quotations about abortion
A woman doesn't make an abortion decision in a bubble. She typically enlists the insight and "wisdom" of others.... The next time you call a post-abortive woman a murderer, realize that is only part of her abortion story. Others share her abortion guilt and may also need healing.
SYDNA MASSÉ
"The Deadly Impact of Abortion Antagonists", Ramah's Voice, May 8, 2018
I suspect that we are blinded to the seriousness of abortion by a deep-seated national and ethnocentric bias. We have been taught since childhood that America is the land "with liberty and justice for all." The bloody, state-sponsored or state-permitted atrocities presented as such on the news are without exception committed in other countries.... It is far easier to decry the atrocities committed in Africa than to address the atrocities committed in our own neighborhoods. When we insist that [abortion] is morally indistinguishable from dismembering, disemboweling, and decapitating a newborn infant, we are calling into question the cherished myth of American superiority. We are forced to acknowledge that our nation is neither as compassionate nor as enlightened as we have allowed ourselves to believe.
MURRAY VASSER
"Why the social justice movement is silent on abortion", Live Action News, February 24, 2016
Abortion is always wrong. Period. Even if it were healthier for women to abort than give birth. Even if most women reported increased levels of happiness after abortions. Even if women choose to have abortions for other reasons besides the monetary cost of raising a child. Abortion always kills someone (both scientifically and philosophically) -- and that is why it is wrong.
PRO-LIFE GIRL
"Five things I think the pro-life movement needs to change", Diary of a Pro-life Girl, May 11, 2013
Laws that regulate abortion should be evidence-based and designed to improve women's health.
AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
brief filed with the U. S. Supreme Court, 2016
The extreme public controversies around abortion in America create the impression that a schism exists between the pro-choice movement and communities of faith: one side is denounced as sinful, the other written off as fanatics. Those of us who count ourselves as both religious and pro-choice know this kind of oversimplification is dangerous, because it ignores the religious foundations for affirming abortion as a morally justifiable decision.
DEBRA W. HAFFNER
"The moral case for access to abortion", The Hill, February 19, 2016
We are not unaware of the deep and proper concern and interest that a devoted and protective husband has in his wife's pregnancy and in the growth and development of the fetus she is carrying. Neither has this Court failed to appreciate the importance of the marital relationship in our society. Moreover, we recognize that the decision whether to undergo or to forego an abortion may have profound effects on the future of any marriage, effects that are both physical and mental, and possibly deleterious. Notwithstanding these factors, we cannot hold that the State has the constitutional authority to give the spouse unilaterally the ability to prohibit the wife from terminating her pregnancy, when the State itself lacks that right.
HARRY BLACKMUN
Planned Parenthood of Missouri v. Danforth, 1976
In reality, attempts to stop abortion through restrictive laws--or by withholding family planning aid--can never eliminate abortion, because those methods do not eliminate women's need for abortion.
SNEHA BAROT
"The Global Gag Rule and Fights over Funding UNFPA: The Issues That Won't Go Away", Guttmacher Institute, June 2, 2015
Abortion is probably the simplest social issue to debate with atheists, because the case against abortion is one of human rights. The average member of the public might not understand the language of "sin," but they certainly understand the language of injustice. The science of when human life begins is easily accessible to anyone, and to explain that any consistent philosophy of human rights must have those rights beginning when the human being begins is a simple task.
JONATHON VAN MAREN
"If you can't convince an atheist abortion is wrong ... you're doing it wrong", LifeSite News, February 10, 2016
What people don't realize is that the early feminists were pro-life; the suffragists who gave women the right to vote were pro-life. The pro-life women's movement is the authentic women's movement of the 21st century.
SUE ELLEN BROWDER
"She Was a Pro-Abortion Columnist for Cosmo, But Something Made Her Pro-Life", Life News, January 22, 2016
Where abortion is permitted on broad legal grounds, it is generally much safer than where it is highly restricted.
SNEHA BAROT
"The Global Gag Rule and Fights over Funding UNFPA: The Issues That Won't Go Away", Guttmacher Institute, June 2, 2015
But some of the liberties the Supreme Court has found to be protected by that word--liberty--nobody thought constituted a liberty when the 14th Amendment was adopted. Abortion? It was criminal in all the states.
ANTONIN SCALIA
speech at the University of Richmond in Virginia, November 19, 2010
I've brought two lives into this world. Knowing now what it entails to be a mom--from pregnancy, labor, and delivery to meeting the endless demands of other human beings--I believe even more fiercely in abortion on demand and without apology.... Everyone deserves to enter parenthood willingly, and every child deserves a parent who is willing to bear the responsibilities of this lifelong commitment. Children should be wanted and cherished, not forced into this world as punishment for their parents engaging in sex.
MAUREEN SHAW
"Becoming a Mother Made Me Even More Pro-Choice", Rewire, May 2, 2016
Religious support for abortion rights is not a recent development. Clergy were a driving force in the movement to legalize abortion in the 1960s, and even conservative denominations like the Southern Baptist Convention supported legislation allowing abortion under some circumstances in the years before Roe. However, for the past four decades in the years since Roe v. Wade, ending abortion rights has become a central cause for many politicians seeking evangelical voters. Religious voices on the right continue to disproportionately influence public policy about abortion and threaten to drown out those of us in the faith community who are deeply troubled by the recent tide of anti-choice legislation that has swept America.
DEBRA W. HAFFNER
"The moral case for access to abortion", The Hill, February 19, 2016
Right-to-Life folks, cover your ears if you don't want to hear bad news. Abortion is winning. Not just winning -- kicking butt. What's more, it's likely to go on doing so. Yes, there are polls showing that people have qualms about "the procedure." And surveys showing a slight drop in abortions over the years. But the fact of roughly 1 million abortions annually is the equivalent to a drubbing of Pro-Life by Pro-Choice. Those are blow-out numbers.
DAVE NEESE
"The pro-abortion crowd is winning the fight", The Mercury, February 17, 2016
There is another method of argumentation I like to use when debating atheists on abortion that I find very effective: that is, appealing to science-based legislation, something secular snobs delight to drone on about when fashionable issues such as global warming crop up in conversation. We should all be able to agree, I point out, that regardless of one's position on the role of government, the one essential role of government is to protect the weak from the strong and to enforce human rights. Surely such laws should be informed by science--and science tells us precisely when vulnerable new human beings, the smallest members of our society, come into existence.
JONATHON VAN MAREN
"If you can't convince an atheist abortion is wrong ... you're doing it wrong", LifeSite News, February 10, 2016
How many voters who want to prohibit abortion would likewise soften their perspective, if they knew that the nice lady across the street had one? It's too early to tell. But the more that people share their experiences with abortion, the less alien it will seem. Like same-sex marriage, it's about families who are just like yours. And mine.
JONATHAN ZIMMERMAN
"Abortion is a family value", San Francisco Chronicle, July 12, 2018
Abortion is not the lesser of two evils. Abortion is profamily, prolife, moral, and good. For many millions of women, abortion has meant getting on with their lives and continuing to meet their responsibilities to themselves, their families, and society.
PATRICIA W. LUNNEBORG
Abortion: A Positive Decision
My view is that regardless of whether you think prohibiting abortion is good or whether you think prohibiting abortion is bad, regardless of how you come out on that, my only point is the Constitution does not say anything about it. It leaves it up to democratic choice. Some states prohibited it and some states didn't. What Roe vs. Wade said was that no state can prohibit it. That is simply not in the Constitution.
ANTONIN SCALIA
interview with Piers Morgan, CNN, July 18, 2012
Republicans recognize that making abortion illegal is unpopular, so they make it inaccessible. Republicans work at the state level, particularly in states with large evangelical populations, where their agenda is more popular. Furthermore, the pro-life movement and the Republican Party have found that while it's certainly true most Americans consider themselves pro-choice, both the public and the courts are willing to countenance modest restrictions, which, when stacked together, can greatly reduce access to abortion.
SEAN MCELWEE
"Americans generally support reproductive choice -- so why does the GOP keep winning on abortion?", Salon, January 22, 2017
Stopping abortion is the most important human rights cause on earth.
CHRIS SMITH
"Congressman Chris Smith: Stopping Abortion is the Most Important Human Rights Cause on Earth", Life News, January 20, 2017