10 abortion myths that need to be debunked

1. MYTH: Abortion is safe.

REALITY: Abortion clinics have been discovered blatantly lying to women about the real risks of abortion.

Planned Parenthood clinics have been caught on tape telling women that no women were hurt at their clinics, even after medical emergencies had just occurred. The truth is that women do die from abortion, they do lose their future fertility, they do end up in emergency rooms with massive blood loss, perforated uteruses, and pieces of their preborn babies still left inside them.

The emotional and psychological harm abortion commits against women is also largely dismissed. Much of this harm does not show up until years later, but then, as countless women testify, it often attacks with a vengeance.

For more information, see this study, this paper, this compilation of stories, these experiences, and these stories.

2. MYTH: Abortion doesn’t kill a person.

REALITY: The preborn are human.

Whether we’re talking about a preborn baby days after conception or one who is days away from being born, these babies only have four differences with us: 1) Size, 2) Location, 3) Environment, and 4) Dependency.

If we base our measure of a person on any of these things, we are heading down a terribly slippery slope. Our society will begin (and indeed, has already begun) to take away the rights of the disabled, elderly, and sick. More and more human beings will be classified as “non-people,” and their basic right to life will be stripped away.

SLED: Defend the Unborn with Scott Klusendorf

Classifying a group of humans as non-people is the easiest way to kill them en masse, with little objection.

• “In the eyes of the law…the slave is not a person.”

• “An Indian is not a person within the meaning of the Constitution.”

• [People purged by the Soviet government were called] “unpersons who had never existed.”

• “The Reichsgericht itself refused to recognize Jews…as ‘persons’ in the legal sense.”

• “The statutory word ‘person’ did not in these circumstances include women.”

Quotes from “Dehumanizing the Vulnerable: When Word Games Take Lives” by William Brennan, Ph.D, (Loyola University Press, 1995).

For more on the humanity of the unborn, go here.

3. MYTH:  “Pro-abortion” and “pro-choice” are different.

REALITY: If you support abortion, you are “pro-abortion.”

Let’s step back for a moment. If you are “pro-choice,” you support the choice of abortion, right? If you support a certain choice, that makes you “pro” that choice. It’s really pretty simple. And if you’re so opposed to being called “pro-abortion,” why is that? Could it be because the cold, hard facts of abortion are violent, cruel, and inhumane? Could it be because you’d rather not face the reality that abortion murders an innocent, helpless person? Maybe instead of arguing semantics we should face the real facts on abortion.

4. MYTH: It’s okay if you are opposed to abortion, but don’t enforce that on anyone else!

REALITY: Abortion denies a child of the most basic human right.

Since when is it okay to merely be “personally opposed” to any violation of civil rights? Society tends to shun those who are only “personally opposed” to racism. What if we were “personally opposed” to rape? But since it happens anyway, we opposed laws banning rape?

It’s essential to make the connection that’s it not enough to “personally” be pro-life. It’s great that you won’t have an abortion. Just like it’s great that you won’t rape, rob, murder, or commit a host of other violent crimes. I’m happy that you’re not a racist or a slave owner or an anti-Semite. But what does that do to help society take the right cultural and legal stand? How do your “personal” views help save the lives of those who can’t speak up for themselves? Read more here and here about why we can’t just be “personally pro-life.”

And one more note – any law is “enforcing” a certain moral viewpoint on others who don’t agree. That’s the very definition of law and order in a civilized society. Someone has to set the rules.

5. MYTH: Guys don’t have a say on abortion.

REALITY: Men do have the right to choose life for their child.

Often, guys are told to shut their mouths on the topic of abortion – unless, of course, they support it. But how sexist – to tell someone they can’t take a position on an issue based simply on their gender. How anti-liberty, to tell a parent they don’t have a right to save the life of their child.

The huge majority of abortions happen after a baby is created during consensual sex. Yet somehow, abortion supporters like to say that’s the end of the guy’s part and the end of his rights. They don’t think he has a right to defend the life of his own child. They like to insist that fathers pay child support, but ignore a father’s right to let his child live in the first place. Even when a father is wiling to pay for all expenses during a pregnancy and take full care of his child afterward, abortion supporters say he should just keep his mouth shut. This guy explains it better than I ever could.

If you’re a dad, wondering if there’s any way you can stop the abortion of your child, check out this article.

6. MYTH: Birth control doesn’t cause abortion or hurt women.

REALITY: Science continues to discover additional harmful effects of hormonal birth control.

From the article in TIME detailing the risk of brain cancer from the pill to this expose in Vanity Fair explaining the death risk of the Nuva Ring, hormonal birth control continues to be revealed as unsafe for women.

In addition, if you go to the manufacturers’ websites, you will discover that one main function of the various forms of hormonal birth control is to strip the uterus of its lining so a preborn baby is prevented from implanting. This – stopping a baby who has already been created during fertilization from implanting – amounts to a chemical abortion.

7. MYTH: Abortion is a basic right.

REALITY: The “right” to kill another human being is never a right.

It’s not a liberty, it’s not private, and it’s not humane. So what is abortion, exactly? How does it kill another human being. You can find out here, described by the doctors who do it.

8. MYTH: If you’re a feminist, you need to support abortion.

REALITY: True feminism defends the preborn.

Since when should one group of people gain their rights by exalting themselves over another group of people? Can women truly be equal only by stomping over the bodies of their preborn children? Must we spill innocent blood to reach the pinnacles of power?

There’s few things more false than this assertion. Women who truly fight for equality fight for equality for all – including for their own children. Attorney Erika Bachiochi explains it wonderfully here.

9. MYTH: Abortion is a simple, easy procedure.

REALITY: Abortion is anything but.

Consider these quotes and medical facts:

• “Abortion is, by almost any standards, a violent act.” – Abortion: A Doctor’s Perspective A Woman’s Dilemma by Don Sloan, M.D. with Paula Hart, page 178

• “Suction Curettage: …Once the cervix is dilated, the abortionist inserts tubing into the uterus and attaches the tubing to a suction machine. Suction pulls apart the fetus’ body and out the uterus. After suction, the doctor and nurses must reassemble the fetus’ dismembered parts to ensure they have all the pieces.”

• “A second-trimester D&E abortion is a blind procedure. The baby can be in any orientation or position inside the uterus. Picture yourself reaching in with the Sopher clamp and grasping anything you can. At twenty weeks’ gestation, the uterus is thin and soft, so be careful not to perforate or puncture the walls. Once you have grasped something inside, squeeze on the clamp to set the jaws and pull hard – really hard. You feel something let go, and out pops a fully formed leg, about 4 to 5 inches long. Reach in again and grasp whatever you can. Set the jaw and pull really hard once again, and out pops an arm about the same length. Reach in again and again with that clamp, and tear out the spine, intestines, heart, and lungs. The toughest part of a D&E abortion is extracting the baby’s head. …” – Dr. Anthony Levatino

• During a medication abortion: “My bathwater was bright red. It looked like I was sitting in the middle of a crime scene. And I guess it was…I had murdered my child. … As soon as I was completely upright, I felt a pain worse than any other I had experienced. I began to sweat again and felt faint. I grabbed on to the side of the shower wall to steady myself. Then I felt a release…and a splash in the water that was draining beneath me. A blood clot the size of a lemon had fallen into my bath water. Was that my baby?”

NOTE: For anyone who has taken the abortion pill (medication abortion), it can sometimes be reversed. For more information, go here.

10. MYTH: First trimester abortions are better than late-term ones.

REALITY: There is no “better” time to kill a human being.

It’s not “better” to kill a child when’s he’s six months old instead of six years old. And it’s not “better” to have an early abortion simply because the baby’s face might not be as easy to pick out in the bucket of blood and body pieces. And let’s make sure we have the accurate facts. This video shows a suction abortion – the typical first-trimester abortion. The description reads:

…The clip begins with an ultrasound of the fetus (girl) who is about to be aborted. The girl is moving in the womb; displays a heartbeat of 140 per minute; and is at times sucking her thumb. As the abortionist’s suction tip begins to invade the womb, the child rears and moves violently in an attempt to avoid the instrument. Her mouth is visibly open in a “silent scream.” The child’s heart rate speeds up dramatically (to 200 beats per minute) as she senses aggression. She moves violently away in a pathetic attempt to escape the instrument. The abortionist’s suction tip begins to rip the baby’s limbs from its body, ultimately leaving only her head in the uterus (too large to be pulled from the uterus in one piece). The abortionist attempts to crush her head with his forceps, allowing it to be removed. …

And this account describes the true facts of a chemical abortion – done by using the abortion pill – very early on in the first trimester.