The Pro-Abortion Weapon Of Choice?

IT’S THE COAT HANGER!

Whenever I share my pro-life views, an abortion advocate is sure to come along to wave a coat hanger in my face, to recite a litany of pro-abortion talking points and to use those to presumptuously label me. It continues to baffle me why, when both individuals involved in this confrontation obviously care deeply about the topic, a discussion doesn’t ensue, where both parties actually try to listen to and understand the other’s perspective. Although I think my stance is reasonable and should invite constructive dialog, maybe there’s something I don’t see in it that results in the non-starter I’ve described. So, with that in mind, let me see if I can summarize what I see as my reasonable stance.

My pro-life views seem to line up well with those of Dr. Alveda King. If you’re not familiar with Dr. King, I recommend that you check her out, starting with her Priests For Life page. She is the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and she describes herself as “a civil rights activist, speaking out on issues that face society today.” In summarizing her stance on abortion, she starts by saying:

“In the ongoing travesty of the debate over whether abortion … should be condoned, a voice in the wilderness continues to cry out, ‘what about the children?‘ We have been fueled by the fire of ‘women’s rights‘ so long that we have become deaf to the outcry of the real victims whose rights are being trampled upon, the babies and the mothers. Of course a woman has a right to decide what to do with her own body. Thank God for the Constitution. Yet, she also has a right to know the serious consequences and repercussions of making a decision to abort her child. Then too, what about the rights of each baby who is artificially breached before coming to term in his or her mother’s womb?“

My sharing Dr. King’s position, acknowledging that “a woman has a right to decide what to do with her own body”, is the main reason why I continue to be bewildered that abortion advocates still insist on assailing me with their talking points, rather than investing in a constructive discussion. Since I still don’t see a cause for this in my stance, perhaps I can find the cause by taking a closer look at some of the talking points I hear most often.

BACK TO THE COAT HANGER

This most common pro-abortion tactic is described well in an article from Right to Life of Michigan. Under the heading Abortion Myths, this article says:

“Abortion advocates often use a coat hanger to symbolize the ‘age of back-alley abortions’ where women were forced to seek abortions from ‘unqualified butchers’.”

Although I would like to see abortion statistics go down to zero, I recognize that there are circumstances when an abortion is justifiable and as I’ve already said, I agree that a woman has a right to decide what to do with her own body. Certainly, in these instances, I wouldn’t want to see a woman receive anything but the best of medical attention. So, why wave a coat hanger in MY face?!

With that point made, I must go on to say that it seems absurd for abortion advocates to taunt any pro-lifer with a coat hanger. The Abortion Myths article illuminates this, as it goes on to say:

“The number of women who died from illegal ‘back-alley’ abortions was often said to be in the thousands. However, according to the U.S. Bureau of Vital Statistics, there were … 39 women who died from illegal abortions in 1972 (the year prior to Roe v. Wade).

To describe illegal abortion providers as unqualified is hardly accurate. Former medical director of Planned Parenthood, Dr. Mary Calderone, described in a 1960 American Journal of Health article that a study in 1958 showed that 84% to 87% of all illegal abortions were performed by licensed physicians in good standing. Dr. Calderone concluded that ‘90% of all illegal abortions are presently done by physicians.’ So it seems that the ‘back-alley butchers’ of January 21, 1973, became ‘caring doctors who believe in a woman’s right to choose’ on January 22, 1973.

In 1978, the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology stated the legalization of abortion ‘has had no major impact on the number of women dying from abortion’ since the results of a study they completed showed that over 90% of all illegal abortions were performed by licensed physicians.”

Perhaps the ultimate absurdity in this regard is represented by the case of the convicted murderer, Kermit Gosnell. Considering the publicity this case has received, I won’t review it here. If you’d like to refresh your memory on this, there are countless related stories available on the internet, including a fairly complete summary on Wikipedia. However, it’s an article entitled the Planned Parenthood-Gosnell Connection that points out the following tragic irony:

“It is because of pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood’s opposition to abortion facility regulations that Gosnell’s house of horrors went without inspection for 17 years. They told women to report Gosnell to the Department of Health but, as the Grand Jury report said:

Instead, the Pennsylvania Department of Health abruptly decided, for political reasons, to stop inspecting abortion clinics at all. The politics in question were not anti-abortion, but pro. With the change of administration …, officials concluded that inspections would be “putting a barrier up to women” seeking abortions.“

In other words, with the intent of conjuring up images of back-alley butchers, by coat hanger waving in the faces of those who advocate more thorough abortion facility regulations, these actions of abortion advocates actually led to reality that was incredibly worse than the scenes they meant for others to imagine – i.e. the grisly house of horrors that Gosnell’s abortion clinic was permitted to be.

PRO-CHOICE?

Rather than calling themselves pro-abortion, abortion advocates prefer the euphemism pro-choice. That begs the question, what choice are they in favor of? I’ve acknowledged that there are circumstances when an abortion is justifiable and that, in these instances, a woman has a right to decide what to do with her own body. If this was the only choice abortion advocates were “pro” about, our views might not be so far apart. But, considering that nearly 55 Million abortions have been performed since 1973 (based on statistics compiled by the Center for Disease Control and the Guttmacher Institute), it’s hard to imagine that these instances aren’t in the extreme minority. So what about the other choices?

Outside of instances where the overriding concern is the wellbeing of the woman’s body (presumably an extreme majority), choice is denied to everyone except the mothers. Most importantly here, choice is denied the fathers and the babies.

If instances of abortion where the overriding concern is the wellbeing of the woman’s body are in the extreme minority, what is the most common factor behind the majority of these “choices”? I would argue that, in the vast majority of cases, it’s a choice to not deal with the inconvenience of pregnancy and the following parental responsibilities. Statistics from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) seem to bear this out. According to the CDC, at least 44.7% of the women who had abortions in 2009, had obtained an abortion previously in their life. At least 19.5% of women who aborted had at least 2 previous abortions.

Considering what I’ve detailed here on the topic of pro-choice, I’d have to say, “I’m pro-choice when it comes to choosing to get pregnant. After you’re pregnant, that’s it. You’ve made your choice.”

PREGNANCY RESULTING FROM RAPE

Here’s a topic that abortion advocates like to bring up nearly as often as they wave coat hangers. No doubt, it’s a very sensitive issue and can be very emotionally charged. But, it’s ludicrous to imply that pro-lifers are in favor of something along the lines of dealing with rape by telling women that they should “just lay back and enjoy it” and accept whatever the results are.

And, the ploy is just as absurd as coat hanger waving. In the past decade, 2004 stood as the year with the most police-reported rapes, at 95,089. While that is abhorrent, according to an article in Scientific American, somewhere between 1,689 and 2,723 of these sex crimes were likely to result in pregnancy. Taking the higher figure (2,723), if every one of these pregnancies were aborted, that would amount to .2% of the 1,222,100 abortions estimated to have been performed that year.

Regardless of the pro-abortionist’s ludicrous approach to pro-lifers on this and regardless of the absurdity of this ploy, it remains an extremely sensitive issue. With that understood, I would only ask that, at the end of making all the considerations necessary in addressing this tragic circumstance, one more consideration is added by asking, “What did the baby do to deserve the death penalty?”

HUMAN LIFE BEGINS AT BIRTH

There are far too many facets of this argument to cover here. “Viability”, presently around 21 weeks, is one factor that some consider the beginning of human life. But fifty years ago, viability was much older and fifty years from now it is very likely to be younger. I believe human life begins with conception and that does not change. And, our society has casually endorsed this fact for many generations. To exemplify this, ask yourself, “When is the last time you heard anyone ask a newly pregnant couple, ‘What name have you picked out for your fetus?’?”

The more and more common use of ultrasound in conjunction with pregnancy has, literally and figuratively, provided much illumination on this topic. As a result, it is reported that the current generation is becoming increasingly pro-life. The driving factor is that so many of them have seen the ultrasound photos of themselves mounted on the refrigerators of the homes they grew up in. They know they weren’t just a mass of tissue and they’re thankful no one treated them that way.

WHY THE ARGUMENT CONTINUES

As I said earlier, I believe the vast majority of abortions occur to avoid the inconvenience of pregnancy and the parental responsibilities that ensue. Certainly, that is a key reason why abortion advocates continue to butt heads with pro-lifers, rather than working with them towards common ground. When I asked my Wife about this she said that she sees the money in the abortion industry as the real driving force behind this. An article from the Susan B. Anthony List, entitled Kermit Gosnell and the Blood Money of Abortion, concurs with my Wife. According to that article, the big money in abortion for Gosnell included that:

“… Gosnell made close to $1.8 million a year off of abortions alone. … While Gosnell’s abortion pals and the pro-abortion bureaucrats in Pennsylvania were turning a blind-eye to Gosnell’s disgusting practices, Gosnell was busy buying up multiple properties with the money he made exploiting and assaulting low-income minority women … Prosecutors provided records … indicating … Gosnell and his wife have 16 properties valued ‘in the millions,’ including a bay front home in Brigantine, N.J. worth over $900,000.”

According to Guttmacher, there were 1,793 abortion providers in the U.S. in 2005. I don’t know how accurate that is or what the current number is. Nor do I know if these numbers are for individual providers or if they reflect provider facilities. But, if you just multiply Gosnell’s $1.8 Million per year by 1,793, that’s $3.23 Billion. That’s very big money by most standards.

ACTION NOT ARGUMENT

As is typical with what I write on Here I Raise My Ebenezer, I want to conclude by encouraging those who share my views on this topic to put your related concerns into action. If you’re not already doing it, stand up to the pro-abortion bullies and call them on their absurd ploys. Then, find what you can do to make alternatives to abortion more available and more appealing, especially in cases of “crisis-pregnancy.” Hopefully, this will eventually mean that the alternative-to-abortion-industry will become as lucrative as the abortion industry is now. Commonly, even folks who aren’t guided by their morals are guided by their wallets and that will help produce the radically reduced abortion statistics we would love to see.

Additionally, become more familiar with organizations that are already in action along these lines, giving them all the support you can. A great example here is the Students For Life – Pregnant on Campus Initiative. Services they work to make available include:

• Scholarships and Grants for Student Parents
• On-campus pregnancy and parenting resources
• Adoption
• Counseling
• Housing
• Insurance
• Childcare and Child Support
• Healthcare

Surely, as these alternatives to abortion become more and more available, we will come closer and closer to ending the slaughter of on-demand-abortion.