Part of my Birthright training was to read Aborting America, by Bernard Nathanson. Here I learned about the lies perpetuated to foist abortion on demand off on America: that huge numbers of women died every year from criminal abortions, that abortion would cure social ills such as child abuse, that legal abortion was professional and safe.
Off I went to the library to read everything I could find on abortion -- pro and con. That was when I first learned of the deaths of Gloria Aponte and . Gloria's abortionist, Hanan Rotem, had allowed a receptionist to administer general anesthesia. Ellen's abortionist had perforated her uterus and bowel, then sent her home with nothing but a bottle of oral antibiotics to treat her raging peritonitis. These cases were especially striking in contrast with the mainstream media's usual puff pieces about what nice fellows abortionists are.
My extensive reading reinforced what I had already learned: that abortion was more important to the pro choice movement than truth, safety, or even their sacred cow, "choice." Whether unconsciously or by design, proponents of abortion overlooked the faults of their favored cause. Tricks included focusing on poorly designed studies and ignoring solid research, dismissing unfavorable evidence, and giving assumptions the same weight as established facts.The feeblest findings that might be construed as favorable to abortion were taken as proof that abortion was necessary and good. I found that in pro choice writing, the most absurd assertions not only went unchallenged; they were treated as if they were axiomatic.
I also found abundant internal inconsistencies. For example, during the outcry over Title X funding for abortion counseling, pro choicers lamented that women do not know how to go about getting an abortion. Compare this to the outcry over informed consent laws. Women, pro choicers insist, do not need to be told the risks of abortion because they can learn this independently. In other words, the same women too clueless to look in a phone book to find an abortion clinic are resourceful enough to go to a medical school library learn what risks are relevant to them given their age, stage of pregnancy, pre-existing medical conditions, and so on. Does this even remotely make sense?
The most important thing I've learned in years of research is the value of logic and common sense. Simple critical thinking skills are the abortion advocate's worst nightmare.
Despite the political and social climate in America today, where many people admit that abortion is killing a baby but want it to be legal anyway, I see cause for hope. Pockets of honesty are emerging in the prochoice movement. Ron Fitzsimmons and Charlotte Taft have called on their fellow abortion appologists to lay aside deceptive rhetoric. A few brave souls are expressing reservations about RU-486. Traumatized post-abortion women are demanding to be heard.
Abortion might have been okay in theory. But in practice, it's been a disaster. The experiment will eventually draw to a close, and abortion will become what it should have been all along: utterly unthinkable.
NEXT: Why This, Why Now? Part 1: Inventors on the Bench
The Entire Fence Sitter Series:
Laying the Groundwork
Biology of Sex
Curiouser and Curiouser
Under Pressure
Every Little Bit Helps
The Eye Opener
A Learning Odyssey
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