Incorrect statement: 200 000 women a year had illegal abortions before legalisation of abortion on demand on 1 Feb 1997.
Truth: The ‘Reproductive Rights Alliance (RRA)’ and its member organisations frequently lie to political leaders and the media by saying that 200-300 000 women had illegal abortions every year.
- Pro-abortion groups throughout the world propagate inflated statistics to give the idea that the problem of illegal abortions is too big to solve. The RRA have repeated this lie so many times that it is now frequently quoted by political leaders and the press.
- The former leader of NARAL, the organisation which led drive to legalise abortion on demand in the USA in 1973, Dr Bernard Nathanson said “We aroused enough sympathy to sell our programme of permissive abortion by fabricating the number of illegal abortions done annually in the US. The actual figure was less than 100,000 but the figure we gave to the media repeatedly was 1,000,000. Repeating the big lie often enough convinces the public. The number of women dying from illegal abortions was around 200-250 annually. The figure we constantly fed to the media was 10,000. These false figures took root in the consciousness of Americans, convincing many that we needed to crack the abortion law. “
- Have the total number of abortions gone down since legalisation? A parliamentarian asked if there were 200 000/year abortions before legalisation of abortion on demand, then why are there only about 30 000/year after legalisation. Answer: No, they haven’t gone down. The government and media were lied to – there never were so many illegal abortions. Police could easily have put a stop to most of them if they had cracked down more severely on the killers. Nevertheless, illegal abortions are still happening – as they do in all countries with abortion on demand. Less fear of prosecution than under the previous law is going to make illegal abortions even easier. They are preferred for reasons of secrecy.
- What about medical studies claiming to support these figures? Abortionists include all deaths of babies in the womb in the term ‘abortion’, whether natural miscarriages or deliberate killing. They use the name ‘ToP’ or ‘induced abortions’ to refer to the purposeful killing of an unborn baby – what most people call ‘abortion’. Thus before 1 Feb 1997, medical journals are quoted as referring to large numbers of ‘abortions’ (i.e. miscarriages). Also, for example, their term ‘septic abortions’ includes what most would call ‘septic miscarriages’ – but this is not explained. The RRA then used these figures to refer to the number of illegal abortions happening each year. A true figure would be a very small fraction of this.
Incorrect statement:Women were dying in large numbers from backstreet abortions before the current abortion law. This problem has now been corrected by legal abortion on demand.
Truth:The Reproductive Rights Alliance (RRA) lied to parliament and the media about the number of women dying from illegal abortions. They cited at times 400 women/year dying from illegal abortions – a false statistic with no medical research to support it.
- A three year study (1980-82) undertaken by Prof. Boes of MEDUNSA found a total of nineteen women died from illegal abortions and six died from legal abortions during the period.
- More recent studies less thorough than that of Prof Boes failed to find large numbers of deaths.
- Every abortion involves the death of at least one person – the baby. When the mother also dies, the abortionist has killed two people.
- Mothers are still dying and being seriously injured by legal abortions in South Africa, although the Department of Health has so far been unwilling to release these statistics.
Incorrect statement:Abortion does not cause loss of fertility
Truth:Abortion often causes loss of fertility and many other medical problems which abortionists fail to warn women about
- Abortion has been linked to infertility and many other medical problems including: tubal pregnancy, cerivical damage, severe depression, breast cancer, suicide, hysterectomy [removal of womb] etc.
Incorrect statement:No one is forced into having abortions
Truth:Women are being coerced by their spouses, sexual partners and parents into having abortions against their will.
- Private abortion clinics are making money out of this and so do not want to stop it. Abortionists at public hospitals patronisingly assume they are doing these women a favour. The mental and physical health risks; the facts of life in the womb; and the experience of the unborn baby are not explained; and alternatives seldom mentioned. Many of these women will regret this for the rest of their lives.
Incorrect statement:No one is forced to do abortions
Truth:Doctors, nurses and medical students are being intimidated into doing and/or assisting with abortions. This includes job discrimination; pay discrimination; verbal threats; being called to explain conscientious objection to superiors; pressure to attend ‘values clarification workshops’ etc.
Incorrect statement:Abortionists are the victims of persecution.
Truth: Above statement is deceptive. Abortionists may be being ostracised in a few isolated instances. Most of the pressure is coming from the Department of Health and other abortionists on prolife doctors and nurses who do not wish to do abortions. The purpose of the above deception is to try and encourage the Department of Health to further persecute prolife doctors and nurses.
Incorrect statement: There are no murders happening
Truth: Every baby that is deliberately killed in the womb by abortion is murdered
- A murder is defined as the deliberate killing of an innocent human being.
- The unborn baby has committed no crime deserving death. She is innocent.
- A beating heart and active brainwaves are usually taken as signs that someone is alive. These are present before an abortion and absent after an abortion. Thus the baby is alive before and dead afterwards. The baby is killed.
- In an abortion, the baby is killed purposefully and not accidentally.
- The unborn baby is a human being created in the image of God – not a frog or a horse or an insect. Science recognises the unborn baby is a human being with her own DNA, different to the mother. God also recognises the humanity of the unborn child in numerous scriptures in the Bible. John the Baptist, for example jumped in the womb, when he heard the voice of Mary when she was carrying Jesus in the womb.
In 1999, a baby was knifed in the womb by her father. She was saved and delivered alive by doctors in Groote Schuur (Cape Argus, August 12, 1999). The father was charged with two counts of attempted murder: One for stabbing the mother and one for stabbing the unborn baby. An abortionist doing the same with a surgical knife to an unborn baby in the same hospital is paid by the government. Why is the one man a murderer and the other not?
UCT Students for Life 