Abortion is not just like other surgeries, because abortion is killing

Abortionist Gabrielle Goodrick recently penned an open letter to doctors, claiming that they must support abortion or put themselves in “professional jeopardy.” She suggests that following the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, “we are now staring into the face of a country without legal abortion,” a prospect that she thinks endangers the work of all doctors. In other words, Goodrick claims that the integrity of medicine requires the legal killing of preborn babies.

In claiming abortion is just like other surgery, the preborn baby is ignored

Nowhere in her letter does Goodrick mention the baby, yet in every abortion, a preborn baby is violently killed. Goodrich unsurprisingly misrepresents pro-life laws as arbitrary impediments to proper medical care and the pro-life position as exclusively faith-based. She writes:

No surgeon would be allowed to say, “I just don’t believe in removing gallbladders” and still be allowed to practice. Yet when it comes to abortion, you’ve now set the standard. You’ve allowed a procedure that is conducted more than any other in the nation to be moved to the fringes. 

But abortion isn’t like removing a defective organ; it is deliberately removing and causing the death of a distinct human being. Goodrick ignores the scientific reality of fetal development, the rational basis of the pro-life position. In the Gonzales v. Carhart decision, the Supreme Court acknowledges “the Government’s legitimate interest in protecting fetal life.” Pro-life laws protect the life of the preborn child, and the pro-life position can be based on scientific facts and ethical arguments independent of religious beliefs.

If a person is experiencing painful gallstones, removing the gallbladder is a logical choice. If a woman is experiencing dangerously elevated blood pressure, septicemia, or cancer while pregnant, inserting instruments into the woman’s body and violently taking apart a living human being and then extracting the pieces of that human being is not a logical response. Sometimes, the life-threatening complications of the mother require the premature delivery and possible demise of the baby, but deliberately killing the baby inside the mother’s body before delivery is not safe and is not a necessary medical choice.

A Conversation with a Former Abortionist: Is abortion ever medically necessary?

Some candid abortionists admit that abortion isn’t like other surgeries

Abortionists — in their own descriptions of abortion — confirm that it isn’t necessary, and it’s not like other surgery.

Planned Parenthood abortionist Susan Robinson said, “The fetus is a tough little object and, taking it apart, I mean taking it apart, on Day One is very difficult.” Another abortionist, DeShawn Taylor, talked about needing to “hit the gym” in order to develop the strength required to rip apart a baby in the womb. Keep in mind, this forceful dismemberment takes place inside the woman’s body. This fact prompted the shocking assessment of an anonymous abortionist: “There are only two kinds of doctors who have never perforated a uterus, those that lie and those who don’t do abortions.”

Planned Parenthood abortionist Lisa Harris spoke on a panel for the National Abortion Federation, urging her audience of colleagues to concede that pro-lifers might just be right. She said, “Given that we actually see the fetus the same way, and given that we might actually both agree that there’s violence in here. . . . Let’s just give them all the violence, it’s a person, it’s killing, let’s just give them all that.”

READ: Former abortionist: Women don’t discuss botched abortions because they want to forget

Claims that women will be hurt if abortion is banned ignores that women are hurt by abortion itself

While ignoring the fundamental reality of abortion is the most glaring error in Goodrick’s piece, there are other significant misrepresentations. Goodrick claims there will be more pregnancy complications and patients will give incomplete medical histories if abortion is outlawed, but she fails to mention that meta-studies show that abortion can cause complications in subsequent pregnancies. Countries where abortion is illegal or limited have demonstrated that a lack of elective abortion does not entail substandard maternal care or an increase in pregnancy complications. In fact, while banning virtually all abortions, Ireland had one of the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world.

Additionally, as much as Goodrick fears that patients will not divulge past abortions for fear of recriminations, the current legal industry fails to inform women of the risks associated with abortion. Likewise, the industry continues to mislead women about the development of their preborn babies.

Baby Development Week by Week

And women are paying the price. The New York Times, no friend of the pro-life movement, featured heart-wrenching accounts of women’s abortion experiences. One woman wrote, “Nobody told me how bad I would feel afterward. I contemplated suicide. A Christian friend supported me through healing. It was a long process, and I still miss my baby.” There is a reason that people do not have lifelong emotional wounds following gallbladder surgery. Women deserve to know the truth before they choose.

No matter how abortion supporters like Goodrick attempt to characterize abortion — essential medical care, terminating a pregnancy, part of the full spectrum of reproductive care — they cannot change the fact that it is unlike any other procedure. Abortion ends the life of a human being.