Know the Facts (read it all!) Tons of cool info throughout!
Personhood at conception is a religious belief, not a provable biological fact. Mormon and some Fundamentalist churches believe in personhood at conception; Judaism holds that it begins at birth and abortion is not murder; ensoulment theories vary widely within Protestantism. The religious community will never reach consensus on the definition of a "person" or when abortion is morally justified.
We are pro-choice. "Pro-abortion" is inaccurate, as it implies favoring abortion over childbirth. We support reproductive freedom, which means that an individual woman should be able to make her own choice.
Laws have never stopped abortion, but only relegated it to back-alley butchers. The hypocrisy is clear: when illegal abortion was the leading killer of pregnant women in the U.S., there was no Right to Life (RTL) organization.
If we don't choose pro-choice babies will be born and killed due to lack of choice to prevent unwanted children.
Most Americans reject the absolutist position that it is always wrong to terminate a pregnancy and believe that abortion may be the morally right choice under certain circumstances.
Many people who are personally opposed to abortion for religious or moral reasons also believe that it is wrong to impose their values by civil law on everyone. You don't have to like abortion to respect the right of choice.
The Anti-Choice say:
Legalized abortion is a sign of the moral decay that is destroying America. It is imperative to pass laws to stop this trend.
Pro-Choice:
Legislation cannot create morality. Prohibition did not stir moral outrage against drinking; it stirred outrage against Prohibition itself, and promoted widespread disrespect for all laws.
The fetus is totally dependent on the body of the woman for its life support and is physically attached to her by the placenta and umbilicus. The health of the fetus is directly related to the health of the pregnant woman. Only at birth are they separate.
Polls show overwhelming -- and growing -- support for legal abortion. Typically, a 1982 Associated Press-NBC poll showed that 77% agreed that abortion "should be left to the woman and her doctor," and that support for abortion rights cuts across political, age, religious, income, education, race and sex differences. Only 19% favored a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion.
Forcing a woman to bear a rapist's child is further torture of the victim of a heinous crime. Some 5.4% of rape victims become pregnant. The "medical treatment" RTL refers to is a post-coital birth control such as DES that does not always work -- and is actually an early abortion if conception has taken place. Many rapes are not reported immediately, or at all. Women should not have to undergo unnecessary medication.
The same people who oppose legal abortion are attempting to cripple federal and state family planning programs both by defunding and by administrative regulations. The "human life amendment" would outlaw birth control methods, such as the IUD and mini-pills, which act after fertilization. The charter of Birthright, the anti-abortion "problem pregnancy" counseling organization, prohibits referral for contraception.
Anit-Choice Idea:
Teenagers have forgotten how to say "no." Making contraceptives and abortion available only encourages them to have sex.
Pro-Choice Response:
The increase in teen sex has complex society causes, including sexually-oriented TV, movies and ads. Birth control and abortion don't cause sex, but reality dictates that they be available to help prevent teens from becoming parents.
A woman should be able to decide for herself. Some single women do choose childbirth followed by adoption; many more choose single parenthood. For a married woman, especially one with other children, giving a baby up for adoption is virtually impossible.
91% of abortions are done in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and only 4% after 16 weeks. Tests showing birth defects are not done until the 16th week; and some women do not discover they're pregnant until this time. Most late abortions are done for health reasons. Ironically, restrictive laws pushed by Right to Lifers, such as mandatory parental involvement and cutoff of Medicaid for poor women's abortions, cause delay and lead to increased numbers of late abortions.
The brain structures and nerve-cell connections that characterize the thinking and feeling parts of the brain are not completed until between the 7th and 8th months of gestation. Only after 30 weeks to the brain waves show patterns of waking consciousness when pain can be perceived. The reflex actions that are present before this stage do not indicate ability to feel pain. Abortions virtually never occur after 24 weeks.
Anit-Choice "idea":
Abortion is mass murder -- genocide -- another Nazi Holocaust. Six million abortions are the same as six million Jews; a life is a life.
Pro-Choice Responce:
Hitler used racial grounds to exterminate Jews and other "undesirables." The reproductive rights movement has no genocide component -- no one is out to kill all embryos. It is an insult to the memory of the alive and conscious human beings murdered by the Nazis to equate them with embryos for anti-abortion propaganda.
Anit- choice "idea":
In Nazi Germany, it all started with abortion. Sexual freedom was the problem, and look where it led.
Pro-Choice Responce:
The opposite is true. Totalitarian leaders Hitler and Stalin believed that the individual should be sacrificed to the state. Both instituted harsh abortion laws, outlawed other women's rights, and forced women to stay home, bear children, and be subservient to their husbands. Russian women were criticized for treating childbearing "as if it were a personal matter." Hitler said, "Use of contraceptives means a violation of nature and a degradation of womanhood, motherhood and love...."
Anit-Choice "idea":
Beethoven's mother was in ill health and the family was poor. Beethoven might never have been born if his mother had been able to have an abortion.
Pro-Choice Responce:
If you follow that line of reasoning, then perhaps Hitler's mother might have had an abortion, too.
Anti-
Blacks are against abortion because they believe abortion is an instrument of genocide.
Pro-
According to 1982 polls, there is no difference in the attitudes of blacks and whites toward legal abortion. Non-white women, however, have an abortion rate (56.8 per 1000) that is twice that of white women (24.3 per 1000). To quote two black men: Dr. Kenneth Edelin: "I know what genocide is -- and it isn't doing legal abortions. Black women have suffered and died from botched, illegal abortion. That is genocide." Carl T. Rowan: "(Black) women know that, as long as someone else does not force an abortion on them, it is not genocide."
