They said it.
Former Planned Parenthood Federation vice president Naomi Gray on fellow abortion supporters:
“It could then legitimately be said that some white interests are more concerned with causing certain black babies not to get born than they are with the survival of those already born.”
“Black Genocide Seen.” New York Times April 16, 1971
Share on FacebookPro-life author and post-abortive woman Renée Smith wrote:
“While I soon healed physically from the procedure itself, it has taken many years for me to heal emotionally and spiritually. Not long after having the abortion I became depressed and withdrawn. It became difficult to engage with my [living] daughter or find joy or fun in anything. I also quickly jumped into another relationship within a few months with a man old enough to be my father…
I was looking for a way to drown out the memory of the abortion. Life had little meaning for me; I was trying to dull the pain of what I had done…
Two years later I got pregnant again. This time I gave birth to a baby boy.
Financially, I was in no better place than when I became pregnant the prior time. But, having had an abortion before and still dealing with the emotional turmoil that the abortion brought about, I was determined not to abort my baby this time.
I never spoke about the abortion to anyone, not even my two children. Now, over 20 years later, when I hear certain sounds, like that of a vacuum sealer for food, I am immediately transported back to that moment when I ended my baby’s life. Some things don’t ever go away. Sometimes, I’ll think about him/her and what age they’d be, what type of child or young adult they would have been. Whenever I see another child who is the same age as my unborn baby, I think that could be my child. Every year around the time of the abortion, I could feel a sense of sadness overtake me.”
Renée Smith Hope beyond Abortion: A Story of God’s Redeeming Grace (undated)
Share on FacebookPro-choice author Karen Blumenthal says:
“During the 1960s and up to the present day, some abortion rights advocates said that as many as 5000 or 10,000 women died a year from illegal abortions when the procedure was a crime.
It’s a dramatic figure – but it isn’t accurate.
Antiabortion advocates have charged that the number was wildly exaggerated for political reasons. But mostly, it was just outdated.
The big number comes from a study of abortion deaths in the 1930s, before antibiotics were widely available. And the researcher may have stretched that number a bit.”
Karen Blumenthal Jane Against the World: Roe v. Wade and the Fight for Reproductive Rights (New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2020) 76
In reality, the claim that 10,000 women were dying from illegal abortions is not just “outdated” but blatantly false.
Share on FacebookIn response to an article in the Los Angeles Times, a nurse writes:
“As a county nurse and, until recently, a gynecological operating room nurse, I often assisted with abortions, D & C’s for fetal demise and D & E’s for demises that were further along…
Twice in a one-month period, I assisted with abdominal surgeries to remove the remains of botched “clinic” abortions.”
JOSUE L. BARBOSA “ABORTIONS OF LAST RESORT” Los Angeles Times, Feb 18, 1990
Share on FacebookFrom a report on abortion in the United States:
“Today, aspiration is the most common abortion method used in the United States, accounting for almost 68% of abortions performed overall in 2013.
Its use, however, is likely to decline as the use of medication abortion increases. The percentage of total abortions by the medication method rose from 10.6 to 22.3% between 2004 and 2013. In 2014, approximately 45% of abortions up to nine weeks’ gestation were medication abortions, up from 36% in 2011.
Fewer than 9% of abortions are performed after 13 weeks’ gestation – typically by D&E. In 2013, approximately 2% of US abortions at 14 weeks’ gestation or later were induction procedures.”
The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Committee on Reproductive Health Services: The Safety and Quality of Abortion Care in the United States (Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2018) 5
In 2016, a poll was conducted that measured what percentage of the population agreed with different reasons women had abortions. These are the results:
The woman’s health is seriously endangered: 85% approve, 11% disapprove
The woman is pregnant as a result of rape: 75% approve, 21% disapprove
There is a strong chance of serious fetal defect: 72% approve, 24% disapprove
the woman is married and wants no more children: 45% approve, 51% disapprove
The woman wants an abortion for any reason: 44% approve, 51% disapprove
The woman cannot afford more children: 43% approve, 54% disapprove
The woman is unmarried: 41% approve, 56% disapprove
Tom W Smith, et al. “General Social Surveys, 1972 – 2016” retrieved June 6, 2017, in Ziad Munson Abortion Politics (Medford, MA: Polity Press, 2018) 66
Share on FacebookOne post-abortive woman told her story:
“The abortionist and the nurse attendant were cold and unfeeling. Though I was tearful and panicky before and during the procedure, there was no exploration of what I was feeling or experiencing.
The procedure itself was painful as I felt severe pinching and pulling and sharp stabs during the suction abortion. I saw the blood in the tube. I heard the suction interrupted by clumps of tissue. This was emotionally traumatic.
After the abortion, I was changed. My previous sunshiny personality was overtaken by grief. I emotionally flatlined. My child was lost forever.
Prior to the abortion, I had never drank or smoked. I was an A and B student, homecoming queen, served on student council, and marched in the band. I was in a happy two-year relationship with my high school sweetheart.
But after the abortion, we both struggled with anger and guilt over what we had done. Our relationship imploded. I turned to alcohol to help numb my pain and succumbed to a promiscuous lifestyle. I did not feel worthy of dignity after the abortion.
The medical procedure itself felt like a violation. I am not embellishing to say that the abortion I underwent felt like a medical “rape.” The abortionist’s instrument, coupled with the insensitivity, disdain, and lack of respect given to me during the procedure by the medical doctor was a trauma in itself.”
Susan Justice “Retired nurse: Abortion promised an answer, but created trauma in my life” Live Action News April 30, 2021
Share on FacebookPro-choice authors Harold J Morowitz and James S Trefil describe brain development in pre-born babies. They are counting from a woman’s last menstrual period, so when they say seven weeks, they mean five weeks from conception (embryonic age):
“At seven weeks, the eye bud is easy to see, and the various bumps and wiggles in the embryo mark places where divisions between different parts of the brain will occur later… At 11 weeks the broad outlines of the familiar human brain are already in place, although a great deal of elaboration is still to come…
All three regions of the brain develop together, and the cells that will give rise to all of them are clearly visible in the four-week embryo… The development of the brain is a smooth continuum, with no place where sharp distinctions can be drawn…
The cells that will eventually be part of the cerebral cortex begin forming in the seven-week embryo… Even at this early stage of development…the brain cannot be thought of as something that is simply a collection of nerve cells. It has a highly complex structure, and it would not function if that structure were not present.”
Harold J Morowitz and James S Trefil The Facts of Life: Science in the Abortion Controversy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992) 91 – 92, 100, 101, 117
Share on FacebookA study on post-abortive women found the following:
73.8% of post-abortive women surveyed admitted that they experienced at least subtle forms of pressure to terminate their pregnancies.
58.3% indicated that they decided to abort in order to make others happy
Nearly 30% of survey respondents admitted that they were afraid that they would lose their partner if they didn’t abort
66% said they felt abortion was wrong
67.5% said it was one of the hardest decisions of their lives
Priscilla K. Coleman, Ph.D., Kaitlyn Boswell, B.S., Katrina Etzkorn, B.S., Rachel Turnwald, B.S. “Women Who Suffered Emotionally from Abortion: A Qualitative Synthesis of Their Experiences” Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons Volume 22 Number 4 Winter 2017
This study was based on anonymous surveys of 987 women who sought postabortion counseling at pregnancy centers. Because these women regretted their abortions, the results may not be generalizable to all women who have had abortions. Nevertheless, the study shows that coercion is a problem.
Share on FacebookOne woman had an abortion at 19. Her boyfriend, who she had been dating for only three months, wanted the abortion:
“When I told him that I was pregnant, he didn’t say anything. He just looked out the window. When I brought it up later he said that there were other options like abortion and adoption…
I had my abortion on August 13, 1998. It’s a date I will NEVER forget.
My boyfriend didn’t come with me to the clinic. He said he had to work. So his mom went with me. At the time, I didn’t think anything of it. But now I wonder if she came not for support, but because she didn’t want me to have the baby, and wanted to make sure that I went through with it… I now wonder why his mom never asked me if this was something that I was sure I wanted to do…
I opted to go to sleep for my abortion. Which by that I should have known that if I was too afraid to be awake, I shouldn’t have been having an abortion, I remember the doctor saying I would be asleep soon. Then they were just talking amongst themselves like what we’re about to do was NO BIG DEAL! …
I was crying… I wish I had jumped up from the table and said “NO! I HAVE CHANGED MY MIND, I WANT MY BABY! I WANT MY BABY!”
But I just let myself fall asleep and I don’t know if I will ever be able to forgive myself for that.”
Quoted in Martha Jensen Abortion: Information and One’s Own Journey (2020)
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