A Look at Abortion’s
History
From Ancient Rome to the U.S. Supreme Court
December 1999
"I think it’s safe to say
that the entire abortion industry is based on a lie … I am dedicated
to spending the rest of my life undoing the law that bears my name."
—Norma McCorvey,
"Jane Roe" of Roe v. Wade1
The 1973 Roe v. Wade decision
imposed abortion-on-demand throughout the United States. But that
decision did not mark the beginning of abortion in mainstream society.
In fact, the history of abortion reaches back not just decades, but
centuries, and even millenniums. To comprehend the issue of abortion
completely, we must understand its historic context.
From Ancient Times
Abortion was present even in ancient times. Under Roman rule "[n]ot
only [was] … abortion permitted; [but also] infanticide. The shriveled
remains of exposed babies could be found in every countryside of the
[Roman] Empire…"2 Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun referred to
this culture in Roe v. Wade: "Greek and Roman law afforded little
protection to the unborn … Ancient religion did not bar abortion."3
Limited records indicate
that early Americans used abortion as well. "Solid statistics concerning
early abortion and unwed pregnancy are unavailable," Dr. Marvin Olasky
writes in Abortion Rites: A Social History of Abortion in America,
"but I have looked at enough pre-1800 records of infanticide and abortion
to see a pattern." Samplings of those records include a 1648 execution
for infanticide in Massachusetts, a 1652 conviction for intention
to abort in Maryland, abortifacient use in the 1680s, and a 1719 murder
of a newborn in New York. Additionally, in a study of colonial Massachusetts
records, only about 2 percent of all children were illegitimate, yet
90 percent of murdered newborns were illegitimate.4
But overall, in America’s
early years abortion was recognized as a negative phenomenon and an
attack on human life. To combat this, early American colonies adopted
laws drawn from English common law, which declared abortion prior
to quickening (feeling life) a misdemeanor, and after quickening a
felony. In 1869, the British Parliament passed the "Offenses Against
the Persons Act." It pushed the felony punishment back to fertilization—the
point at which scientific evidence proved life begins. During the
same time period, every existing state passed its own law against
abortion.5
Foundations for the
20th Century
As the legal system increasingly recognized the sanctity of life in
the 19th century, philosopher Thomas Malthus developed his theories
on population growth and economic stability. He took a very different
perspective. In An Essay on the Principle of Population, Malthus wrote:
"All children born, beyond what would be required to keep up the population
to a desired level, must necessarily perish … we should facilitate
… the operations of nature in producing this mortality."6
Margaret Sanger was an
avid follower of Malthus. She embraced his view that the weak should
be purged from society to maintain order.
| "The most merciful thing a large family can do to one of its
members is to kill it." —Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood |
7 In The Pivot of Civilization,
she "unashamedly called for the elimination of ‘human weeds,’ for
the cessation of charity, for the segregation of ‘morons, misfits,
and the maladjusted’ and for the sterilization of ‘genetically inferior
races.’"8 Sanger also endorsed the euthanasia, sterilization, abortion
and infanticide programs of Hitler’s Third Reich.9 In 1916, Sanger
founded the Planned Parenthood Federation of America—which called
for legalized abortion. Her anti-family, pro-promiscuity, pro-contraceptive
and pro-abortion views slowly grew in popularity and acceptance throughout
the first half of the century.
In 1939, Sanger outlined
her plan to eliminate the Black community. She argued that:
The most successful,
educational appeal to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We
do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population,
and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it
ever occurs to any of their rebellious members.10
Kinsey’s Contributions
Throughout the 20th century, Planned Parenthood gained ground, and
Alfred Kinsey’s fraudulent theories on human sexuality afforded legitimacy
to Planned Parenthood and its allies. Kinsey’s studies, Sexual
Behavior in the Human Male and Sexual Behavior in the Human
Female, were published in 1948 and 1953 respectively.
Kinsey argued that children
are sexual from birth, and he "proved" his theory through data gathered
during the systematic sexual abuse of children. Not only was Kinsey
a "sadomasochistic homosexual on a perverted mission," he also advocated
an "amoral new order—possible only if human life is unhinged from
the divine." Kinsey promoted, with the "fraudulent data of his ‘studies,’
the abandonment of absolutes in the social or juridical reasoning
of America’s Judeo-Christian moral system."11
Together, the agendas
of Malthus, Sanger, Kinsey—and other militant pro-abortion groups
such as the National Association for Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL)12
and the Population Council—slowly permeated American culture and led
to the Supreme Court’s fateful decision in 1973.
The Decision that Changed
a Nation
Although abortion spans history, the 20th century response is unique.
Now, not only does the government allow abortion, it has placed its
stamp of approval on the practice of killing the unborn. It has allowed
a largely unregulated industry to be built upon the premise that life
in the womb has no value.
In 1955, Planned Parenthood
held a secret abortion conference,13 which declared war against the
"epidemic" of "back-alley" abortions. It claimed that thousands of
women were dying from botched abortions occurring on the black market.
And the only way to save women’s lives was to decriminalize abortion.14
Dr. Melvin Schwartz, an
early abortion-rights proponent, strove to further the cause by advocating
the removal of moral considerations from the medical field. In an
editorial urging Missouri to decriminalize abortion, he wrote:
The decision should
be a medical one … In Missouri we live under many antiquated laws
written by non-medical zealots who have confused medical necessity
with their own interpretation of the moral values of the day. The
result of the decision can have a tremendous effect on the physical
and psychological well-being of the pregnant woman involved. The decision
is … not theological—not political.15
Lobbying efforts by pro-abortion
groups began to gain ground in the late 1960s and early 1970s. By
April 1970, one-fifth of the states had approved measures allowing
abortion—in extreme conditions only. However, New York, California,
Hawaii and Alaska had more liberal laws. In fact, California’s loose
interpretation of "mental health" essentially allowed abortion-on-demand.16
| "Our nationwide policy of abortion-on-demand through all nine
months of pregnancy was neither voted on by our people nor enacted
by our legislators." —President Ronald Reagan, Abortion & the
Conscience of the Nation, 1984. |
In 1973, the U.S. Supreme
Court handed down its Roe v. Wade decision. The woman at the center
of the lawsuit, Norma McCorvey ("Jane Roe"), had challenged Texas’
abortion law in 1969. At the time, she was pregnant and wanted an
abortion—which was illegal. According to McCorvey, political opportunists
grabbed hold of her case in an effort to further their pro-abortion
agenda.17
The court’s decision in
Roe’s favor rested on two premises: a woman’s "right to privacy,"
and the belief that the beginning of life cannot be pinpointed. Supreme
Court Justice Harry Blackmun wrote the majority decision in Roe v.
Wade, stating, "We need not resolve the difficult question of when
life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine,
philosophy and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the
judiciary, at this point in the development of man’s knowledge, is
not in a position to speculate as to the answer."18
One observer wrote, "The
Court’s majority dismissed the living individual within the womb as
‘potential’ life, worthy of the ‘interest’ of the state but meriting
no protection from it … In other words, under Roe a developing child
may be killed at any point in the pregnancy, since the child is not
recognized as a ‘person’ by the Supreme Court."19
|
Key Abortion Court Cases20
Jane Roe v. Dallas District Attorney
Henry Wade, Jan. 22, 1973: Declared
that the 14th Amendment guarantees a woman's "right to privacy";
held that the fetus is not a person and the decision to abort
should be left up to a woman and her doctor.
Mary Doe v. Georgia Attorney General
Arthur K. Bolton, Jan. 22, 1973: Restricted the scope
of permissible state regulation and overturned a law requiring
abortions to be performed only in hospitals. Abortion could
be performed "in light of all factors-physical, emotional, psychological,
familial, and the woman's age-relevant to the well being of
the patient [mother]. All these factors may relate to health."
21
Planned Parenthood v. Missouri Attorney
General John C. Danforth, July 1, 1976: Declared it unconstitutional
to require doctors to exercise care to preserve fetal life;
overturned a ban on saline abortions and a law which required
a husband's consent to abortion.
Connecticut Social Services Commissioner
Edward W. Maher v. Susan Roe, June 20, 1977: Declared
that Medicaid should not pay for nontherapeutic elective abortions
because the state has a legitimate interest in protecting life.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary
Patricia R. Harris v. Cora McRae, June 30, 1980: Stated
that states are not obliged to fund "medically necessary" abortions
for which federal funds are blocked by the Hyde amendment-also
upheld as constitutional.
Missouri Attorney General William L.
Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, July 3, 1989:
Upheld Missouri's ban on using state facilities or employees
to perform elective nontherapeutic abortions, as well as a requirement
for medical tests to determine a fetus' viability.
Planned Parenthood v. Pennsylvania Gov.
Robert P. Casey, June 29, 1992: The Court accepted a
24-hour waiting period, informed consent guidelines and parental
consent in some cases. "It essentially … adopted a new 'liberty'
standard. The above restrictions would not apply if they 'unduly
burdened' her right to abortion." 22
|
Roe placed the
Court’s stamp of approval on "abortion-on-demand" throughout all nine
months of pregnancy. Supposedly, abortion would become "safe and rare"
because women would no longer die from "back-alley" abortions.
The Legacy of Roe
v. Wade
In the more than 26 years since that Supreme Court decision, the phrase
"rare abortion" has become a mockery. Over thirty-five million abortions
have been recorded.23 Original restrictions—such as limiting abortions
in the second and third trimesters—have disappeared altogether. Further,
one out of every three children conceived in America since 1972 has
died a brutal death through abortion—more than six times the number
of Jews that Adolf Hitler put to death in his Nazi concentration camps.24
In addition, 45 percent
of abortions in the U.S. in 1995 were repeats.25 Even the pro-abortion
Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) admits that the "reasons women give
for having abortions include that they have had all the children they
want, they want to delay the next birth, … they are estranged from
or on uneasy terms with their sexual partner, and they do not want
a child while they are in school or working."26 Essentially, these
elective abortions demonstrate that they use abortion as birth control.
Today, a misguided "abortion
rights" mentality pervades America. Women demand their "right to choose."
Americans recoil at even perceived restrictions on their freedom,
so abortion advocates’ rallying cry of "rights" resonates throughout
the country. Shirley Spitz, a supporter of abortion-on-demand, states,
"Without freedom, women will always be shackled; we will always be
second-class citizens."27
By calling themselves "pro-choice,"
feminists avoid the label "pro-abortion" and manage to dodge the real
issue. In his book, When Choice Becomes God, F. LaGard Smith asks,
"Could it be that, deep down, feminists know they would lose the battle
if it were fought on the turf of basic morality, and that the childlike
response ‘But I want to do it!’ is all they can legitimately cling
to?"28
The U.S. Supreme Court
has made a "right to abortion" the judicially created "law" of this
land. But there is a law of nature and of nature’s God that supersedes
even the Supreme Court. This law attests to the value and sanctity
of life. Can one person’s right to do anything take precedence
over another’s most basic right to live? The answer is obvious.
Today, clashes between
the "pro-life" and "pro-choice" sides regularly capture the headlines.
The debate over this issue has left our nation deeply divided. But
when the last words of eloquent rhetoric are spoken, one must acknowledge
that the conflict over abortion is about pitting a mother against
her child. In the cacophony of voices arguing over "rights," the quiet
consciences of those who stand for the sanctity of all life understand
this is an assault on the most vulnerable—those who are too weak to
defend their rights—as well as an exploitation of women.
End Notes
- Cheryl Wetzstein, "Ex-'Jane
Roe' says her abortion case was based on lies," The Washington
Times, 22 January 1998, A7.
- Joseph Sobran, "Commemorating
you-know-who," Conservative Chronicle, 24 December 1997,
30.
- Francis A. Schaeffer,
The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview,
Volume Five, A Christian View of the West (Westchester, IL: Crossway
Books, 1982), 308.
- Marvin Olasky, Abortion
Rites: A Social History of Abortion in America (Wheaton, IL: Crossway
Books, 1992), 26.
- Dr. and Mrs. J.C. Willke,
Why Can't We Love them Both (Cincinnati, OH: Hayes Publishing Company,
1997), 28.
- George Grant, Grand
Illusions: The Legacy of Planned Parenthood (Franklin, TN: Adroit
Press, 1992), 51.
- William F. Jasper, "Calling
the shots," The New American, 19 January 1998, 27.
- Grant, 55.
- Ibid., 57.
- "Who was Margaret Sanger?"
(Stafford, VA: American Life League, 1996).
- Col. Ronald D. Ray,
USMC (Ret.), "Kinsey's Legal Legacy," The New American, 19
January 1998, 31.
- Today, NARAL is known
as the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League.
- Leslie J. Reagan, When
Abortion Was a Crime (Berkeley, CA: University of California
Press, 1997) as cited in Christina Dunigan, "Notable Abortion Dates
in the 20th Century: The Transition Period: 1950-1970," About.com,
1999.
- Grant, 33.
- Cynthia Gorney, Articles
of Faith: A Frontline History of the Abortion Wars (New York:
Simon & Schuster, 1998), 29.
- Willke, 30-31.
- Wetzstein.
- Roe v. Wade,
410 U.S. 113 (1973).
- William Norman Grigg,
"License to Kill," The New American, 19 January 1998, 11.
- Frank J. Murray, "Birth
of a battle," The Washington Times, 21 January 1998, A3.
- Doe v. Bolton,
U.S. Supreme Court, No. 70-40, IV, January 1973, 11, as cited in
Willke, 34.
- U.S. Supreme Court,
29 June 1992, Planned Parenthood of S.E. PA v. Casey No.
91-744 and 91-902, as cited in Willke, 41.
- Jeff Jacoby, "What
hath Roe wrought in the intervening years?" The Washington Times,
22 January 1998, A1.
- L. Brent Bozell III,
"Assaults on valued beliefs," The Washington Times, 27 January
1998, A19.
- S. Henshaw et al., "Abortion
Characteristics, 1994-95," Family Planning Perspectives 28,
no. 4 (July 1996): 143, as cited in Willke, 113.
- AGI, "Facts in Brief:
Induced Abortion Worldwide," May 1999.
- Pamela Constable, "A
Continual Call for Women's 'Freedom,'" The Washington Post,
21 January 1998, B3.
- F. LaGard Smith, When
Choice Becomes God (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 1990),
79. Contributing writers: Jessica Wadkins, Trudy Chun, Catherina
Hurlburt
Sponsored by Roe v. Wade:
26 Years of Life Denied
http://www.prolife.org/rvw
Permission to forward granted
provided this document remains intact.
Page index
Roe v. Wade Report '99, Issue 1
Roe v.
Wade Report '99, Issue 2
Roe v.
Wade Report '99, Issue 3
Sen. Bob
Smith To Run for President
Russian
Woman Hides Baby in Freezer in Possible Infanticide
ROE
v. WADE REPORT '99 Issue 1
DATELINE 1.2.99 -- 20 days
until 26 Years of Roe v. Wade becomes official.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the first issue
of the 1999 Roe v. Wade Report. This is a special mini-newsletter
that will be published several times leading up to the 26th anniversary
of the infamous Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized
abortion on demand. This mini-newsletter is sponsored by Roe v. Wade:
26 Years of Life Denied, a comprehensive web site including a plethora
of information related to abortion and the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court
case. Point your web browser to http://www.prolife.org/rvw
WEB SITE UPDATE
Many of you reading this
report may be familar with the web site from last year. During 1998,
we were able to provide over 86,000 people with the real facts about
this case and about abortion. For this year, we have added additional
information, we've created a new logo that you can place on your web
site and link back to us, and we'll once again be sponsorng several
issues of this report filled with information and facts that you can
forward to others across the Internet.
MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD
You can make your voice in
opposition to the Roe v. Wade case heard by using our special graphic
on your web page. Point your web browser to http://www.prolife.org/rvw
and on the right-hand side you will find a special small image that
we offer for your use on your web page. We've including coding information
for you to make it easy to implement anywhere on your web site. Please
be sure to point the image back to our web site, as we only allow
use of the image with the reciprocal link back to Roe v. Wade: 26
Years of Life Denied.
ABORTION ON DEMAND?
There seems to be a widespread
perception that the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade (1973) only
permits abortions up to 24 weeks, and after that time only to save
the life of the mother. This false perception -- fueled in large part
by groups supporting abortion rights -- is uncritically accepted by
the media. The fact is that the current law does not restrict a woman
from getting an abortion for practically any reason she deems fit
during the entire nine months of pregnancy.
In actual effect, Roe v. Wade
judicially created abortion on demand in the United States. [Source:
John Warwick Montgomery, "The Rights of Unborn Children," Simon Greenleaf
Law Review 5 (1985-86):40.]
FROM THE CASE
I cannot accept the Court's
exercise of its clear power of choice by interposing a constitutional
barrier to state efforts to protect human life and by investing mothers
and doctors with the constitutionally protected right to exterminate
it. -- Justice Byron White dissenting in ROE V. WADE, 410 U.S.113.
QUOTABLE
QUOTES
Mother Teresa: America
needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe v. Wade has
deformed a great nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted
mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown
violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships.
It has aggravated the derogation of the father's role in an increasingly
fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts -- a child
-- as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience. It has nominally
accorded mothers unfettered dominion over the independent lives of
their physically dependent sons and daughters. And, in granting this
unconscionable power, it has exposed many women to unjust and selfish
demands from their husbands or other sexual partners. Human rights
are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human
being's entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does
not depend, and must not be declared to be contingent, on the pleasure
of anyone else, not even a parent or a sovereign." (Mother Theresa
-- "Notable and Quotable," Wall Street Journal, 2/25/94, p. A14)
ROE
v. WADE REPORT '99
Issue
2
DATELINE 1.6.99 -- 16 days
until 26 Years of Roe v. Wade becomes official.
In this issue we look at
some common questions some have about abortion before and after the
Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that allowed for abortion on demand.
DIDN'T ILLEGAL ABORTIONS
KILL THOUSANDS OF WOMEN?
Dr. Bernard Nathanson -- who
was one of the original leaders of the American pro-abortion movement
and co-founder of N.A.R.A.L. (National Abortion Rights Action League),
and who has since become pro-life -- admits that he and others in
the abortion rights movement intentionally fabricated the number of
women who allegedly died as a result of illegal abortions.
"How many deaths were we
talking about when abortion was illegal? In N.A.R.A.L. we generally
emphasized the drama 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 the figures were totally false, and
I suppose the others did too if they stopped to think of it. But in
the "morality" of the 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 which had to be done was permissible." [Source: Bernard Nathanson,
M.D., Aborting America (New York: Doubleday, 1979), 193.]
WHAT HAPPENED TO JANE ROE?
Norma McCorvey and Sandra
Cano, the women whose Supreme Court cases (Roe vs. Wade and Doe vs.
Bolton respectively) made abortion legal on demand in the U.S., both
now oppose abortion.
In an interview on 8/10/95
with WBAP radio in Dallas, McCorvey announced, "I'm pro-life. I think
I've always been pro-life, I just didn't know it" (Reaves, DALLAS
MORNING NEWS, 8/11/95). McCorvey, claimed before Roe that she had
been raped, was 21 and pregnant when approached by attorney Sarah
Weddington about suing for the right to have an abortion. McCorvey
never had an abortion, because the decision came too late. She carried
the baby to term and gave her up for adoption. McCorvey later admitted
that she had not been raped (ibid., 8/11). ABC's "World News Tonight"
and "Nightline" featured exclusive interviews with McCorvey, in which
she renounced her role in the abortion advocacy movement and declared
that "abortion is wrong."
"I think abortion is wrong.
I think what I did with Roe vs. Wade was wrong, and I just have to
take a pro-life position on [abortion]" ("World News Tonight," 8/10/95).
McCorvey spent time assisted
the pro-abortion movement after the case by was treated poorly by
pro-abortion leaders and haunted by simple things like empty swings
in a playground." McCorvey: "They were swinging back and forth but
they were all empty. And I just totally lost it, and I thought 'Oh
my God. are empty because there's no children, because they've all
been aborted'" ("World News Tonight," 8/10/95).
From Norma McCorvey: "Abortion
has been founded on lies and deception from the very beginning. All
I did was lie about how I got pregnant. I was having an affair. It
all started out as a little lie. I said what I needed to say. But,
my little lie grew and grew and became more horrible with each telling.
Sarah and Linda's (the pro-abortion attorneys in Roe) eyes seemed
blinded to my obvious inability to tell the same story twice. It was
good for the cause. It read well in the newspapers. With the help
of willing media the credibility of well-known columnists, the lie
became known as the truth these past 25 years."
"I did not go to the Supreme
Court on behalf of a class of women. I wasn't pursuing any legal remedy
to my unwanted pregnancy. I did not go to the federal courts for relief.
I went to Sarah Weddington asking her if she knew how I could obtain
an abortion. She and Linda Coffey said they didn't know where to get
one. They lied to me just like I lied to them. Sarah already had an
abortion. She knew where to get one. Sarah and Linda were just looking
for somebody, anybody, to further their own agenda. I was their willing
dupe. For this, I will forever be ashamed."
"But, my life has been restored
to me, and I now have the privilege of speaking for those who cannot
speak for themselves." (Ibid.)
Cano: "I am against abortion.
I never sought an abortion. I never had an abortion. Abortion is murder.
For over 20 years, and against my will, my name has been synonymous
with abortion. The Doe vs. Bolton case is based on deceit and fraud.
I never participated in this case. The Supreme Court had already made
up their minds. They didn't care what was in the affidavits. I never
wanted to be a part of this." (LeBoeuf, CHATTANOOGA FREE PRESS, 3/24/97).
BUT AFTER ALL, ISN'T ABORTION
A WOMAN'S CHOICE?
Most women -- at least 70%
-- say they believe abortion is immoral [Los Angeles Times Poll, March
19, 1989. See also Mary K. Zimmerman, Passage Through Abortion (New
York: Praeger Publishers, 1977)]. But they choose against their conscience
because of pressure from others and their circumstances. They choose
abortion out of fear -- fear of not being able to raise a child, fear
of losing their partner if they do not have an abortion, fear of losing
control over of their lives, etc. Many women lack support from their
families and loved ones. More than 80% say they would have completed
their pregnancies under better circumstances or with more support
from the people they love. [David C. Reardon, Ph.D., Aborted Women:
Silent No More (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1987).]
Abortion is not a true "choice"
on the woman's part; it is an act of despair. On a very basic level,
it is precisely because women who abort are acting against their consciences
and their maternal instincts that the psychological impact of abortion
is so profound.
BUT NO WOMAN HAS EVER DIED
FROM A LEGAL ABORTION, RIGHT?
Since abortion was legalized
in 1973, between 1973 and 1987 215 women died as a result of complications
from botched legal abortions. The government stopped collecting these
statistics in 1987 though many women continue to die each year from
legal abortions. [Sources: National Center for Health Statistics.
Health, United States, 1994. Hyattsville, Maryland: Public Health
Service, 1995; Abortion Surveillance 1985, Center for Disease Control,
Table #18; Induced Abortion: World Review 1983, by Christopher Tietze,
The Population Council, p 103.]
ROE
v. WADE REPORT '99
Issue 3
DATELINE 1.16.99 -- 6 days
until 26 Years of Roe v. Wade becomes official.
"NEVER AGAIN" NEVER WAS
Claims of thousands of women
dying to illegal abortions were unfounded and, in fact, were made
up by abortion advocates. In this issue of the Roe v. Wade Report,
we'll find out how legal abortions have hurt and even killed women.
Abortion Advocates Lie
About Illegal Abortions
Abortion advocates have long
maintained that abortion should not be made illegal because it would
somehow lead to thousands of women dying from illegal abortions. They
say "never again" will they go back to having abortion illegal and
killing women. Yet these claims were untrue and made simply for public
relations purposes. Today, legal abortions kill women just as before.
Dr. Bernard Nathanson --
who was one of the original leaders of the American pro-abortion movement
and co-founder of N.A.R.A.L. (National Abortion Rights Action League),
and who has since become pro-life -- admits that he and others in
the abortion rights movement intentionally fabricated the number of
women who allegedly died as a result of illegal abortions:
How many deaths
were we talking about when abortion was illegal? In N.A.R.A.L. we
generally emphasized the drama 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 the figures were totally
false, and I suppose the others did too if they stopped to think of
it. But in the "morality" of the 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 which had to be done was permissible. [Source:
Bernard Nathanson, M.D., Aborting America (New York: Doubleday, 1979),
193.]
The Real Numbers
Dr. Nathanson's observation
is borne out in the best official statistical studies available. There
were a mere 24 women who died from illegal abortions in 1972, the
year before Roe v. Wade legalized abortion. [Source: U.S. Bureau of
Vital Statistics Center for Disease Control.] With the Roe decision,
abortion was now legal in all fifty states and back alley abortions
eliminated, along with their alleged total of maternal deaths. In
1973 there should have been a sharp drop in abortion-related deaths
if abortion advocates were right that legalizing abortion would make
abortion safe.
Yet abortion-related deaths
increased with 25 deaths resulting from legal abortion in 1973, 26
in 1974 and 29 in 1975. [Ibid.]
Illegal Abortions Were
Not Unsafe
It is misleading to say,
as abortion advocates do, that pre-Roe illegal abortions were performed
by "back-alley" abortionists with rusty coat hangers. While president
of Planned Parenthood, Dr. Mary Calderone pointed out in a 1960 American
Journal of Health article that Dr. Kinsey showed in 1958 that 84%
to 87% of all illegal abortions were performed by licensed physicians
in good standing. Dr. Calderone herself concluded that "90% of all
illegal abortions are presently done by physicians." [Mary Calderone,
"Illegal Abortion as a Public Health Problem," in American Journal
of Health 50 (July 1960):949.]
Further, Calderone went on
to say, "Call them what you will, abortionists, or anything else,
they are still physicians, trained as such; ... They must do a pretty
good job if the death rate is as low as it is... Abortion, whether
therapeutic or illegal, is in the main no longer dangerous, because
it is being done well by physicians." [Ibid.] Obviously, the claims
Planned Parenthood and other abortion advocates make today about the
supposed horrors of illegal abortions deaths are simply untrue. Either
they were lying then or they're lying now.
The vast numbers of abortion
practitioners performing abortions prior to the legalization of abortion
by Roe v. Wade are now currently advertising their abortion "services"
in the yellow pages and in newspapers and on radio stations across
the country. If abortions were dangerous for women *before* Roe v.
Wade, then abortion advocates must admit that abortions *now* are
still very dangerous to women. One is hard pressed to find any abortion
advocate today who will willing to admit that abortions are dangerous
to women.
Women Die From Legal Abortions
From 1973 until 1987, according
to the National Center for Health Statistics and Centers for Disease
Control, 215 women died from *legal* abortions. [Sources: National
Center for Health Statistics. Health, United States, 1994. Hyattsville,
Maryland: Public Health Service, 1995 and Abortion Surveillance 1985,
Center for Disease Control, Table #18.]
The government stopped collecting
these statistics in 1987 due to the lack of accurate reporting of
deaths as a result of legal abortions. Yet the Roe v. Wade web site
(http://www.prolife.org/rvw) contains news story after news story
from credible media outlets of women who have died at the hands of
abortion practitioners performing legal abortions.
Making abortion legal didn't
make it safe. "Never again" simply never existed.
FROM THE CASE
The fact that a majority
of the states reflecting, after all, the majority sentiment in those
states, had had restrictions on abortions for at least a century,
is a strong indication, it seems to me, that the asserted right to
an abortion is not "so rooted in the traditions of conscience and
our people as to be ranked fundamental," SNYDER V. MASSACHUSETTS,
291 U.S. 97, 105 (1934). Even today, when society's views on abortions
are changing, the very existence of the debate is evidence that the
"right to an abortion" is not so universally accepted as the appellant
would have us believe. -- Justice William Rehnquist dissenting in
ROE V. WADE, 410 U.S. 113.
DID YOU KNOW?
More than 58 percent of all
women experienced 'quite a bit' or 'severe' pain during induced abortion?
Among women with no full term births prior to the abortion, this figure
is 61.4%. "We were surprised to note that the majority of women reported
moderate or more discomfort during the [abortion]; we had not expected
as many women to report severe pain." [Source: The Journal of Reproductive
Medicine, Pain During Early Abortion, Dr. Lynn Borgatta and David
Nickinovich (PhD), 1997, vol. 42, pp. 287-293. Co-author Dr. Lynn
Borgatta is in the Medical Division of Planned Parenthood Federation
of America (New York City).]
MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD
You can make your voice in
opposition to the Roe v. Wade case heard by using our special graphic
on your web page. Point your web browser to http://www.prolife.org/rvw
and on the right-hand side you will find a special small image that
we offer for your use on your web page. We've including coding information
for you to make it easy to implement anywhere on your web site. Please
be sure to point the image back to our web site, as we only allow
use of the image with the reciprocal link back to Roe v. Wade: 26
Years of Life Denied.
The Roe v. Wade Report is
a special feature sponsored by "Roe v. Wade: 26 Years of Life Denied,"
a web site at http://www.prolife.org/rvw that highlights information
and analysis concerning the infamous Supreme Court decision and its
effects.
