Mary Calderone, medical director of Planned Parenthood, said the following in 1960:
“Medically speaking, that is, from the point of view of diseases of the various systems, cardiac, genitourinary, and so on, it’s hardly ever necessary today to consider the life of the mother as threatened by a pregnancy.”
Mary Calderone “Illegal Abortion As a Public Health Problem,” American Journal of Pub. Health 50 1960): 948 – 949 Quoted inClarke D Forsythe Abuse of Discretion: the inside Story of Roe Versus Wade (New York: Encounter Books, 2013)
In 1960, Mary Calderon was campaigning to make abortion legal. The fact that even in a work dedicated to promoting abortion, she admits that pregnancy was very rarely a danger to a woman’s life is very telling. It is very rare for a situation to arise where abortion is needed to save a woman’s life – it was rare in 1960, and it’s even more rare today. While very few pro-lifers would say that a woman should not be allowed to have an abortion in such a case, the argument “to save the life of the mother” should not be used as a wedge for abortion on demand.
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