Since the beginning of 2009, the topic of abortion seems to be the topic of discussion at the local, state, and national levels.
On the local level, many people in Madison are concerned about the proposal to offer second-trimester abortions at the Madison Surgery Center operated by the University of Wisconsin and Meriter Hospital.
At the state and national levels, we are worried about potential legislation in the form of the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), which could remove many laws regulating and controlling abortions.
Many of us know people who say they are personally opposed to abortion, but they consider themselves “pro-choice” because they don’t want to “impose” their morality on others. What do we say to these people?
I found some excellent suggestions called “fast facts” on Wisconsin Right to Life’s Web site (www.wrtl.org). Here are some of them to provide talking points with family members, neighbors, co-workers, and others in talking about abortion:
- Abortion is the direct killing of a baby in a mother’s womb by ripping the baby apart, dismembering the baby, injecting a lethal substance into the baby or other similar means.
- The 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decisions made abortion legal in all 50 states for any reason for the full nine months of pregnancy.
- Only one abortion procedure — partial-birth abortion — is prohibited in the United States.
- An estimated 50 million legal abortions have been performed in the United States since 1973.
- Over 3,300 unborn babies in the U.S. and 23 in Wisconsin die from abortion every day.
- Over 92 percent of abortions are performed for social or “other” reasons — because the woman does not want to have the baby. Less than one percent of abortions are performed because the mother’s life is in danger or for cases of rape or incest.
- Sixty-four percent of women report feeling pressured into having an abortion.
- Approximately 80 percent of abortions are performed on unmarried women between 18 and 34 years.
- Women experience significant psychological and physical problems after an abortion.
- Thirty-six percent of all abortions in the United States are of African-American babies. African-Americans comprise 13 percent of the American population.
- Babies suffer significant pain during an abortion.
- Over two million couples each year are waiting to adopt a baby.