Abortion Policy – Where Politics Matter, not Science
As a post-enlightenment culture, there is often a belief that reason trumps all, but that seems to stop at abortion. Although the scientific method and deductive reasoning rule the rest of science, when it comes to when preborn babies feel pain or the emotions women feel after an abortion, the scientific community is suddenly clueless. That’s not because the knowledge isn’t there to gain, but that abortion activists and supporters wantonly ignore science in favor of the politics of abortion.
Here are some of the blatantly inaccurate medical statements made by pro-abortion activists and why they are wrong:
Lie: Comprehensive sexual education will help stop unplanned pregnancies and the need for abortion.
Truth: No, at least not the way Planned Parenthood and other similar organizations teach sexual health. The problem with these programs is that while they do cover pregnancy prevention, the other main focus is encouraging children, teenagers and young adults to engage in often risky sexual activity. Despite what precautions people might take, a woman can still get pregnant if she is having sex, but that’s treated as such a remote outcome that many women still are surprised when they experience an unplanned pregnancy. In fact, about half of the pregnancies in the country are unplanned. While the only sure-fire method to prevent pregnancy and STDs is abstinence, that is not considered a viable option.
Lie: Some women will die if they don’t get an abortion.
Truth: This is honestly a little ridiculous. If a woman has an ectopic pregnancy, where the preborn is growing on her fallopian tube and will not survive, the preborn is medically removed in order to save the mother’s life. In general, there are incredibly few instances where a mother would die as a result of her pregnancy. If she is experiencing a health emergency, doctors can diagnose her and can likely get the woman to a safe point in her pregnancy where she can deliver. As Dr. Anthony Levatino, a onetime abortionist turned pro-life physician reflected, “the number of unborn children that I had to deliberately kill (when the mother was having a medical emergency) was zero.”
Lie: Regulations like hospital admitting privileges for abortionists hinders a woman’s ability to get an abortion.
Truth: This argument is misleading at best. The reason that legislation like that is enacted is because it helps protect women from incompetent doctors. If an abortionist has admitting privileges at a local hospital, it demonstrates some level of competence as a physician. A study recently completed by the Charlotte Lozier organization showed that of the 85 abortionists in Florida, only half had admitting privileges at local hospitals. Unfortunately, the money that can be made through abortion attracts unsavory medical practitioners more interested in turning a quick buck than serving their patients. It seems odd that pro-abortionists, who constantly support women and their “right to choose,” would be against such basic protections.
Lie: That preborn babies don’t feel pain until 26 or 28 weeks or maybe even later.
Truth: In an article on Teen Vogue, abortionist Dr. Grossman told the young readers that the connections in the brain of a preborn baby aren’t functional until late in the third trimester, 26 to 28 weeks, and “even really at that point it’s not clear.” That’s a lie. Premature and preborn babies who fall into that age range that Dr. Grossman is discussing do feel pain. They flinch or pull away when stuck with a needle and performing surgery without anesthetic on premature babies that young can result in death. Birth doesn’t magically give babies the ability to feel pain, the science demonstrates that pain is perceptible at around 20 weeks if not earlier. In fact, one study showed that the pain for preborn and premature babies is actually more intense.
Lie: That women don’t feel anything after their abortion.
Truth: There is nothing simple about abortion, but abortion activists don’t want women to believe that. They argue that most women go on with their lives as if nothing happened, but those that have experienced an abortion know that isn’t true. Glee actress Naya Rivera, who had an abortion, said that her decision has left her emotionally scarred and that she believes events throughout her life will be “tinged with regret.” There is such truth to her statement, and to deny that makes it more difficult for women who do experience emotional complications like depression and PTSD to reach out for help.
Lie: Most women don’t know they’re pregnant at six weeks.
Truth: While abortion activists might want to think that this is true, it’s actually false. All it takes is a quick look at the abortion report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It quickly becomes evident that about 1 in 5 abortions occur before the sixth week of pregnancy. There are women who avoid confirming their pregnancy due to immaturity, denial or fear, and some who genuinely don’t know that they are pregnant, but those women are in the minority. Most women know or suspect that they’re pregnant by six weeks, and abortion commentators who say otherwise are not talking about a statistic but making a political statement.
When it comes to abortion, science only matters to those in the pro-life movement. Abortion activists do not care about what science tells them—instead these activists ignore or block efforts to find truth in order to keep abortion legal. But over the last several years abortion activists are finding out that the truth can never be hidden for long, and science continues to bolster and grow the pro-life movement as people discover the truth and wonder of preborn life.
Photo from PBS News.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brittany Raymer serves as a policy analyst at Focus on the Family, researching and writing about abortion, assisted suicide, bioethics and a variety of other issues involving the sanctity of human life and broader social issues. She regularly contributes articles to The Daily Citizen and has written op-eds published in The Christian Post and The Washington Examiner. Previously, Raymer worked at Samaritan’s Purse in several roles involving research, social media and web content management. While there, she also contributed research for congressional testimonies and assisted with the Ebola crisis response. Raymer earned a bachelor of arts in history at Seattle Pacific University and completed a master’s degree in history at Liberty University in Virginia. She lives in Colorado Springs with her beloved Yorkie-Poo, Pippa.
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