“Banning abortion is like rape – the violent assertion of male domination and male supremacist society over women, forceful and violent control of women’s bodies, in the most personal dimensions.
Banning abortion means suppression of women by force of law and the state. It is institutionalized violence against women.”
Revolutionary Worker “A Revolutionary Communist Viewpoint on Abortion and Women’s Liberation” January 15, 1995
Below are diagrams of the two most common abortion procedures. Is opposing these procedures equivalent to supporting rape?
Juli Loesch, who helped organize sit ins with Operation Rescue, describes the organization’s commitment to nonviolence:
“Operation Rescue has a serious commitment to nonviolence: participants sign a pledge to refrain from engaging in verbal exchanges with abortion–bound women, clinic staffers, hecklers, or police. Operation Rescue people don’t carry picket signs. They are instructed not to shout or chant; the rules call for singing, praying, or maintaining a dignified silence…
Judging from the number of apparent “turnarounds” at the sites and the increasing numbers of women seeking help at pregnancy aid centers, Operation Rescue leaders are reasonably sure that 400 – 500 pregnant women and their children were indeed “rescued” in 1988 because of Operation Rescue efforts.”
Juli Loesch “Operation Rescue” Fidelity August 1988, 17
Olivia was 17 when she had her abortion. She says:
“I couldn’t even conceive of having a child then; of being a pregnant highschooler; of letting my family down; of the shame I would feel if anyone else knew; of not going to college. There were so many reasons to have the abortion, in my mind, and virtually no reason not to have one.”
She went on to study medicine. She describes how the death of her baby “motivates” her to be a better person.
“I try to let [the abortion] motivate me to help others, so that that tiny life that was beginning inside of me will continue to teach me for the rest of my life; so it will motivate me to be the best person I can be and to help others do the same for themselves.”
Johannah Haney The Abortion Debate: Understanding the Issues (Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, Inc., 2009) 44 – 45
Olivia knows that her baby was a “tiny life.” On some level, she may feel guilt, and tries to give her lost baby meaning by using his/her death to inspire her to be “the best person” she can be.
7 1/2 weeks. Most abortions happen at this time in pregnancy or later.
A man named Richard explains why he and his wife Natalie decided to abort their son when they found out the baby had down syndrome:
“Both of us are in jobs that are a lot more than jobs. They’re things that we do because we believe in the work. All those things would have been affected by a life of caring for a Down’s child.”
Reflecting on the abortion, Richard said:
“I think if it had been some years earlier, when amniocentesis wasn’t available, and we had had a Down child come to term…we would have done our best to raise the child and give it all the love we could. I think we could have done a good job of raising a Down child. But we had a choice. One of the good things and one of the terrifying things about technology is that it gives you that kind of choice.”
Although he and his wife had the abortion because they did not want taking care of the baby to interfere with their jobs, he was sad when he saw the lifeless body of his son after the abortion.
According to the author of the article:
“[After the abortion] Richard asked to see the baby….Alone in an empty room with his dead baby boy, Richard wept. He was still overcome when he returned to Natalie’s room. “It was stunning to me because I’ve known him for a long time and I’ve never seen him cry,” Natalie said.”
Kate Maloy and Maggie Jones Patterson Birth or Abortion? Private Struggles in a Political World (New York: Plenum Press, 1992)
Late term abortionist Dr. George Tiller, who did abortions through all nine months of pregnancy, once hit a pro-life protester with his car. The protester, Mark Geitzen, was hit in the leg. He believes Tiller ran him down on purpose. Geitzen says:
“I was measuring the driveway to insure that pro- lifers were complying with the law during their prayer times when I heard an engine rev. I turned to see Tiller coming right at me. In that moment I couldn’t decide to jump to the right or to the left. I was kind of like a deer caught in the headlights.”
Tiller immediately sped away from the scene
“Abortionist Commits Hit-and-Run Two Days Before Groups Ask For Grand Jury Investigation says Operation Rescue” Christian Wire Service April 6 2006
An anonymous call tipped off investigators that a baby was born alive after an abortion at a Florida abortion clinic. When authorities went to the clinic, they could not find a body. It was later revealed that workers had hidden the body by throwing it on the roof of the clinic. It was determined that the baby was born alive.
When asked if the clinic would be prosecuted, Assistant State Attorney Kathleen Hoague said:
“There are lots of questions that medically I don’t have the answer to yet. You’re talking about a fetus that could be aborted legally.”
Even though the baby was born alive, charges were never pressed. Authorities said the baby was too young to have had a good chance at living a normal life should the child have been given medical treatment.
Pro-Life activist Jill Staneck said:
“In no other homicide investigation do you wonder how long would this person have lived had she not been murdered.”
Susannah A. Nesmith, David Ovalle and Jacob Goldstein “Fetus’ age key to possible charges against Hialeah abortion clinic: Prosecutors looking into the case of a Hialeah abortion clinic where a baby was born alive are weighing whether to file criminal charges” Miami Herald Sep 17, 2006
British birth control pioneer and abortion advocate Marie Stopes, who has a chain of abortion clinics named after her:
“Society allows the diseased, the racially negligent, the thriftless, the careless, the feebleminded, the very lowest and worst members of the community, to produce innumerable tens of thousands of stunted warped and inferior infants.”
J Weeks Sex, Politics and Society (London: Longman, 1981) 190
Professor William Brennan recalls the following story about how a preborn baby reacts to bright lights:
“A dramatic example of how early the unborn baby responds to painful stimulus was revealed in the television special The Miracle Months, which features films of fetal development taken inside the womb. One particular sequence shows an unborn child of only 9 weeks gestation trying to shield himself from the camera lights by placing his hands over his eyes.”
William Brennan The Abortion Holocaust: Today’s Final Solution (St. Louis, Missouri, 1983)
One way of doing abortions is by induction, or inducing labor. These are induced labor abortions. The baby is usually first injected with poison, such as digoxin or potassium chloride, killing him or her. Labor is induced, usually with prostaglandins or cytotec. The woman goes through labor and “gives birth” to her dead child. All third trimester and many late second trimester abortions are done this way. Induced labor abortions are very painful to the mother.
Induced labor abortions are often done when the mother is aborting due to fetal anomaly (a disability or illness in the baby) because she wants to hold, photograph, or see the baby afterwards .
In their book, abortion doulas Mary Mahoney and Lauren Mitchell, who have seen many abortions, describe abortion by induction:
“Some clients are under the impression that labor inductions would be more “natural” or easier or safer than the surgical abortion. Many think of their own birth experiences with other children, and they feel more comfortable doing that than they do dealing with the drama of having a surgical abortion. It’s a rude awakening when they realize that a labor induction is not very “natural” at all.
Clients are given medications to start labor and IV’s with fluids. They are strapped to monitors – they can’t move, they can’t eat, and their contractions are often so bad that they choose an epidural.
According to physician David Grimes, the uterus is not evolved to deliver a pregnancy during the second trimester. Miscarriages usually happen in the first trimester, and babies are delivered in the third, at the end of the pregnancy.
Labor inductions in the second trimester can be as long and arduous as any full-term birth but with more medications. In other words – not a natural birth process.”
Mary Mahoney and Lauren Mitchell The Doulas: Radical Care for Pregnant People (New York: Feminist Press, 2016) 115
This is what babies look like when they are killed by induced labor abortions:
Vincent J Genovese wrote a book about an illegal abortionist who performed over 100,000 abortions before Roe V Wade. The author praises the abortionist throughout the book, and lifts him up as a champion for women. In this passage, Genovese describes how the abortionist killed a very young unborn baby:
“With the dilation complete, the next step… was to extract the fetus. At this point, most doctors prefer to use a blunt instrument called a curette to accomplish this. Dr. Spencer preferred using his index finger. His hands were small and extremely tuned to the touch of the uterus…
He simply inserted his finger and moved it deftly against the uterine wall, causing both fetus and placenta to break free. When he felt this happen he would call for small pair of forceps and gently remove the 7-week-old embryo.
It was discarded without any sense of loss into a basin which already held two others from this morning’s work. He went back to make sure all the products of conception were removed and that the uterus had begun to contract in order that there be no bleeding.”
Vincent J Genovese The Angel of Ashland: Practicing Compassionand Tempting Fate (Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2000) 14 – 15
Seven week-old preborn babyClose-up of seven week preborn baby’s feetShare on Facebook
