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Special Report

Aborting ‘Pro-Choice,’ Promoting ‘Nuance’

Forty years after Roe, Planned Parenthood is calling for changes in its PR strategy.

(Page 2 of 2)

As it embraces “reproductive justice,” Planned Parenthood targets minority women for abortions: Black women have 3.5 times the abortion rate of white women; while blacks make up only 12 percent of the U.S. population, they have 35 percent of the nation’s abortions. Further, research by Life Issues Institute reports that 79% of Planned Parenthood’s surgical abortion facilities are in minority neighborhoods. In addition, ironically, 51% of Planned Parenthood’s “family planning clinics” are in minority neighborhoods.

While pro-choice activists claim a desperate need for abortion-on-demand to save women’s lives, the facts stubbornly reveal that women seek an abortion for reasons unrelated to health. According to the Allan Guttmacher Institute, about three-fourths say a baby would interfere with their work, school, or other responsibilities. About three-fourths say they cannot afford to have a baby and about half do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with the father of the baby. The National Abortion Federation reports that only 12 percent of women claim a health problem is causing them to seek an abortion and that only 1 percent report that the baby was conceived in rape.

Other uncomfortable facts that abortion advocates try to avoid concern repeat abortions. As reported in Children at Risk: More than half of the women who seek an abortion already have at least one child; more than a third already have two or more children. Between 8 to 10 percent of women having abortions have had multiple abortions –– as many as three or more –– to the point of using abortion as a form of birth control. Over time, the percentage of repeat abortions has increased, with over half of all abortions to women who have had previous abortions. Tragically, we have come to the point that one in three women will have an abortion by age 45.

WHILE ACTIVISTS PORTRAY abortion as a “minor procedure that resolves a major problem,” the facts tell a different story. We do a grave disservice to women to falsely reassure them despite the potential health problems, leaving them to deal with the unforeseen consequences when they are often “not even aware of the worst possible complications.” A study in Finland, using official government data, showed associations (there is no way to show causality) between abortion and dire outcomes: in a one-year study, abortion was 3.5 times deadlier than childbirth, suicide was 7 times higher among post-abortive women, and deaths from homicide were 4 times higher among post-abortive women. A British study (published in the British Journal of Psychiatry) reviewed over one hundred international studies and found a link between abortion and mental health problems.

Abortion advocates have gone to great lengths to discredit the evidence linking abortion and breast cancer. They point to nearly a dozen articles denying the link; yet a peer-reviewed analysis of those articles published in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons points out serious methodological weaknesses and flaws in the studies denying a link, concluding that there is, indeed, an increased risk for breast cancer after an abortion.

Obviously, not all women suffer serious consequences from abortion, but abortion activists are unwilling to be rational or even truthfully acknowledge possible consequences; nor are they willing to fully inform women of the possible dangers. Problems are so prevalent, in fact, there is a medical designation: “post-abortion syndrome.”

Another disturbing aspect of today’s abortion problem are the so-called “therapeutic” abortions. At least “92 percent of babies found in prenatal testing to have Down Syndrome are aborted” and at least 73 percent (some researchers believe the rate is 80 to 100 percent) of unborn babies believed to have neural tube defects such as spina bifida are aborted. In effect, the doctors and abortion advocates are playing God and “saying that human beings born with physical and mental disabilities are not fit to live.”

There is also the ugly contradiction between the fact that abortion is being “sold” as a matter of “women’s rights” when at the same time the more frequent target of abortion is the “girl child” in the womb. The United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA) ) reported in 2007 that there were at that time at least 60 million “missing” girls as a result of sex-selection abortions or neglect of the girl child.

Time magazine points out that the abortion activists oppose “nearly all abortion-specific regulations,” making it chillingly obvious that Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry are driven by bottom-line financial considerations and that, in spite of the caring rhetoric on their PR materials, their concern for the health and well-being of women is minimal. Planned Parenthood pushes the idea that women facing abortion are alone; that nobody understands them and abortion is a quick fix without consequences.

The Pro-Life message is that women in a crisis pregnancy are not alone; they have choices, including adoption, and that help is available. Many of the women at Crisis Pregnancy Centers have gone through similar experiences and now they can help others make better choices. Churches, counselors, and caring communities can convince the girls and women that their life is not over and they can still realize their dreams. These very committed people truly care about women and they know that God can redeem any situation, no matter how difficult, and turn it into good for those who believe and trust His grace and mercy.

Margaret Cho, a stand-up comic who is ardently pro-abortion, even militantly so, described pregnancy in a way that is more revealing than she intended. She said, “pregnancy feels like there is somebody in there.” Not something, but “somebody.” With callous indifference, she went on to say about her own abortion, “The tenant was evacuated.” Abortion advocates are having to face the reality that women don’t move on and forget an experience like that, if it happened to a friend. The “Silent No More” campaign which has given increasing visibility to thousands of women who regret their abortions has also helped expose the term “pro-choice.” The experiences of post-abortive girls and women combined with the facts about the child in the womb revealed by science and technology, are changing America’s view of abortion. “One study tracked seventy-five patients and all but five changed their minds about an abortion after seeing a sonogram of their baby in the womb.” Even the cynical and hardened Cho revealed that her abortion left her feeling “hollowed out and alone.”

This is the Catch-22 confronting the abortion movement: the unborn child can be “evicted” from a woman’s body far more easily than it can be blotted out of her heart and mind. As women experience first hand the pain — suppressed or not — of abortion or even if they just see the complicated, conflicted emotions of a friend after an abortion, the truth cannot be contained. Neither nuanced rhetoric about the complicated nature of abortion nor hip younger leaders are enough to sustain a movement which at its heart is characterized by “hollowed-out emptiness.”

Page:   12

About the Author

Janice Shaw Crouse, author of Children at Risk and Marriage Matters, is senior fellow at Concerned Women for America’s Beverly LaHaye Institute.

About the Author

Mario Diaz is legal counsel and director of legal studies for Concerned Women for America.

 

Letter to the Editor View all comments (46) |

spike59| 1.22.13 @ 6:35AM

Mciky D's could designate all its' locations 'nutrition centers', but they're not likely to take the Big Mac off te menu; similarly, PP can try all the nuance they want, but their #1 'product' and reason for being is still abortions

spike59| 1.22.13 @ 6:36AM

...oops, Mickey D's...dangit

Jack in Wi| 1.22.13 @ 8:01AM

All this is very true. Where was Romney out telling about this? The statistics on abortion clinics in black neighborhoods alone could have killed him if we had used them as a hammer. The Republicans uses us pro-life people as pattsies, but refuse to articulate our positions. 90% of the Republican vote wants some restrictions on abortion but this vast majority has far less pull on the party then the much smaller groups. When you nominate a pro-abort, pro-homosexuality guy like Romney there is no reason to vote. One thing is sure those that have abortions will be replaced by those who don't. It is time we used the strategy of the Palistinians, breed and replace.

Jack in Wi| 1.22.13 @ 8:07AM

I ment if we had used these statistics against Obama. The reason Romney lost is because he refused to address the social issues in a articulate way. The countryclub gang hates these issues even though most of the party wants them articulated. The Republican elites would rather lose then see us win on anything. The Bush, Rockefeller, and Goldwater families all were big supporters of Unplanned Parenthood. No wonder they hate us.

CJW| 1.22.13 @ 3:02PM

Jack
You would not be dismissed by everyone here as a crank if you would stop the nonsense about Israel being our enemy, and Iran being our friend.

Jack in Wi| 1.22.13 @ 4:23PM

Israel owns most of our political class. It spys on us at will. It also drains hundreds of billions over the years from us in welfare payments. It has hundreds of nuclear weapons with which it threatens the whole world. Iran on the other hand is a poor Middle East country, with no nuclear weapons program. It could easily be as friendly as China or Vietnam, if we would negotiate with them. If we did with Iran like Nixon did with China the price of oil would collapse and the world would be a far better place. The Iranian Hitler is retiring in 5 months, to teach civil engineering. It is time to make peace not war.

Aristocat| 1.22.13 @ 6:48AM

We taxpayers are giving $1/2 Billion every year to Planned Parenthood, and the House Republicans are increasing it every year.

Joellen| 1.22.13 @ 7:04AM

Aristocat - I dont know if your comment is correct, so I'll be doing the smart thing, I'll look into it and make some calls before I comment on your comment.

Planned Parenthood - just call it what it is; Planned Murder - that's what you do isnt it. You take an instrument and you suck out the BABY's brain and tear HIS or HER's limbs apart.

No way can you "pretty" it up deceivers.

This Friday is the PRO LIFE march in DC. Join those who believe that ALL life is precious and GOD"s will, not man's.

Trust me it will be a day that will encourage you that all is not dead in America.

Joellen| 1.22.13 @ 7:07AM

By the way - Purp in Paul Kangor's article dated 1/21 responded at 7:34

to "lay back and enjoy rape".

That's what liberals really inspire in their utopia, control, force, destruction and pain.

Von Mises Jr| 1.22.13 @ 9:45AM

Perp is an abortion survivor. The doctor sucked out his brains during the procedure and he survived.

Al Adab| 1.22.13 @ 2:06PM

Lets see'

6MM dead is a holocaust

55MM dead is our right

How many gun dead in last 40 years?

Seek| 1.22.13 @ 5:21PM

Your chain of reasoning leaves something to be desired.

Maxwell| 1.22.13 @ 8:28AM

Joellen, I'm always the 'Baby Ruth' in the swimming pool (if you remember the scene in the movie). This past Thanksgiving I happened to say to one of the relatives on the wife's side, I'm pro gun, I like my .45's and my AR's & pro life. The look on her face was worth the gas it took to drive to the Thanksgiving celebration. Her response was, oh, I'm pro choice. I said, oh yeah, you are for sucking out the brains of baby out thru a knitting needle and watching it drip out ....well. You are not pro choice, you are pro abortion, just say it!

I'm to old to be a diplomat any more. What is the saying, I know yeah while you were in the womb.

Jack London| 1.22.13 @ 8:00AM

You anti-abortion people need to look at why you are also in favor of restricting contraception services to low-income women - it makes no sense.

Joellen| 1.22.13 @ 8:18AM

ANTI MURDER people, Jack, have the guts to call it what it is. Your feeble attempt to distract from murder to a "grown women" knowing if she can afford to have sex and the responsibility that comes along with it, really does not work.

You people claim "tolerance" yet you ridicule those who adhere to the HIGHER POWER, GOD, and understand that only HE gives life.

You people, who give all creedence to any lifestyle, but wont respect those whose faith tells them that any type of contraption is an act against GOD's will.

You people are deceivers and you hate (yes because if you havent heard Perp advocates that conservatives "lay back and enjoy the rape". Now I dont know about you, but any normal person would be aghast at such hateful rhetoric), because we refuse to bow before your phony wordly rules.

We make sense Jack, you just reject it for your own make believe sense.

RFisher66| 1.22.13 @ 9:39AM

Jack, what proof do you have that anyone is trying to restrict birth control to low income women? How much does birth control cost? Do you even know? Just how many packs of cigarettes or six packs of beer would a low income woman have to give up to pay for her birth control? This is another straw man that people like you throw out there and just expect us to roll over and agree with your premise. Well, I don't accept your premise. Put some facts on the table instead of rhetoric. Point out a law, regulation or even a proposed law or regulation that restricts birth control to anyone. Come up with just one woman who does not have access to birth control if she needs and wants it. I won't hold my breath.

JD| 1.22.13 @ 11:02AM

Because he is dishonest, Jack continues to argue as though there is no difference between taking something from someone vs not giving something to someone.

Jack, using the logic of the Left, you owe me every penny you have. You owe it to me because I could be stealing it from you right now, but I am nice enough to refrain from doing so. I have done you a great favor by not taking everything from you, and so you owe it to me in return for this favor.

Such is the logic of the Leftist who claims that every penny not taxed is a gift from government, to which we owe gratitude (along with anything it might ask for going forward).

merlin| 1.22.13 @ 11:56AM

(sarcasm alert) Hey Jack, got to agree with you on this one. Restricting contraception and providing alternatives to abortion in low income and minority communities works against the same anti-abortion, gun, GOD and Bible conservatives that are anti-abortion. What do they think those minority babies are going to grow up and become, if not a reliable Democrat voter. Are they morons or what? Makes you wonder what their real motivation is. (end sarcasm alert)

I saw a bumper sticker in Wenatchee that said "Abortion - what a beautiful right." I thought it was sarcasm. I wanted to get one until I found out it came from a bunch of wiccans.

Now, a serious question for any pro abortionist. Are you willing to contribute to CareNet or other CPCs? Why not? At best, abortion has to be a sad necessity, not something that is lightly done. Why are you not willing to make choice availible? Makes me wonder about your motivation.

spike59| 1.22.13 @ 12:52PM

condoms are a couple bucks a box, and Walgreens is open 24/7-DON'T you dare to presume to try to tell me what i am or am not in favor of, you imbecilic twit

Bob K| 1.23.13 @ 12:13AM

Jack supports Margaret Sanger's use of Abortion as a form of Genetic Genocide for the lower classes, but it has gone past that now and become Genetic Suicide for his own Liberal Upper Classes.

7-08| 1.22.13 @ 8:02AM

I am sure that every fiscal conservative agrees that we should not fund abortion, however (don’t you meddlers just hate those “however’s”), the longer the pro-life crowd continues to tell grown adults that they are incapable of making decisions concerning their reproductive choices the longer and more decisively they will drag down the conservative voices and lose elections.

Jack in Wi| 1.22.13 @ 8:11AM

The only thing keeping the Republicans alive is the pro-life vote. Do you think that we are all intrested in war and bailouts for the countryclub elites? We lose elections because we nominate inarticulate boobs who refuse to address the issues.

RFisher66| 1.22.13 @ 9:44AM

One million abortions a year pretty well make the point that these grown adults you speak of apparently are incapable of making decisions conerning their reproductive choices. Namely, not haveing unprotected sex, having sex with some loser who could care less if you get pregnant, having sex just anyone for the heck of it and on it goes. Decisions start at the front of the problem, whether or not to have sex in the first place, and shouldn't be relegated to the point in time whent he "chickens come home to roost". If you don't want to get pregnant make a few good decisions BEFORE having sex instead of a bad one later.

spike59| 1.22.13 @ 12:57PM

Deciding whether or not to employ B/C is a 'reproductive choice'

Abortion is the KILLING of a yet-to-be born, unique human being

Rhoetus| 1.22.13 @ 8:17AM

Social issues alone won't make life better and it will only make society marginality better.

spike59| 1.22.13 @ 12:59PM

i guess it depends on which end of the little vacuum cleaner you find yourself

Seek| 1.22.13 @ 5:24PM

Most abortions are performed prior to the 12th week, when the embroyo (proper term) is at most a half-inch long.

Al Adab| 1.22.13 @ 8:35AM

Why does this private organization, or any private organization from Humane Society to AmSpec think it has a moral claim to the dollars of others? Either a cause can stand on its own merits or it should go quietly. Public funding of private groups needs to join the Dodo after all if it gets public money does it not become a mouthpiece for the benefactor?

Jim Adcox| 1.22.13 @ 8:42AM

Happy 40th birthday to Roe v. Wade! How do you define "irony"?

Von Mises Jr| 1.22.13 @ 9:48AM

The other irony is that 50M liberal women culled their own herd. Talk about Walter Lippmann being right about the "Bewildered Herd."

Seek| 1.22.13 @ 5:26PM

Poeple do not abort out of political motive. And a good many women who have an abortion, by the way, are conservatives. I've known a few.

Hardcard| 1.22.13 @ 8:59AM

soros

c. j. acworth| 1.22.13 @ 9:06AM

"One abortion advocate described the pro-life victories as "death by a thousand tiny cuts." "

Well, now they know how the baby feels, don't they?

RFisher66| 1.22.13 @ 9:34AM

As with most issues that we fight with the Left we have decided to fight on their battleground rather than ours. We need to quit just accepting their premises. First, who has ever really known anyone, and I mean even heard of anyone, who had a "back alley" abortion with a coat hanger. Next time that comes up, don't accept the premise, asked for proof. Who do they know personally that has ever had that done. Second, we have to quit santitizing aboriton with words. It's murder and it's time we called it that. Why are we afraid to take the hard line against someone who is intent on taking it with us. The fact that the Supreme Court says abortion is legal doesn't make it so or even right. They once said slavery was legal. Next time your pro choice advocate throws the Supreme Court in your face ask them if they were so in favor of the Supreme Court when they ruled that slavery was legal. We roll over and play dead when we should take a stand for what is right. God hasn't changed, ever, and he certainly is not in favor of abortion.

GobBluthe| 1.22.13 @ 9:55AM

I support tax payer funding abortion for liberals. Most liberals make horrible parents and raise criminals. They should get free abortions and if some of those abortions are botched, then that's killing 2 liberals with one coat hanger.

fmm| 1.22.13 @ 11:01AM

"Planned Parenthood has declared (with its superior standards of morality) that it is “wrong to make a judgment” about aborting a baby."

This very statement works against them as it makes clear that abortion should never be on the table, because it is a" judgment about aborting a baby" to have one.

Lots in this article also does a great job of uncovering the fact that PP abortions are not much different than back alley abortions, as providers are not held to full medical accountability, physical care is of very low quality, and mental care is non-existent. In short, the abortion industry is the worst abomination this country has ever disgorged.

cicero| 1.22.13 @ 1:16PM

The black community voted overwhelmingly for Obama just because he was black. All of his policies are detrimental to their health and well being. They, and their churches, are solidly pro-life, yet the Dem party backs abortion on demand.
The community I grew up in in the 50's and 60's, which was solidly while suburban then, has, in recent years turned black/integrated as a result of the destruction of Detroit. Lo and behold, Planned Parenthood has recently opened a facility in the least integrated section of the city - predominantly black. How transparently sick. Yet they follow in lockstep. He is their own personal "judas goat".
No society or culture can survive long that murders its helpless, for convenience sake.

JD| 1.22.13 @ 1:23PM

As I said in the Reagan article yesterday, Reagan won a victory for nominal conservatism, but in the long run things got worse because Reagan's victory led to the Left redefining everything.

They redefined their Leftism in conservative terms. All their social welfare became "tax credits", government takeovers took the form of "market-based regulations", and redistribution became "equal opportunity". Conservative lingo for every Left wing idea, though the substance behind them was as Left as ever.

And real conservatives? We're "extremists" who "hypocritically" object to "equality", "freedom", "choice", "rights", and "markets" because we oppose the abominations that the Left has applied these terms to.

It was tough to win the ideological war against Leftism, but now we must not only win the ideology, but also win the dictionary. As things stand, the Left owns the dictionary and is using it to suggest to the public that they are the center-right and we are loons.

We don't need to fight on ideology as much right now as we need to fight on facts. Show the public the facts, and the ideology will take care of itself.

cicero| 1.22.13 @ 2:12PM

JD - Right you are. However, we must FIGHT. The Republican party seems to have forgotten what that means. It has to mean more than whining about being out manuevered, or seeking compromise. C ompromise did not win the Civil War, or WWII. Compromise ended WWI, only to be refought 20 years later.
The facts are hard things to compromise with. They are what they are, and they are either right or wrong. If they are wrong, compromise should be out of the question.

Job| 1.22.13 @ 4:42PM

links to cancer and psychoses are undeniable; some say the culprits for these are genetics and red wine but I'd bet a fair assessment would put abortion at center stage. ...meanwhile the idea has occurred to some that this could mean less liberals at some future date where the meek do inherit the earth.

Is abortion murder by abortifacients, manual vacuum aspiration and dilation and evacuation and all abortions in between? Will the debate shift to when does life begin and abortifacients, which I don't think require Kirby or coat hanger? Do we then get to argue regarding whether conception, viability or quickening is when life begins and whether to invoke amendments dealing with "what's not enumerated", free exercise of religion, or due process.

I think these hot button issues hurt conservatives more than help them.

Some have argued that Sotah (Numbers 5:11-31) is abortion; what are the implications there?

Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.

Seek| 1.22.13 @ 5:28PM

Your science is about as lame as your respect for liberty.

Job| 1.22.13 @ 5:40PM

ad hominems huh, run out of sticks, stones, facts?

Seek| 1.23.13 @ 2:08PM

No, Job. Actually, I've got a thing for Oscar Wilde-style one-liners, especially if directed toward anti-abortion fanatics who can't define the term "ad hominem."

Job| 1.23.13 @ 5:57PM

ok Seek whatever

SC| 1.22.13 @ 7:54PM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....n-to-stay/

OF COURSE, the usual suspects on this site are gonna explode in their venomous fashion, decrying and denying anything that contradicts their warped mind-set...but I think THE AMERICAN PEOPLE have spoken--and this Court Decision ain't going away---(in the foreseeable future)--as much as you might bray about it....

Dimitry_Aleksandrovich| 1.22.13 @ 11:08PM

I noticed when a Planned Parenthood spokeswoman was being interviewed by NPR on the radio that they always refer to abortion clinics as "women's health clinics". I am no Pat Robertson, but as we are entering our fourth decade of legalized infanticide is it any wonder that the moral and cultural fabric of this country has been torn apart at the seams. I am not God but if I was I wouldn't look kindly upon a nation that doesn't protect the most innocent and helpless amongst us.

More Articles by Janice Shaw Crouse

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