A common argument from pro-abortion activists is that women will die by the thousands if abortion is made illegal. In the 1960s, the argument was used to prompt the legalization of abortion. It is still used today.

The evidence against this myth actually comes from PRO-abortionists. Former director of Planned Parenthood gave information to the contrary in 1960:

“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.”

Imagine the response! Someone for legal abortion was saying that it wouldn’t make a difference! If abortion is made illegal, women will still find physicians that will cater to their wants and perform abortions. There’s no need for the back-alley dangers that are suggested.

Dr. Bernard Nathanson, former director of NARAL (the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League) now speaks against abortion. In 1979, Nathanson wrote a book, Aborting America, in which he 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.”

Proof that the “thousands of deaths” are nothing more than a desperate scare tactic.
In 1972, the year before the Roe vs. Wade decision, the CDC reported ONLY 39 maternal deaths from illegal abortion. 39? That is a vast difference from the alleged 5,000-10,000.

 One could argue that abortions are more dangerous now that they are legal. Think about this:

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?

Abortionists want money. Abortions are their job, their way to get money. Can we honestly expect them to take precious time to go through every safety precedure if they are protected by law? The answer to that, quite simply, is no. Legalized abortion does not protect women. It does the opposite.

It is the opinion of some in the medical field that during an abortion a baby can actually feel the pain.  This year in Indiana, Senate bill 146 will determine whether or not women who are considering abortion will be required to learn about the ability of their baby to feel pain.  (More information about the Indiana bill here.)

At a mere 20 days after conception, the foundations of a baby’s brain, spinal cord, and nervous system are formed.  At 4-5 weeks after conception, before some women even realize they are pregnant, the pain receptors are formed.  That means the baby can feel pain.  Before the mother even thinks about abortion, the baby inside her is growing and developing. 

Mechanisms that inhibit or moderate the experience of pain do not begin to develop until weeks 30-32. Any pain the unborn child experiences before these mechanisms form is likely worse than the pain an older child or adult experiences.

The unborn’s experience of pain may actually be heightened.

How can we as moral and just human beings knowingly subject the future generations of our race to this incomprehensible torture?

There is no way to justify it, except by admitting that we ourselves are either immoral or unjust.

 6 weeks  8 weeks    15 weeks

Many aren’t aware of Feminists for Life, but that’s changing. While I may not agree with all their points, they do have some informative literature on how all the early feminists, from Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony to Alice Paul Walker, opposed abortion and saw it as just another dehumanization of women. Check out The Feminist Case Against Abortion.