any of these babies could survive outside of the womb at these stages of development.
A major contributing factor to the ignorance of the American public are distortions and highly publicized misinformation propagated by pro-abortion groups.
Douglas Gould, vice president for communications at Planned Parenthood Federation of America – a group campaigning in favor of abortion – recently stated that when the question centers around the “legal right of a woman” to have an abortion without government restriction, most Americans will give the decision to the woman to make. “That’s the beauty of the Roe decision,” Gould said. “It leaves the question where most Americans think it should be – with the woman and her doctor.”
Guy Condon, executive director of Americans United for Life, a pro-life organization, put it differently: “Our focus is on restoring legal protection of unborn children against elective abortions.” He said that when the question is posed in terms of “legal rights of the unborn,” most Americans disapprove of abortion, but when the question centers around personal choice, the focus shifts around to the pregnant woman rather than the child having that choice.
It is a great hypocrisy to believe that a woman should have the right to an abortion, and yet deny the right to life to an unborn child. The inconsistencies of such thinking can be seen in groups which seek to ratify the equal rights amendment or promote animal rights while denying unborn children the right to life.
Says author Winkie Pratney, “Many of the same apparently intelligent people who fight for the lives of baby whales, seal pups, and fledgling bald eagles also demand the right to abort a human child. Who has blinded them to the shocking inconsistency in their thinking?“1
Seeing Through the Media Smokescreens
In the news media this injustice has been fed to the American public, and sadly, many have been deceived. Recently, the National Abortion Rights Action League ran a full page advertisement in the New York Times, featuring a picture of a coat-hanger and a message – “Just 16 years ago, for countless desperate women, a coat-hanger looked like the only way out of a crisis pregnancy.” This ad and many more like it are last attempt scare tactics being used by the pro-abortion movement to intimidate the opponents of Roe vs. Wade.
The pro-abortion movement is now using extreme distortions to defend their cause. The most notable of these is – KEEP ABORTION SAFE AND LEGAL.
Although abortions are now legal, they are by no means safe. During the years following the Roe vs. Wade decision many malpractice suits have been filed against abortion clinics. The number of women who have experienced sterility, infection, perforation of the uterus, or psychological trauma since 1973 have far exceeded those in the years previous to the Supreme Court decision.
These statistics are the result of legal abortion on demand coupled with a skyrocketing curve depicting the number of pregnancies among unmarried young women. The result of these two positively correlated factors has been an even greater occurrence of traumatic horror and degradation than when abortion was legal.
Women in America are not “safer” under the Roe vs. Wade decision, but more prone than ever to abuse, exploitation, and barbaric treatment.
Other horrors related to abortion exposed in recent years include:
- Post-abortion syndrome – a state of depression and psychological trauma observed in women following an abortion.
- Live post-abortion births – forced births during second and third trimester abortions have often yielded live babies who are then left to die by starvation or neglect.
- Fetal experimentation – aborted babies have been kept alive in incubators and used in medical experiments; others have had their organs harvested for experimentation while still alive.
There are alternatives to abortion that are safer and more humane than this barbaric practice. Men and women possessed of a deeper and gentler humanity are forming Crisis Pregnancy Centers, which are the pro-life movement’s answer to th