The Facts About Abortion

The radical scare mongers and Fake News that support unrestricted abortion right up until birth and even after want us to believe that pregnancy is life threatening for all women.  Fortunately, that is just not true.  While any death is tragic, about 1% of pregnancies result in the death of the woman and usually from other complications.   99% of the 3.5 million births that occur in the US every year are pretty routine.  About 32% of births occur by C-Section, which is a little riskier because it does involve surgery; but even most of those are routine.  Women who give birth naturally are usually released from the hospital a day or two later.  Those that give birth by C-Section are usually released 3 – 5 days later.  

54% of abortions happen by pills rather than surgical procedures and that incidence is growing because the abortion mills charge about the same money for less staff involvement so this approach is more profitable.  Utilization of pills must occur before 11 weeks of pregnancy so not to far off from the 7 week heartbeat rule.  By 15 – 20  weeks of pregnancy, since there is a fully formed baby, the suction method is no longer possible so clamps must be used by the abortionist to rip the baby limb from limb to remove it in parts.  Very often those baby parts are sold for medical research.  This is very gruesome because by this point the baby feels pain.  There are even ultrasound pictures showing the baby attempting to flee from the clamps.  

Miscarriages often occur because of fetal abnormalities, usually an issue with missing chromosomes.  In other words, a viable baby is just not all there.  When a miscarriage occurs, in about 50% of cases it is necessary for a doctor to perform a D & C to go in and scrape the lining of the uterus to clean out any remaining tissues that were not expelled during the miscarriage to prevent infection.  This is not an abortion, since there is usually no viable fetus left in the womb after a miscarriage unless there is a dead baby remaining in the womb often referred to as stillborn.  In that case, the doctors can induce labor.   

In the rare event that an embryo does not attach to the uterus; but instead attaches to an ovary or in the fallopian tubes, it must be removed because it will not grow to viability.  It is almost like removing a tumor.  If not removed, it could be life threatening.  This is a medical procedure not really an abortion that would be prohibited in any state no different than removing a tumor.  

The incidence of abortion because of rape or incest is rare.  The reality is that a woman is fertile for about 6 days in any given month.  So sex would have to occur during this time period for pregnancy to occur.  When this happens, the victim could take the morning after pill within 3 – 5 days of the sex act to help insure that no pregnancy occurs so abortion would not be needed.  

The reality is that about 97% of abortions occur as last resort birth control.  Clearly any woman or man that does not want to have children should be on cheap and effective birth control.  In some cases poor women on Medicaid can get contraceptives for free.   This is about personal responsibility.  In the case of minors, parents aware that their daughters are sexually active should first try to convince them not to be sexually active and or make sure they are on birth control.  Since schools can refer young girls to Planned Parenthood without parental approval, which is a whole different issue,  Planned Parenthood can provide contraceptives.  

No matter what someone’s position is on abortion, we at least need to deal with the facts to have an intelligent discussion.  The notion of “my body, my choice”, the slogan of the pro abortion crowd is fine until there are two bodies in the picture.  Once a baby is conceived, this discussion becomes far more complicated.  And, once there is a heartbeat at about 7 weeks, we are talking about another separate and distinct human life with its own DNA.  Once there is human life, abortion is infanticide.  And, while perhaps there should be exceptions for Rape, Incest or if the Mother’s life is in danger, a very small number of cases,  provided an abortion happens before viability around 15 – 20 weeks, abortion used as birth control in 97% of cases is completely avoidable.