Myth regarding women getting abortions in back alley
Osprey
http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/facts/responseargument4.html
If abortion, is
made illegal, women will die.
By Olivia Gans and Mary Spaulding Balch, J.D.
Editor's note. This is the fifth in a series of columns devoted to showing
pro-lifers how to counter the most common arguments made by abortion
advocates.*
In the late 1960's advocates of legalized abortion used as their rallying
cry the argument that "thousands" of women died from self-induced abortions
or in the "back-alley" from illegal abortions. They mobilized around the
image of the "coat hanger," and insisted that five to ten thousand women
died every year from "botched" illegal abortions. They used this argument
(and still do) to bolster support for "safe," legal abortion on demand.
However, some of the best evidence that this was a myth has come not from
pro-lifers but from advocates of legal abortion. Dr. Mary S. Calderone, a
former director of Planned Parenthood wrote in the American Journal of
Public Health, "Abortion is no longer a dangerous procedure. This applies
not just to therapeutic abortions as performed in hospitals but also to
so-called illegal abortions as done by physician. In 1957 there were only
260 deaths in the whole country attributed to abortions of any kind.Second,
and even more important, the conference [on abortion sponsored by Planned
Parenthood] estimated that 90 percent of all illegal abortions are presently
being done by physicians.Whatever trouble arises usually arises from
self-induced abortions, which comprise approximately 8 percent, or with the
very small percentage that go to some kind of non-medical abortionist.So
remember.abortion, whether therapeutic or illegal, is in the main no longer
dangerous, because it is being done well by physicians." This was written in
1960!
Another stunning admission about the manufacturing of illegal abortion
numbers comes from Dr. Bernard Nathanson, former director of the National
Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (now known as the National
Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League - - NARAL). In his classic
1979 book Aborting America, Dr. Nathanson wrote, "How many deaths were we
talking about when abortion was illegal? In NARAL, we generally emphasized
the frame of the individual case, not the mass statistics, but when we spoke
of the latter it was always 5,000 to 10,000 deaths a year. I confess that I
knew that the figures were totally false and I suppose that others did too
if they stopped to think of it. But in the 'morality' of our revolution, it
was a useful figure, widely accepted, so why go out of our way to correct it
with honest statistics? The overriding concern was to get the laws
eliminated, and anything within reason that had to be done was permissible."
A powerful debating point is to explain to your audience that for 1972, the
year before Roe, the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported 39
maternal deaths from illegal abortion. Those 39 mothers and their 39
children were very real tragedies that should have been prevented by
providing support and care for the mother and her unborn child. The number
39 however is a far cry form those exaggerated figures of thousands, even
tens of thousands, used by abortion advocates in their cause.
It is also important to remember that women today still die. They die from
so-called "safe" and legal abortions. According to the CDC and the Alan
Guttmacher Institute (a "special affiliate" of Planned Parenthood) over 200
women have died from legal abortions since 1973. These numbers are also
cited in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, vol. 171, no.5
(November 1994), pp. 1365-1352. Common sense would also suggest that it has
never been in the abortion industry's self interest to report all the deaths
from legal abortion.
Legalizing abortion simply gave the back-alley physician/butcher permission
to put his shingle on the front door. Abortion remains very much the same
today as it was in 1960, particularly regarding the first-trimester abortion
techniques. The risk now comes from the huge increase in the sheer numbers
of abortions done on a daily basis.
In other words, what was once a horrible, but confined, tragedy has become a
nationwide holocaust! Abortions are done in an assembly-line production in
abortion facilities all over the country. Again, the evidence for this often
comes from abortions supporters, as we shall see.
Ask your audience this question: How can there be any real safety in an
environment where the main concern is to perform as many abortions as
possible in order to increase the abortionist's profit margin?
A related contention of abortion advocates for legalizing abortion was that
"safe" legal abortions reduce the maternal deaths. The reality, as suggested
by the numbers above, is that the number of maternal deaths had dropped
dramatically prior to abortion's legalization. The real explanation for the
decline was the introduction of overall better maternal health care,
particularly antibiotics and blood transfusions. These improvements, and the
capacity of modern medicine to cope with emergency medical complications
arising from abortion, were the real reasons why women's lives were saved.
Powerful evidence that it is really advances in standard medical care that
saves mothers' lives and not the legalization of abortion comes straight
from the World Health Organization. According to 1994 figures the two
countries with the lowest maternal death rates are Ireland and Malta, where
health care is advanced, but abortion is illegal. Whereas the U.S., which
has legal abortions, has a maternal death rate that is four times greater
than Ireland and Malta.
Common sense can prevail in this question if it is remembered that pregnancy
is a natural condition, not a disease. Abortion is always an unnatural
interruption of that condition.
When you are discussing this with people, make clear that the bottom line is
that every death from abortion is a tragedy. In fact, with every abortion,
someone dies. Every mother that dies, every baby that dies - from a legal or
an illegal abortion - will never exist again and is lost to society forever.
Every abortion stops a beating heart - sometimes two!
The underlying theme in all these pro-abortion arguments is that making
abortion legal makes it safer and easier for women to cope with. But there
is growing evidence from women who have experienced legalized abortion that
it is anything but easier or safer. Legalizing abortion has not made it any
less degrading for the mothers involved.
Quote the real voices of these women when addressing those who are unsure of
this position and even to supporters of abortion as well. One particularly
stunning quote appeared in the Washington Post recently:
"The counselor patiently explained that the reason this clinic can perform
the Procedure so cheaply, a third of the price of other clinics, is its
assembly line method. By the time the doctor gets there, everyone is
prepped, counseled and waiting. He therefore has only to do Procedure after
Procedure until 7 p.m., with a minimum of downtime. It seems brutal, but
it's efficient."
Women who have organized post-abortion support groups consistently state
that had abortion been illegal they would not have sought one. It is
important to point out that in poll after poll women suggest that the real
reason they aborted their children was that they felt they had no option and
that abortion was legal. Emphasis needs to be placed on the pro-life
mother-helping centers that are available to these moms.
Abortion may be currently legal, but it is anything but safe for either
mother or child. Once again it is necessary to restate that in every
abortion someone dies.
*This
article originally appeared in July 8, 1998 NRL News
Frank Dwyer
>
> http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/facts/responseargument4.html
>
> If abortion, is
> made illegal, women will die.
> By Olivia Gans and Mary Spaulding Balch, J.D.
>
> Editor's note. This is the fifth in a series of columns devoted to showing
> pro-lifers how to counter the most common arguments made by abortion
> advocates.*
<snip>
> A powerful debating point is to explain to your audience that for 1972, the
> year before Roe, the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported 39
> maternal deaths from illegal abortion.
That would mean that when abortion is illegal, women will die. It
doesn't counter the argument (that women will die if abortion is
illegal), it supports it.
I also wonder how many illegal abortions were actually performed, as I'm
certain that the number reported to the CDC were far below the actual
statistic.
Tye
<noonenee...@mail.com> wrote:
>
>
>http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/facts/responseargument4.html
>
>
> In 1957 there were only
>260 deaths in the whole country attributed to abortions of any kind.
A completely meaningless stat unless you also know how many abortions
were performed that year. If there were only 10,000 abortions
performed, that's a mortality rate for a half-hour procedure higher
than driving your car drunk for a whole day.
If the pro-abortion side lied with statistics, you are doing the same
thing here.
Tye
a.a. #72
The aim of science is not to open the door
to everlasting wisdom, but to set a limit
on everlasting error. --Bertolt Brecht