, but amazingly not at all with my living children. One day he had me in a chair in a corner with a knife to my throat telling me he couldn't afford to raise a baby and I was not to do adoption because he WOULD NOT have another man raise his child.

So... I gathered up the last of the money in my savings. His mom drove me, and he rode along. She was sympathetic with me because when she was young, she was raped and decided to abort the baby. I had to go 2 days in a row. One was supposedly education on the abortion and apparently due to a law that makes them give you time to really think it through (for 24 hours). Then the next day I went in and had it done.

It didn’t' really hurt. Felt more like a pap smear. Gave them my $300, which was all I had to my name. After we left, we went through McDonald’s drive thru, but I couldn't eat anything. I knew what I did was wrong. I was raised a Christian and was always pro-life. I even had that pin with the 2 little baby feet on it and wore it. We got home, and my boyfriend took off to hang out with friends while I lay on the couch with cramps watching TV. The worst part is that he NEVER would let me talk about it. He yelled at me when I tried saying that I don't know how fathers feel. So, I never brought it up. I broke up with him at 22.

At 28, he showed up randomly at my door and we hung out some. It was at this time... 9 years later, that he actually allowed me to talk to him about it. Then I felt a huge weight off my chest because at least I could say it out loud to someone. When I met my husband when I was 30, and when we fell in love and were talking marriage, I told him that I needed to tell him this in order for him to decide if he really wanted me. He was so good. He acted like it was no big deal.

I’ve never told anyone else. If I mention it, I say I "lost the baby." I feel I cannot tell my family because I’ve been dealing with this for years; and if I tell them tomorrow, it'll be fresh for them and they'll have to process it. My parents are crazy-stupid over their grandkids. I just can't tell them there are two they'll never meet."

Can abortion clinics be trusted to give women full disclosure of information?

Here are a few quotes from abortion workers themselves:

"We were hiding from the women some of the pieces of truth about abortion that were threatening....It is a kind of killing." (Former clinic administrator Charlotte Taft quoted in "Abortion at Work: Ideology and Practice in a Feminist Clinic", Wendy Simonds, Rutgers University Press, 1996)

"Vital signs should be observed regularly, and a Doppler [for listening to the fetal heartbeat] inaudible to the patient should be used at intervals to determine the presence or absence of fetal heart tones... This [informed consent] is a controversial area, but most professionals in the field feel that it is not advisable for patients to view the products of conception, to be told the sex of the fetus, or to be informed of a multiple pregnancy". (Ref: Abortionist Warren Hern, “Abortion Practice", Lippincott: 1984)

“’How big is the baby now?' These words suggest a quiet need for definition of the boundaries being drawn. It isn't so odd, after all, that she feels relief when I describe the growing buds bulbous shape, its miniature nature. Again, I gauge, and sometimes lie a little, weaseling around its infantile features until its clinging power slackens." (Abortion Worker Sallie Tisdale, "We Do Abortions Here", Harper’s Magazine, October 1987)

"I have never yet counseled anybody to have the baby. I'm also doing women's counseling on campus at Albany State, and there I am expected to present alternatives. Whereas at the abortion clinic you aren't really expected to." (Ref: Anonymous Abortion Counselor, “Rachel Weeping and Other Essays About Abortion”, J. Tunstead Burtchaell, editor, 1982)

"Sonography in connection with induced abortion may have psychological hazards. Seeing a blown-up, moving image of the embryo she is carrying can be distressing to a woman who is about to undergo an abortion, Dr. Sally Faith Dorfman noted. She stressed that the screen should be turned away from the patient." ("Obstetrics and Gynecology News" editorial February 15-28, 1986)

"In my facilities, I always gave option counseling. Of course you make the abortion the most appealing. I told them about adoption and about foster care and about [when there was welfare] assistance. The typical way it would go is, "Well, you know you can place your baby out for adoption." But then, in the second breath you would say, "That's an option available to you, but you also have to realize that there's going to be a baby of yours out here somewhere in the world you will never see again. At least with abortion you know what's happening. You can go on with your life...The longer I was in it, the less I cared, so I really didn't really care what my conscience said. My conscience was totally numb anyway. But what it did do was public relations-wise. You were able, when a reporter or TV crew came, to pull out a packet of information for the patients to read and they received it. So what can anybody say? Publicly it looked good -- in reality it was another tool that was used to force a woman into abortion. It's typical -- I would give them an option and then shoot it down. The only option you didn't shoot down, obviously, was abortion." (Former abortion clinic owner Eric Harrah quoted by Dr. Jack Willke and Brad Mattes

"They [the women] are never allowed to look at the ultrasound because we knew that if they so much as heard the heartbeat, they wouldn't want to have an abortion." (Dr. Randall, "Pro-Choice 1990: Skeletons in the Closet", by David Kuperlain and Mark Masters in Oct "New Dimensions" magazine)

“Every woman has these same two questions: First, "Is it a baby?" "No" the counselor assures her. "It is a product of conception (or a blood clot, or a piece of tissue)... How many women would have an abortion, if they told them the truth?" (Carol Everett, former owner of two clinics and director of four clinics, "A Walk Through an Abortion Clinic", ALL About Issues magazine, Aug-Sept 1991)

"From May to November 1988, I worked for an abortionist. He specializes in third trimester killings. I witnessed evidence of the brutal, cold blooded murder of over 600 viable, healthy babies at seven, eight and nine months gestation. A very, very few of these babies, less than 2%, were handicapped...I thought I was pro-choice and I was glad to be working in an abortion clinic. I thought I was helping provide a noble service to women in crisis... I was instructed to falsify the age of the babies in medical records. I was required to lie to the mothers over the phone, as they scheduled their appointments, and to tell them that they were not 'too far along.’ Then I had to note, in the records that Dr. Tiller's needle had successfully pierced the walls of the baby's heart, injecting the poison what brought death... Mine was the agony of a participant, however reluctant, in the act of prenatal infanticide." (Luhra Tivis quoted in "Where is the Real Violence?", Celebrate Life, Sept/Oct 1994)

"If a woman we were counseling expressed doubts about having an abortion, we would say whatever was necessary to persuade her to abort immediately." (Judy W., former office manager of the second largest abortion clinic in El Paso, Texas)

"We tried to avoid the women seeing them [the aborted babies]. They always wanted to know the sex, but we lied and said it was too early to tell. It's better for the women to think of the fetus as an ‘it’. (Abortion clinic worker Norma Eidelman quoted in “Rachel Weeping” p 34)

"In fact many women will come to me considering abortion, and I have been personally told that I am to turn the monitor away from her view so that seeing her baby jump around on the screen does not influence her choice." (Shari Richards, quoted from the John Ankerburg Show, 3/7/90)

"It is extremely difficult to watch doctors lie, clinic workers cover up, and hear terrifying stories of women dragged out of clinics to die in cars on the way to the hospital without beginning to question the party line. I began to wonder if we were really caring for these women, or if we were just working for another corporation whose only interest was the bottom line." (Judith Fetrow, Former Planned Parenthood worker)

Is taking the life of an unborn child as tragic and immoral as taking the life of an adult?

Any act of murder is equally tragic because it deprives the victim of their future. The victim suffers the loss of the priceless joys, opportunities, accomplishments, experiences, even children, grandchildren, and forthcoming generations in their family line - all of which their future otherwise held for them. These are the same pleasures and blessings that all of us, including pro-choice advocates, have enjoyed. If depriving these experiences makes it wrong to kill an adult or after-birth child, how much more so an unborn child who still has their entire life, full of wonderful potential, ahead of them. If we've enjoyed so much in life, why should we allow or desire to deprive others of the same?

Are abortions justified for unintentional pregnancies?

No. Our laws already reflect personal accountability for unintentional results or damages. If we speed while we drive and unintentionally cause an accident, we are liable to pay for those damages, even if the accident was unintentional. Why? Because we are responsible for our actions which we definitely KNOW will raise the possibility of an accident. The other party who incurred the damages caused by us has a definite right to our money.

Similarly, anyone who engages in consensual sex, even with contraception, definitely KNOWS they are raising the possibility of conceiving an unborn human being who will need the woman's body. Any suggestion that a pregnancy is 100% unintentional, is demeaning to women in that it treats women as naive children and gives no credit to her understanding of how sex and pregnancy are clearly and explicitly related.

There is one societal norm throughout all history between a parent and their child: Parental responsibility. This obligation is sustained even for unplanned children. As beneficiaries of this societal norm, we can be thankful for our laws which are full of parental obligations: laws on child endangerment, child neglect, child abandonment, child support, etc… all of which apply to unplanned children and without which we would have no societal order.

Did legalizing abortion ensure safer and cleaner clinics?

No. Because abortion clinics are not held to the same high level of sanitation as regular operating rooms as is medically appropriate, abortion clinics regularly fail even basic-level sanitation inspections.

Here are some examples:

“In the affidavit she described Tarver’s assembly-line approach to abortion. He shouted at the staff when they fail to fill the appointment times. With a woman lying on a table in each of his four procedure rooms, he would dash from one to the next. “Always in a hurry,” Patrice described him. He did the abortion so fast that often there was not enough time for the anesthetic to take effect. In addition, Tarver did not give women their full dose of twilight sleep when they requested it, even though they were charged for the full dose. Because of his speedy surgical methods, fetal parts were often left in the woman, necessitating a re-suction later.”

(Ref: Monica Migliorino Miller, “Abandoned: the Untold Story of the Abortion Wars”, 2012)

“A report by the Illinois Department of Public Health says that all three operating rooms in the facility failed a sanitation inspection. Two rooms contained shoes stored with an open box of surgical gloves, and four out of 16 cannulas - which are inserted directly into the cervix of abortion patients - were ‘stained with a brown substance.’ In another operating room, an open box contained gloves also stained with ‘a brown substance.’ In the recovery room, inspectors also found birth control rings stuffed in the food refrigerator.

Referring to these unsanitary conditions, a physician from Rockford, Dr. Durkee, said: “in any operating room (the unsanitary condition) is disturbing… I think people are starting to realize that these are operating rooms. Regardless of what you think about an abortion, it’s surgery. And all surgery is supposed to be done with a certain mindset, which is sterile, clean, ... sanitary should be painfully obvious.”

Regarding the Illinois lawmaker’s rejection of a law requiring operating rooms in abortion mills to be subject to the same scrutiny as other operating rooms, he said: “For the life of me I don’t understand how any operating room in existence can be exempt from current law. Just because you’re putting ‘pro-abortion’ over the door doesn’t exempt you from good medical practice.” (Ref: Kathleen Gilbert, “Brown-stained surgical equipment at bizarre Rockford abortion mill: Illinois officials”, LifeSiteNews Aug. 17, 2011)

Here is an article on an abortion facility endorsed by Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation (NAF) and which promised excellent care but failed sanitation inspections:

“On May 22, 1998 Midtown Hospital was temporarily closed by a Superior Court judge pending the outcome of litigation to shut it permanently…

Paragraph 2 of the Complaint against Midtown neatly summarizes the charges.

“Inspections of Midtown Hospital by DHR staff, interviews with current and former employees of Midtown Hospital, and interviews with women who have been patients at Midtown Hospital reveal an overcrowded, understaffed and dirty health care facility that jeopardizes the health and safety of its patients. For example, overcrowding and lack of proper monitoring of patients results in the expulsion of fetuses on the floor and in the commode of the preoperative area; Midtown Hospital’s sterilization process to prevent the spread of infection is severely deficient; Midtown Hospital’s personnel files lack any evidence that many of its employees are qualified for their jobs; and Midtown Hospital lacks any system for identifying, documenting, or evaluating unexpected or negative patient outcomes. DHR staff has consistently found that Midtown Hospital’s records lack information regarding transfer of patients to other facilities due to complications arising during or after surgical procedures performed at Midtown Hospital.”

According to the Affidavit of “Employee A,” employed at Midtown Hospital from November 1996 to February 1998:

“The preoperative room is located near the room where I was stationed. I could hear the patients hollering and screaming in the preoperative room. … I saw patients laying on the floor crying in pain. … I routinely saw patients expel fetuses on the floor and in the commode in the preoperative room. Patients expelled fetuses in front of other patients that were awaiting procedures. Patients expelled fetuses in commodes that were used by other patients. … I regularly observed patients expel fetuses in the commode in the discharge area. … Oftentimes, I was the only staff member in that area to assist patients. I do not have medical training.”

Employee B is a certified surgical technician, employed at Midtown Hospital from March 30, 1998 until resigning on April 18, 1998. Her affidavit states:

“I never saw the doctors or the anesthesiologist do any pre-operative work-ups on the patients prior to the patients going into the operating room. … Sterilization standards are not followed. … Most women lay on the floor in the pre-op area. Once I attempted to get some sterile sheets for the patients to lay on and was told by the Operating Room supervisor that if “they can lay up and get pregnant then they can come in here and deal with the procedure.” I have witnessed the use of stretchers with blood and bodily fluids on them being re-used without being cleaned. The staff was not concerned about cleaning up blood and other bodily fluids from the floors, chairs, stretchers and bathrooms and did not do so.”

The Affidavit of Patient X describes her experience on April 16, 1998. Following her procedure, she experienced extreme pain … nausea, vomiting and even more pain.” This continued for several days. She called Midtown Hospital at least twice to speak to a doctor or nurse, but was told to make an appointment. Finally, she called 911 and was transported to a local hospital where they diagnosed an incomplete abortion. The Brief refers to other patients who were transferred to a hospital for “complications” occurring at Midtown.” (Ref: “Men Behaving Really Badly”, Life Insight, A Publication of the NCCB Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, volume 9, no. 8 October 1998)

Why are pro-choice advocates AGAINST making abortion safer for women?

Pro-choice groups oppose regulations that would make abortion safer for women while simultaneously claiming to care about women:

“When 60 Minutes ran a piece about the Hillview abortion clinic in Maryland, showing the women who had been killed and maimed, they made the suggestion that perhaps greater regulation was necessary. To this the head of the National Abortion Federation, Barbara Radford, said, “We want to make sure that women have choices when it comes to abortion services. And if you regulate it too strictly, you then deny women the access to service.”

Furthermore, when pro-choice Maryland State Senator Mary Boergers wanted legislation to regulate clinics and promote more safety for women during an abortion, she lost political support from pro-choice advocates. She said, “They then treat you as if you’re the enemy.” (Ref: Rachel MacNair, PhD, “Achieving Peace in the Abortion War”, 2009)